Having need a fan of Hodge’s crime thrillers, I decided to explore the other titles and genres she has written, and Trafficked is a novella based on the accounts of trafficked women and has placed itself firmly within the Top 40 Books About Human Rights by Accredited Online Colleges. It will change what you think you know about sex trafficking forever.
The heroine of this tale is Selena, and like many trafficked women, she believed she was heading to a better life in order to lay the foundations for her future so her family could join her. And with her closest and oldest friend assisting her then it was surely a safe move, right?
Sadly Elena found herself in a brothel and when she made the brave effort to escape, the brothel owners caught up with her and sold her. She was then moved to the UK and made to work in a massage parlour. Elena had stunning good looks and was used to sell sex to wealthy men. Very, very luckily for Elena, she had one client who wanted comfort only and they built up such a rapport and trust that he helped her to escape.
It was a beautiful ending for Elena’s tale, with her daughter coming to be with her and the friendship she built with her helper remaining in place, but sadly not all stories end like this; the estimated number of people trafficked across boarders stands at 800,000 a year and many of these people die in transit or shortly upon arrival of one of many destinations. These people are beaten, raped, starved and have no freedom or hope.
This novella I read in one sitting and was so deeply disturbed by the information I was processing that it broke my heart and I had to go and check on my own sleeping child. one of the lines Elena says raises the question of would the men raping her and paying for sex with her feel if it were happening to their daughters, wives and sisters? Something that will never leave me is that question.
I would absolutely recommend this book to everyone as an informative read; it’s fiction but based on truth and very realistic and wide spread problem. Everyone needs to be informed an educated in this matter and I urge everyone to read it.
A distressing subject but approached very well by a fantastic author who has clearly put her heart and soul in to this. Hodge has blown me away once again with her sense of empathy and justice which has clearly been the driving point of having this subject put out further in to the world for our awareness. Very well done.
Morelli’s Reads 