Book Review: Susan Norris' Rescuing Hope

Susan Norris is quite an admirable woman as not only does she tackle a tough subject in her book, Rescuing Hope, but she also tries to help victims of sex trafficking in her real life as well. She is a speaker on the subject of that for young adults and women. So in this novel you do get more than a real look at the very dark life of a victim of trafficking. The story matter isn't based on a true story, but it does parallel interviews she has had with victims to help her piece together this book.

 Hope is only fourteen when she is raped by the movers while she home alone supervising the move so her mother can work. The move is to another location after her parents' divorce. This is only the beginning of a very long downward spiral for Hope though. After feeling her mother is neglecting her in the choice to stay at work she begins hanging out with Nikki who introduces her to weed and, begins encouraging her to sneak off with her. One day while traveling home on the train she meets a man, T, who lures her into his world by offering her a relationship. When Hope turns up missing her family and friends find themselves in a frantic search to reach her in time before she is lost in the world of sex trafficking.


I've heard a lot about sex trafficking and, how it is contributing to the largest population of slaves in the current world today. Most will probably associate the word with foreign countries that aren't America, but American has some of the largest cities where sex trafficking occurs in and, one of those cities is where Norris basis her book in, Atlanta. Hope's life basically shows the process of how many young girls are tricked into stepping into the world. Hope already has significant problems going on in her life, and most teens, particularly girls do have something is causing insecurity whether minor or major. It's very easy to access that and take advantage as someone does to Hope.

Norris does hold back on the brutality of being sold into the sex slave trade though. It's a very dark book from the beginning and, there are parts the book depicted with a graphic nature. My biggest problem with the book though was that Hope and her friends sound a lot younger than they are. They sound more like 11 or 12 year olds than kids entering high school. I understand she wanted to capture the innocence to show how someone can be unknowing to completely degraded in this way, but I've never heard a kid of Hope's age talk or act like she does.

Norris has a way with writing characters though that does pull you in. She knows how to set the stage for the events and, either build tension or relief with them. You feel what the characters are going through and, it does seem quite rare than a writer is able to do that with their writing these days. You can't help but hope that the characters do pull through and, you wonder how they will survive what they are having to live through.

Rescuing Hope would make a good book to inform people more about sex trafficking. I hear people talk all the time about how America never has these sorts of problems and, how we don't know what suffering is because we aren't as impoverished as other countries. Sex trafficking is a real problem in America though and, one that is continuing to grow. Norris even made me more aware of just what it is and, how devastating it can be.

Rating 8 of 10.

This book was provided by Glass Road Publications in exchange for a review.