Review: My Story

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My Story by Elizabeth Smart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



When I began this book I set myself up for disappointment. I didn't expect to get a real, honest account of the story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping. And for the first few chapters I found myself being proven right. The storytelling felt artificial and contrived rather than an honest, heartfelt account of the events. I decided to stick with it only because I remember this being such a huge news event that I was curious to hear Elizabeth Smart's side of the story.

As the book went on, I found myself more and more invested in the story. I began to feel her pain and fear and it finally started to be a bit more believable. The feeling that the book was written with very carefully crafted lawyer-endorsed storytelling never really left but beneath it all you couldn't help but feel brutalized with her. I wanted to jump back in time and save her from what was a very sloppy kidnapping.

I think that if the book was taken on literary merits alone, most people would be let down. It's not an incredibly well written tale and as I stated, it seems like she was describing events as if to try to convince a jury rather than as a completely open account. However, by the end of the book I was so incredibly emotionally invested and inspired that it overwhelmed my other disappointments. I'm sure that there are people who are calling Elizabeth Smart a hero and a bunch of other things after she finally made it out of her captor's grasp, but I think more accurately she is simply a victim of a terrible crime who decided to allow herself to find happiness in life rather than allowing her experiences to make her a victim for eternity. Her faith and perseverance through these events was truly inspiring and goose-pimple inducing.



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