The Girl With No Name- Book Review

Hi everyone! 

Technically I should be doing an end of the month wrap up post, (can you believe July is OVER??) but to be honest, I don’t have much to talk about. July was a good month, but fairly basic. The highlight was probably county fair, which involved bull riding, ranch rodeos, and my sister’s horse show.

So, for today I have a book review and then hopefully next week I’ll have answers to Jason’s questions from Blood and Dust. Sound good?

The book I want to talk about is 

The Girl With No Name: The Incredible Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys, by Marina Chapman. 

Yes, you read that right. A child raised by monkeys. And it’s a true story. 

Here’s the official blurb. 

The amazing story of the girl who overcame unique hardship and deprivation—growing up with a troop of capuchin monkeys—to find ultimate redemption. 

In 1954, in a remote mountain village in South America, a little girl was abducted. She was four years old. Marina Chapman was stolen from her home and then abandoned deep in the Colombian jungle. It is a miracle she survived. Two days later, half-drugged, terrified, and starving, she came upon a troop of capuchin monkeys. Acting entirely on instinct, she tried to do what they did: she ate what they ate and copied their actions, and little by little, learned to fend for herself. 

So begins the story of her five years among the monkeys, during which time she gradually became feral; she loses the ability to speak, loses all inhibition, loses any real sense of being human, replacing the structure of human society with the social mores of her new simian family. But her harrowing adventure is only beginning...

In the vein of Slumdog Millionaire and City of God, this rousing story of a lost child who overcomes the dangers of the wild and the brutality of the streets to finally reclaim her life will astonish readers everywhere. 

Now tell me that doesn’t sound exciting. This book was so disturbing and heartwarming at the same time. My dad originally heard about it on the radio (I think) and ordered it. Him being the awesome dad he is, sent it my way once he finished it. And oh my gosh. 

I gobbled it up. 

Like the blurb mentions, it starts with four year old Marina being kidnapped. Since she was four, her memories are very foggy and choppy, but that made it all the more real. I felt like I was getting the real story from a child’s eyes. 

Henry is only two, but I was still sitting there traumatized by the idea of a little toddler like him being dumped off in the jungle. You know how many survival books I’ve read? Like, all of them. And I’m 99% sure I would have died off in less than a week. And here this 4 year old survives. 

It was really cool because the monkeys did eventually accept her. It’s not like the cartoons where they immediately are friends and can talk, but eventually certain monkeys did come to like her, and she did learn to interpret and imitate the basic sounds they make. 

Throughout the whole story I was just struck by God’s amazing design for humanity. Even through all of this trauma, Marina was still very much human. And even though she came to not even realize that, to anyone watching her behavior, it was obvious. She decorated her tree home with flowers. She created things, and reasoned her way through problems, even though it was at a very basic, childish level. When she first encounters humans you really see it start to kick in where she is drawn to them—a lot like Adam in the garden of Eden looking for someone like him before God creates Eve. It was fascinating, so say the least. 

After being “rescued” in the loosest terms possible, Marina is bounced from place to place—brothels, the streets, the mafia. It’s truly crazy that one girl could have gone through so much before her sixteenth birthday. During this part I was struck again by her humanity. The girl had a sin nature. And I don’t say that to pick on her. But here she had been raised by animals with no concept or right and wrong, and yet during her time on the street she was proud of her ability to do wrong—to steal, to pull tricks, etc. Our sin nature, along with our being in the likeness of God, is engrained in us no matter what. 

The story came to a satisfying end that was so intense I won’t spoil it for you, and  a sequel was planned, but I don’t know if it’s been written yet. There are pictures of her teenage homes, and Marina and her family now, and it just makes a person smile to see the mischievous glint in her eyes even as a mom and grandma. You can totally picture her scampering up a tree after a monkey at any minute. 

This book gave me all the feels. It was such a joy to read as she finally found humans who loved her, and became human herself again, and I nearly cried thinking that all these years there has been a different family somewhere who thinks their little four year old is dead, and here she is, an absolute survivor, but with no way to find them again. 

It’s definitely an amazing story that I would highly recommend. 

As far as content goes, I’d really say there is none. It’s just real life. There are a few cuss words, but they come from the evil people Marina is trapped with, and the whole story is gritty. You’ve got a little jungle girl running around with no clothes, being taken in by a brothel, and then braving the dangers of Columbia’s streets. There’s nothing nice about it, but it’s not overly graphic or anything like that. 

Five stars from me! Go read it! 

What have you been reading this summer?