Hostage Three by Nick Lake grabs the reader right from the start. Somalia pirates, who had attacked and overtaken a luxury yacht, point a gun to the head of a girl as they threaten to kill her if they suspect there are any problems with their demands. The story is then told in flashback style, giving the reader the backstory of how this came about.

The main character is Amy, the troubled teenage daughter of a very wealthy man. Amy, her father, stepmother and assorted crew are being held hostage and negotiations are being made to pay a multi-million dollar ransom. To keep from identifying with the hostages, they are referred to as numbers, Amy is Hostage Three. Although there is plenty of action and tension, this is also a story of Amy’s journey of self-discovery. She needs to come to terms with her less than attentive father and her mother’s suicide and learn how to move on with her life. The book also gives us some insight into how and why these pirates exist and are successful at what they do.

Mostly I enjoyed the book, but I did find Amy a little to self-absorbed and whiny. The developing relationship between her and a young pirate was both uncomfortable and scary yet interesting. I have read this author before and he is very good at both story-telling and being informative. Hostage Three opened with a great hook and managed to keep me riveted throughout. ( )

So I have know idea how to rate this. The swearing and constant use of the f-word was frustrating and distracting. The story was disturbing but compelling, I didn't like the main character and was appalled by her mother who freely gives her alcohol frequently as a young teenager. But I loved the portrayal of the pirates and the complex motivation of why they do what they do. It makes me want to do something but I don't know what. I want to know how much of the story was accurate about Somalia.

A little flighty and inconsistent. Had periods where you could just keep reading and reading, but other times where the story was very forgettable. I did like the empathy that the author built into the story for the Pirates of Somalia. ( )

Seventeen-year-old Amy, her father, and her stepmother becomes hostages when Somalian pirates seize their yacht, but although she builds a bond with one of her captors it becomes brutally clear that the price of life and its value are two very different things. ( )

Hostage Three starts with a bang, with Amy and her family already taken hostage, and then it travels back in time a few months. This really lets me get a sense of who Amy is, and what is going on with her. I know that something will happen and a bit of her mindset when it does, but I get to see how her mind normally works and processes.
She thinks that she is ordinary and she is also struggling with the loss of her mother. She doesn't have the closest relationship with her Dad and stepmom, but she is definitely acting out. I felt for her pain, and for her confusion and longing for attention and have been there in certain ways myself. I ate up all of her memories of her mother and really enjoyed how that was woven into the story, however painful and emotional.
Once her and her family were hostages, I really found myself experiencing a high range of emotions with them, and not wanting to put the book down, but to read just one more page. The pirates had a range of personalities and their own codes of behavior. I begrudgingly ended up respecting Ahmad, the leader in some ways, and surprised myself by how much I enjoyed the character of Farouz. As he and Amy talk and share their stories, his is so complex and it is not so cut and dry anymore that he is purely a bad guy. Sure, he is doing bad things to people, but I'd never really considered motivations behind their actions.
The plot was pretty layered and touched on a lot, depression, forbidden love, and questions of the future. The theme of family is strong in this one, showing the many different ways loyalty and sacrifice can look like. How we carry memories in our hearts, how it hurts to remember, but they are also a source of strength. But it also shows how painful it can be to have attachments and what we can be forced to do.
The ending is pretty well done, and I can't think of any other way that it could possibly be realistic. It is bittersweet, but laced with hope and the ever present pain, but learning to heal and let go.

Bottom Line: Fast paced and emotional. ( )