Sold by Patricia McCormick

Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review!

Clearly, the universe wants me to be on a young adult book journey right now because after I finished reading Stolen Children by Peg Kehret I accidentally again started reading another young adult book. Like in my other review though I decided to keep reading because the book itself is fairly short and I thought I would still probably like it anyway! Turns out I did!

My Review

Sold by Patricia McCormick was honestly a really heartbreaking, but heart-warming story, that exposes the truth behind how a lot of children find themselves being sold into the slave trade in lower economic income countries. I would have to give it a 9/10 rating because I finished the story so quick, and was quickly pulled into the life, story, and well-being of the main character Lakshmi. While I thought the story was very hard in terms of the subject matter I could definitely tell it was a book for teens. The book ends off with a heart-warming ending but I also feel like the ending was a tad unrealistic. Some children do have the ability to get out of the sex trade once sold into it, but most are stuck in it for life. I think for the audience though it was nice to see that for some people there is a happy ending.

Sold is a fiction novel but is entirely based on true experiences that people live every day. When I started reading the book I was reminded of a book I had read when I was around 13, or 14 that really left a mark on me called They Called Me Red by Christina Kilbourne. This book really reminded me of that because Sold was really beautiful in the way it artfully described the horror of child sex slavery while making it still shocking but digestible for young audiences. They Called Me Red had such a deep effect on me because I realized for the first time how many adults out there wanted to hurt children and the ways they could do it. I had obviously been somewhat aware of these things but not to the degree that I was exposed to in the book. It also made me really grateful. I had always been made aware of my privilege when I was younger but after reading that book it made me more aware on different levels. I think I would have really enjoyed reading this book as a teen but I will say that even as an adult I really enjoyed it.

Lakshmi, while having grown up in poverty in Nepal, is still an extremely relatable girl to anyone who reads this no matter where you’ve grown up. She is twelve when we get introduced to her and she’s in this stage where she’s starting to get a very real understanding of the world and it’s frightening. I think anyone can relate to how she feels sometimes growing up and it makes it so much harder to see her go through the things she does because it’s so easy to find parts of yourself in her. Even though Lakshmi lives in poverty she’s content and happy, as long as she has her family. When Lakshmi’s stepfather gets caught up in addiction (gambling, drinking) her family struggles significantly for money. Lakshmi’s stepfather sells her, and she believes she’s going to work as a maid for someone wealthy. Lakshmi quickly becomes aware that what she’s been promised isn’t going to happen, and what she’s been bought for is entirely different than cleaning homes. Lakshmi finds herself sold to a brothel and struggling to understand how she got here and how she can get out.

When Lakshmi is sold to the brothel she’s instantly closed off and unwilling to do the work she is sold for. It was so heartbreaking to read the methods by which they eventually wear down and break these young girls so they will eventually submit. What is so heart-warming in the book though is Lakshmi’s persistence. She tries so hard to stay strong and even when broken down, all she does is think of ways to get herself out of this situation.

I honestly just recommend that anyone check out this book as I won’t be doing a summary commentary section. Given the shortness of the book, and the message that it shares I would just recommend for anyone to check this one out. It is pretty light-hearted in nature so while it definitely does tug on the heartstrings in some ways it also warms them in others. Any sort of book that has child sex slavery at the center of it is going to be tough and I think that’s how it should be though honestly. This stuff is gritty and terrible and shouldn’t be presented as anything else. I think especially in the last few years with the uplift of Onlyfans the idea of sex work has become really jaded for people. Most people in sex work (voluntarily or not) are not making large amounts of money for their work. The majority of people who are in sex work are not there voluntarily, and if given the option would leave if they could. Most people who work in sex work do not get to keep any of the money they make, and are living in terrible conditions, and are suffering terribly. That’s the truth of this world and to present it any other way is unfair.

I felt like Patricia did a really good job in keeping the terrible nature of what Lakshmi is going through apparent but didn’t get overly descriptive or too gory regarding the content. She does a good job of explaining and making the reader aware of what happening but in a way, that’s respectful and would definitely be appropriate for a teen to take in. I think what was so hard about the book was slowly seeing Lakshmi normalize this in her life. She’s very resistant to the sex work at first but as she’s broken down she starts actually going out of her way to get customers for more money. It’s a sad change but it’s also a survival tactic and I think it’s important to show how people (especially young people) will conform to their situation in order to survive and normalize things they know are wrong. We still get to see parts of her girlhood shine through though and these parts are nice because it needs to be pushed that she’s a child, and none of this is okay.

I will say something I didn’t love about the book is that North Americans were presented as saviours for these girls working in slavery. I think that’s an unsafe message to present because most North Americans are very unaware about what goes on outside of our bubble. I think it’s better to present that the Indian people do more at trying to save their own girls than we do trying to save their girls. I think if you’re in the mood for an eye-opening, short, but very detailed book, that is filled with how others experience the human condition I say check this one out. Sometimes we North Americans need a reminder that we have it extremely good over here and that we forget how many privileges that we really have out here.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I would love to hear what book really influenced you when you were a young teen and why in the comments. Feel free to check out my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when a new review drops.