77 pages • 2 hours read
April HenryGirl, Stolen
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 11-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Hope and Fear”
Cheyenne is at the dining room table, her ankle tied to a chair. Griffin has given her a coke and a hot dog sausage wrapped in bread to eat. He asks how she knows where the food is on her plate. She explains that her father uses clock numbers as a reference to where the food is on the plate. She prefers to make and bring her own food to school because then she knows where everything is and doesn’t have to rely on anyone else. Griffin tells her that he has been trying to eat with his eyes closed.
Cheyenne asks to go the bathroom, and Griffin agrees. When she enters the bathroom, she realizes from a change in the air that it has a window. Her fingers find the window lock, and she slides it up. She tries to remember the layout of the house and grounds to orient herself and worries that someone is watching. She stands on the toilet and braces her hands on the windowsill.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Running After a Figment”
Noticing that Cheyenne has been in the bathroom for a while, Griffin knocks on the door and remembers there is a window inside. After a few tries, he kicks the door open and runs to the open window. Not seeing her outside, he begins to worry Cheyenne will become injured in the woods. He starts to go through the window when he hears a faint noise and looks back to see Cheyenne crouched in the tub, hiding behind the shower curtain. Hearing that TJ and Jimbo have returned, he jumps into the tub next to her, warning her not to tell them that she has been trying to escape: “they’ll tell Roy. And he’ll make our lives a living hell […] Both our lives. Do you want to get beat up and hog-tied?” (68). Cheyenne reveals that she knows his and his father’s names, but she agrees to keep quiet about the escape attempt.
Jimbo mentions a woman at the crime scene who he assumes is Cheyenne’s mother. Griffin corrects him, saying it is her stepmom. When Jimbo comments that Danielle is a “nice piece of ass” (70), Griffin tells him not to speak that way around Cheyenne. As the mean speculate about how much the ransom will be, TJ touches Cheyenne’s curls. She jerks her head away, losing her balance, revealing that she is no longer tied up.
Chapter 13 Summary: “One Way to Describe Stealing”
Griffin explains that he untied Cheyenne so she could go to the bathroom. When the men offer to tie her up again, Griffin claims he has things under control, and TJ and Jimbo leave the house. Griffin explains to Cheyenne how he and the three men break down cars for parts, replace their VINs (vehicle identification numbers), and resell them. Cheyenne asks to sleep for a while, requesting that Griffin “keep those guys away from me” (78).
Chapter 14 Summary: “Hung for a Sheep”
Griffin ties Cheyenne’s ankle to the bed, noticing she looks worse. He is relieved to have revealed his illegal activities to her, as he has never been able to talk about it to anyone before. Feeling that the house is depressingly dirty, he decides to clean the kitchen. It takes two hours. He checks on Cheyenne, and she asks to watch the local news. Griffin wonders aloud whether it is okay to use terms like “watch” and “see” around her, and Cheyenne responds it’s fine, and she tries to see things all the time. He asks what she thinks he looks like, and she tells him, getting the details right. She then asks him what she looks like, and he tells her that she is pretty. They watch the news, where her father and stepmom, crying, make a plea for her safe return. Cheyenne notes that she has never seen Danielle cry before, and Griffin is reminded of his own mother. She wonders why the news does not mention that the kidnappers have not asked for a ransom.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Might as Well Be Dead”
Roy returns and throws Cheyenne’s cane into the stove. He orders Griffin to take Cheyenne back to the bedroom, and she wonders to herself what has happened. She remembers what it was like to learn how to use her cane. For two months after the accident, Cheyenne had mainly stayed in bed depressed. Danielle was one of the private nurses that looked after her. One day, Danielle confronted Cheyenne about not learning how to function independently, and Cheyenne responded that she felt she may as well be dead. Danielle continued to challenge Cheyenne, asking whether she was tired of living like a baby. Cheyenne began to attend a residential school for the blind to help her learn how to get around. She remembers the process of learning to use the cane and being amazed by how much information she could get from it. She falls asleep and doesn’t wake up when there is yelling outside the door.
Chapter 16 Summary: “You Want Proof, I’ll Give You Proof”
Roy is furious and orders TJ and Jimbo to leave. They leave, and Roy admits to Griffin that that he has lost the piece of paper with the phone number that Cheyenne had given him. Griffin suggests that they should just let Cheyenne go, and Roy punches him hard in the stomach. Cheyenne gives Roy the numbers again. Roy calls her home number and tells the responder he has Cheyenne and wants five million dollars to return her. When he is asked for proof that he has Cheyenne, he gives her the phone, and she cries “daddy” two times into the receiver. Roy hangs up, feeling optimistic, but Cheyenne taunts him by saying that it was not her father on the phone. Roy shrugs, replying that it was probably a policeman, but he wasn’t on the line long enough for the call to be traced. He tells her that once he has the money, he will let her go, but neither Griffin nor Cheyenne believe him.
Chapters 11-16 Analysis
These chapters describe Cheyenne’s recovery from her accident and emphasize her growing self-reliance and determination. We learn more about her strategies, such as how food is oriented on her plate and how her cane conveys information. Those qualities create empathy, particularly within Griffin. Cheyenne becomes more human to him through extended interaction, and Griffin responds with a growing need to protect her. He keeps her escape attempt a secret, feeling “a grudging respect” (67) for her courage. His empathy allows him to see his own situation from a new perspective. He becomes self-conscious about the dirty kitchen, and the time it takes for him to clean it makes him realize how challenging it must have been for his mother to take care of the family. His retrospective realization about his mother’s experience mirrors the reader’s revision of Danielle’s character upon learning that it was Danielle’s tough love that prompted Cheyenne’s recovery from depression. Although Cheyenne’s feelings toward Danielle are strained and ambivalent, Danielle’s undeniably positive impact on Cheyenne reaffirms there are multiple sides to every story.
TJ’s sexual interest in Cheyenne and misogynistic attitude become clear in these chapters, differentiating him from Jimbo. TJ makes crude jokes about Danielle, and he touches Cheyenne’s hair. Cheyenne indicates awareness of the threat when she asks Griffin to keep the man away from her while she sleeps. Her fear foreshadows TJ’s later attack on her when Griffin is distracted.
As the primary antagonist, Roy’s characterization also deepens with the revelation that he has lost the phone numbers through his own incompetence and, it is implied, his alcoholism. His anger escalates at any sign of insubordination or potential humiliation. Griffin’s abusive dynamic with Roy contrasts with Cheyenne’s relationship with her father, Nick Wilder. Her memories reveal that he was often absent (away on business), leaving the primary caretaking to his wife, but their relationship is still loving, and Cheyenne looks to him for protection.
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By April Henry
