** spoiler alert ** Cycling to school one morning, in broad daylight on a normal residential street, Sabine Dardenne was kidnapped, imprisoned, raped and starved for 80 days. Several years later, this is her account of what happened, the lies her capturer told her, what she thought and how she behaved. If you're looking for prurient details, try a sensationalist newspaper report. What this book does is showcase not just how terrible the crimes were, but more exceptionally, the thought processes of the victim herself and how she was deceived.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Marc Dutroux managed to persuade her that the kidnapping was to punish her father, a former policeman, for something he had done to a criminal ringleader and that he refused to pay her ransom because it was too much and she had been badly behaved. What's more, Dutroux described himself as her saviour who was protecting her from the evil ringleader who would kill her if she tried to escape. Apart from the fact she was small and physically incapable of escaping, she was kept underfed and was under immense psychological pressure.

Luckily for her, she was eventually discovered because he had kidnapped another girl - supposedly to keep her company - and the hiding place was revealed during the search. Eventually it was revealed that he had kidnapped several other girls, all of whom had been imprisoned and murdered or left to die. Sabine probably survived because she was small and weak enough to appeal to Dutroux, strong enough to withstand the privations, old enough to cope physically with the abuse, but more importantly, mentally strong enough to not to just give up. Possibly the fact that she sometimes talked back to him made him think of her as a real person, not just another of his victims. Maybe that's what kept her alive so long.

After her ordeal, she refused psychological help. That may be one of the things that helped her not to define her entire life and live it in the role of a victim. Of course she bears the scars, but it seems to have made her stronger. The book was written about ten years later. I hope she still feels as strong as she did when it was published and is not haunted by those 80 days.

Dit boek is losgelaten voor de volgende BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - boeken lezen en loslaten, met bonuspunten voor een maandelijkse thema.
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - lezen en loslaten van TBR boeken die al voor vorig jaar op de plank stonden.

Meegenomen aan het eind van de gezellige meeting in Oss vandaag, voor de OBCZ Vaarderhoogt.
Ik heb het boek vroeger al eens gelezen; erg indrukwekkend.

Hallo vinder!
Gefeliciteerd, je hebt dit boek gevangen! Ik hoop dat je ervan zult genieten. Wil je, als je het uit hebt, hier vertellen wat je ervan vond? Daarna zou het leuk zijn als je het verder laat reizen. Je kan het aan een kennis geven om te lezen of zomaar in het wild ergens achterlaten zodat iemand anders het kan vinden, bijvoorbeeld in een restaurant, school, buiten, of ergens anders waarvan jij denkt dat er mensen komen die dit boek zouden willen lezen.
Meer Nederlandstalige informatie vind je op www.bookcrossing.nl. Veel leesplezier!