Reviewed by readingwithwrin on
"I cried out my grief at having my childhood taken away, at being sold like a trinket, at being rejected by my father."
Starting this story Jasmina and her brother Samir are sold to a man to go and get an "education" by their father who never tells them why he is selling them and completely ignores their mother begging him not to do it. Jasmina knows it is a common thing for girls in her country to be sold, but not the boys. The boys always get to stay with their parents. While being confused and scared by their father's choice they are taken to a sweat shop of children where they are forced to work off there debt from being bought, driven to the sweat shop, given food, and being forced to live in the upstairs room until the man thinks he has broken there spirit from being able to runaway.
When disaster strikes at the sweat shop all of the children runaway and Jasmina and her brother get away to. Where they are then tricked by another man and sold back into slavery and forced to work at a rock quarry. While they are both terrified about what will happen to them next and how to get out of being a slave, Jasmina and several of the other girls are sold once again to another man who only wants "the pretty girls". In a very dangerous escape plan Jasmina gets away and gets taken in by a woman who gets her cleaned up and takes her to an orphanage for children like her. Jasmina is afraid of this place though and runs away because she thinks she is being sold again.
"I would rely on myself only. Never trust anyone again. Never give in to the weakness of hope."
As a street kid Jasmina became very angry at the world and what had happened to her. She was fueled by her anger to make it through day to day life on the streets where she had to always be one step ahead of everyone else and to always be on the lookout so she wouldn't be sold into slavery again.
One day while on the streets Jasmina sees a strange group of women in the bad part of town going to one of the brothels and praying out in front of it before going in. When the women come out Jasmina follows them curious as to why they are there and what they want with these women. When she herself ends up being taken in by these women she learns that they just want to help and that a lot of them are women that had also been slaves, but had escaped and now want to help others get out as well.
"It is puzzling how you can live in danger for so long, but as soon as safety wraps around you like a comforting blanket, the idea of facing danger again seems so much more ... dangerous."
What I loved throughout the whole story is that you felt like you were right there with Jasmina and that all of the things she was facing were things that most likely are actually happening somewhere in this world. I never stopped cheering Jasmina on and wanting her to be free and to find someplace safe to live where she didn't have to live in constant fear. To get answer. Even though I knew it most likely would never happen I also wanted her to get answers from her father on why he did what he did.
This book is going to stick with me for a very long time and I can't wait to see what happened to Samir.
I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 20 August, 2015: Finished reading
- 20 August, 2015: Reviewed