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Reading a book with this type of subject matter I am used to. I felt for the character, her innocence taken from her was heart wrenching. America saves the day in the end which is an interesting message to send, but I still enjoyed this story. I found myself worried about secondary characters a lot. I wonder if she ever saw her mother again.

The subject matter makes this a tough book to review; it's horrifying, and you feel for Lakshmi. The writing is sparse and lovely, then sparse in a way that makes the reader fill in the horrendous blanks of what's going on between the words, so to speak.

The ending, though...it definitely has some "white savior" elements to it, and while I'm glad that there was an implied happy end in the horizon for Lakshmi, I wasn't 100% into the way it played out. Overall, a powerful read. 3.5/5 rounded up.

Devastating and uplifting, beautiful and horrifying all at the same time. Beautiful prose, I loved the formatting of the work.