Sold by Patricia McCormick

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

“Trying to remember, I have learned, is like trying to clutch a handful of fog. Trying to forget, like trying to hold back the monsoon.”

This novel, written in verse, is absolutely heartbreaking. Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old Nepalese girl, is sold into sex trafficking slavery in India. Lakshmi, knowing very little about the world outside of her small, mountain village, believes she is going to work as a maid in the city. Hoping to earn and send back enough money for a tin roof for her family home, she readily agrees. Upon arriving at her final destination, the owner of the illicit proprietary establishment soon makes it clear she now owns Lakshmi. The other girls in the house and the son of one of the women befriend Lakshmi, teaching her valuable tips and how to read. What keeps her from drowning in a pit of despair is the memory and hope of returning to her mother to lift her from poverty. Chained to a life of rape and abuse, Lakshmi struggles to find a way to survive and escape this foul new world. 

It’s difficult to call a book “good” when the story revolves around acts of inhumanity. The language McCormick uses is stunningly poetic. Following Lakshmi as she finds ways to adapt to her environment of filth leaves the reader both astounded at her courage and distraught over the fact that these horrors are happening everyday to very real girls in India and elsewhere. The ending, however, leaves the reader wanting further insight and explanation of how these immoral establishments are dealt with and the rescue of the girls trapped in them.