What I’m Reading: Sold

I just finished up listening to the audio book SOLD by Patricia McCormick.  I had been on the waiting list for the book for a little while.

The book tackles the topic of sex trafficing.  It is such a horrible subject to think about, let alone read about….but, the book was good.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, it’s so hard to say “I enjoyed” the book – or “I liked” the book because both are true but neither are true.  The writing was wonderful.  I listened to the book in audio form and the reader was AMAZING.  I highly recommend the audio form for this book.  It is a short book, but the story was easily laid out in the few pages.

Sex trafficing is something I have not read a lot about…it’s not something I want to read a lot about but oh my, it’s a topic we all need to be more aware of and smypathetic towards.  This book brought that to light for me more than ever.

Here is what Amazon says, “Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. 

He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.

An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.

Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words-Simply to endure is to triumph-and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision-will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life? 

Written in spare and evocative vignettes, this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.”

Amazon readers give the book a 4.6 rating.  I’d actually give the book a 5.  If you’re a avid reader of my book reviews, you know I rarely give out any 5’s.