Language: R (212 swears, 127 “f”); Mature Content: R; Violence: R
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
17yo Lex is starting senior year just like every other student, but that’s where the similarities end. For the past few months, Lex has been going to therapy to heal from being Poppy, the girl she was forced to be when she was trafficked. Lex still isn’t sure if being rescued from the motel and taken in by her aunt is a good thing, and part of her wants to go back to the life she knows.
I feel like this isn’t a book I can’t recommend to just anyone because it is heavy and heartbreaking. However, I also feel like yelling about this from the rooftops -- everyone needs to know and understand the problem that human trafficking is so that it can be put to an end. Now I’ll get down from my activist soapbox, and some of the feelings that have been stirred up by this powerful book, and simply speak as the reader of a book that addresses difficult subjects. I’ve never experienced the ugly side of the world depicted by McLaughlin, though I know it exists. It was an interesting experience to read a perspective so different from my own and, yet, so relatable. While my trials don’t compare to what Lex and other girls like her suffered through, I feel like I’ve been given permission to not be okay. My hardships are different, but they are still hard. Both Lex and I -- and you -- deserve to be understood, to heal, and to move on. The mature content rating is for mentions of masturbation and orgasm, drug and alcohol abuse, mentions of pornography and prostitution, nudity, human trafficking, sexual assault, sexual abuse, oral sex, anal sex, vaginal sex, statutory rape, and rape. The violence rating is for fist fights and blood, mentions of self harm and suicide, physical abuse, domestic violence, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen
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