Sold

Sold is a truly heartbreaking story, as any tale of human trafficking is. Familiar first-world objects and concepts are threaded into this grotesque, horrific life Lakshmi winds up in, and the effect is quite jarring. I've read this book three times now. The first time, I was thirteen, like Lakshmi, and I didn't fully understand what was happening, so the next year, I read it again. I put it on hold last summer due to an experience that made me want to reread it, and I feel as though I get much more from it as an adult. I hadn't realized that she was being drugged by Mumtaz in order to force her to sleep with men, or that a girl hanging from the rafters meant she'd committed suicide. When I was younger, I really believed that Lakshmi show more had a chance of legitimately leaving Happiness House and Mumtaz, if she could somehow pay down her debt. I didn't have that hope for her this time. Overall, Sold is a good book, but a hard read. show less

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl that lives in Nepal with her mother, stepfather and brother. Their living conditions are meager and food is often scarce, but they survive. One day after Lakshmi's stepfather squanders what money they had, he announces that it is time for Lakshmi to work. He sells her into a world of darkness under the guise of working in the city as a maid.

Whoa. I wasn't fully aware of what was going to happen to Lakshmi and frankly I was surprised. McCormick researched and interviewed women in Nepal making this story very accurate and in turn extremely disturbing. The writing - amazing. She delivered such a deplorable topic through a poetic style that swept me up. This fast-paced book helps build awareness through show more the life of Lakshmi that is truly palpable. McCormick is going on my "must read another soon" list. (4.5/5)

Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..." show less

13-year-old Lakshmi lives in the mountains of Nepal with her mother, stepfather, and baby brother. Like most families, they are very poor, but Lakshmi is happy going to school, playing games with her friends, and tending her cucumbers, all of which she has named. Whenever her stepfather gets money, he spends it on himself or gambles it away, so that there are always things the family needs that are just out of reach. One day a woman gives him money to take Lakshmi with her. Lakshmi believes she is going to the city to be a maid for a rich woman, and that the money she earns will provide things her family needs, like a new tin roof. Instead, Lakshmi is taken to a brothel in Calcutta called Happiness House, where life is anything but show more happy for the young girls who are forced into the sex trade.

Although Lakshmi and Happiness House are fictional, they represent thousands of young Nepali girls who are victims of sex trafficking. McCormick gets the tone just right. Lakshmi's story is realistic but not overly sensational or graphic. Lakshmi experiences appalling treatment, yet she never completely loses hope of returning home. I was angry and sad for Lakshmi, but ultimately I was inspired by her inner strength, courage, and dignity. There are several organizations that work to rescue girls like Lakshmi from forced participation in the sex trade and to change or enforce laws to reduce the prevalence of sex trafficking. I can't go to India to rescue other Lakshmis, but I can donate to organizations that do.

Most teens will be mature enough to handle the subject matter, which is tastefully handled. It would be a good reading choice for raising awareness of this issue that affects so many women and girls worldwide. show less

This was a wonderful novel, with rich evocative prose. Lakshmi is our thirteen year old narrator and it is through her eyes we see the move from her home village to the big city. The novel takes from Nepal to India, from the loving, although devastated, hills to the cruel environment of the sex industry. The title is haunting once you’ve read it I think and you realise that Lakshmi is just a commodity for people to get by. Sold on several times and never to be released from the clutches of Mumtaz in the brothel that she eventually ends up in, her life is dismal and beyond comprehension.

The vignettes allow you to step into the mind of a young child, changing topics rapidly, moving from one thing to the next. Yet the topic matter show more becomes more alarming as the novel progresses. Also the dramatic irony adds tension to your reading. As a reader you aren’t in for an easy read and it is with hindsight a blessing that it is written from a child’s perspective as it takes a long time for Lakshmi to completely realise the hopelessness of her situation. She knows to no longer trust someone so how does she make the decision to risk everything to get her life back? Haunting and offering the endless opportunities for wonder and discussion.

Beautifully written, a novel I certainly won’t forget. I’m very grateful to a friend for allowing me the opportunity to discover this novel and I will certainly be going on to read more Patricia McCormick. I also want to find out more about the topic matter for the novel. This is one novel you must tell everyone to read. It is tremendous! show less

This is a book to chill the soul. Sold by Patricia McCormick tells the story of Lakshmi, a twelve year old girl from Nepal who is sold by her stepfather and finds herself a resident of the “Happiness House” in a large city in India. Beaten, starved and eventually drugged, she is forced to service male customers.

Lakshmi clings to the idea that she will eventually buy her freedom, even though every time she thinks she is close, she is told she owes even more. Holding to the idea that the money she is earning is being sent home to her family, she learns to endure. She gradually forms friendships with some of the other girls in the house, and one day she learns the truth, she will never be free of this place until she is old, used-up or show more diseased, then she will be thrown out onto the street. Making a decision that is fraught with danger, she reaches out for help to escape this horror of a life.

Knowing that this buying and selling of young girls is common practise in poor countries where life is held so cheaply makes this book a difficult read. The author presents the story in a simple, straight forward style that makes for a very quick read, but the research she has done and her writing skill has produced a touching yet inspired story of one young girls’ nightmare of being robbed of her childhood and being forced into the sex trade. show less

Subject matter (child trafficking) needs to be better known; this format (poems/quasi-diary of Lakshmi, a fictional Nepali girl sold into prostitution in India) didn't work for me. As a mountain village girl, she's presented as initially unaware of the existence of/terminology for light bulbs, cars and trains, even though she has learned to read and write--I find it doubtful, with the degree of globalization in the world today, that she would remain so ignorant of these aspects of "development." Moreover, the emphasis on her discovering these things detracts from the core of the story, and feels like a First-World romanticization of rural people in the Third World.

I also found it troubling that those working to free child prostitutes show more are presented as "Americans," especially since the author's note indicates that the movement against trafficking is much broader than that and includes many survivors. The author apparently conducted interviews with women of the streets, aid workers, and survivors--I wish that legwork had culminated in a book that conveyed those voices more directly, in a less fanciful way. show less

I think what McCormick does with this book is brilliant. In what seems like a simple first-person lyrical style that is probably quite complicated to pull off, she provides a matter-of-fact account of a young girl sold into sex slavery. The evolution from innocent mountain girl to jaded prostitute at age 13 is hard to read and yet the personal spirits of the main character and other girls trying to navigate their situation is not sacrificed. I wouldn't recommend this as a read for tweens/teens who aren't mature enough to handle the story (which doesn't flinch from details but is not explicit in descriptions), but it can serve as a very effective platform for discussion about the social issues with more mature teens and young adults. I show more also appreciate the end notes with facts and how to help. show less