(2) YA Fourteen-year-old Essie longs to escape her miserable life in post-Reconstruction Savannah, Georgia, where her mother earns her living as a prostitute. After Essie leaves home, wealthy Dorcas Vashon transforms her into a socialite in Washington, DC, with an invented background. Essie, now Victoria, has an epiphany that helps her understand the tragic complexities of her mother's life. Bolden captures the period with meticulous detail in this engrossing coming-of-age story.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(4) YA Jaya is a transgender boy from a wealthy Gujarati family in Hawaii. Devoted to protecting her siblings, beautiful Rasa is a victim of sex-trafficking. Each protagonist's childhood has been riddled with different kinds of pain and abuse, but their love provides each teen with hope and maybe even a path forward. The romance is ultimately underdeveloped, but Patel's novel tackles difficult issues without flinching.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) YA When Rosie learns that her birth mother--who she'd thought was dead--might still be alive, she's desperate to find her. Enter Rosie's best friend Mary, who offers to prostitute herself to help Rosie raise cash for a private investigator. Their ill-conceived plan quickly goes awry and culminates in a shocking--if too abrupt--ending that will have readers looking back for clues.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA Dark Roads series. These "map-your-destiny" novels focus on a teen who uses drugs and sex to cope with her parents' divorce (Skeleton); a young Latino man dealing with being gay (Bloodline); and the son of an addict changing his own fate (Fade). The racy, graphic books can be melodramatic, but they raise worthwhile questions about choices and consequences. There are three other fall 2016 books in this series. Review covers the following Dark Roads titles: Bloodline, Fade to Black, and Skeleton Princess.

Reviewer: Lauren Causey

(4) YA Inspired by the author's social welfare work in Mumbai's red-light district, this novel focuses on fourteen-year-old Noor, who excels academically but sees no alternative to following her mother into sex work. The novel offers a vivid, unsettling depiction of Mumbai's poverty and its sex trade. Alternating chapters about a privileged, wealthy teen can seem extraneous, but Noor's story is intense and thought-provoking.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA A teen crumbling under the weight of familial pressure and responsibilities spirals into a life of prostitution in this anonymous "diary." The sensational topic will draw in some readers, but accepting the narrative as an authentic account requires some serious suspension of disbelief. Instead, this reads as a cautionary tale with a heartbreaking (but entirely predictable) ending.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(2) YA Huddled on a cold street corner after fighting with her foster mother, thirteen-year-old Dime meets an older girl who offers her a home with her and her boyfriend, "Daddy." But maintaining her place in Daddy's "family" exacts a price: soon Dime is earning her keep turning tricks. Dime's first-person narrative offers an eye-opening exploration of the all-too-real horrors of sex trafficking. Resources appended.

Reviewer: Amy Pattee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2015

(4) YA In Tricks, Hopkins gave voice to five teenagers lured into prostitution; in this sequel, each learns to see him or herself as the victim of sex trafficking. Through fears and disappointments, the characters find hope and motivation, and move toward healthier lives. Hopkins's signature free-verse style, frank approach toward addiction and sexuality, and predilection for melodrama are all accounted for.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(2) YA It's 1932. Kelpie is an orphan in a violent Sydney, Australia, neighborhood ruled by mob bosses--one of whom is brothel madam Gloriana Nelson. Kelpie's caught up in a murder and befriended by Gloriana's "best girl," Dymphna, who shares Kelpie's ability to speak with ghosts. Yoking paranormal thriller, roman noir, and historical fiction, Razorhurst teems with precise period details and unsavory characters.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015

(4) YA When spunky, independent Gabby Perez talks about date-rape drugs on her radio show, she discovers an underage prostitution ring in her Miami neighborhood. Then she meets "X"--the alluring leader of a vigilante gang that rescues prostitution victims. Gabby and X's romance is hasty, but fans of van Diepen's urban fiction (including companion On the Edge) will enjoy their steamy connection and fast-paced investigation.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(3) YA This slim volume takes on human trafficking all over the world, covering debt bondage, forced domestic servitude, the sex trade, organ and adoption trafficking, forced military service, and more. Although the text takes a thorough, businesslike approach to an emotional topic, the frequent "Voices of the Victims" feature and moving photographs humanize the statistics. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(2) YA Hak Nam Walled City, based on a real place in Hong Kong, is described as "Hell on earth." The narrative rotates among three teen protagonists who desperately want to escape. Mysterious Dai teams up with Jin, who's passing as a boy and searching for her sister, Mei Yee, who was sold into prostitution. A riveting, suspenseful tale of violence, danger, and survival.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2015

(2) YA In the late 1950s, Josie, seventeen-year-old daughter of a prostitute, searches for her father and hopes to leave New Orleans on her own. Josie also works as a maid for the city's premier madam, becomes tied to a murder, and owes money to a Mafia boss. If this sounds like melodrama, it is, but the book will appeal to young adults looking for escapism.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2013

(4) YA Sixteen-year-old Sadie Rose, sheltered within the home of the prominent Worthingtons, is determined to uncover the truth behind her mother's mysterious death. Vivid descriptions of a rural Prohibition-era Minnesota town round out a suspenseful page-turner containing flashbacks of an early childhood spent in a brothel under the care of a mother forced into prostitution. Realistic portrayals are wrapped up in a conveniently contrived conclusion.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(1) YA In dramatic free verse, sixteen-year-old Angel tells of her almost accidental yet inevitable slip into drugs, prostitution, and abuse from older men. With startlingly few words and deliberate use of white space, Leavitt re-creates the experience of exploited teens in powerful detail. Each poem is a brief exposure of painful memory, stark observation, or comforting fantasy. A stunning, haunting portrait of exploitation and redemption.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2012

(4) YA Falling in love with fourteen-year-old prostitute Patti disrupts Alexander's (ostentatiously) carefree life of sex, drugs, and making music. Their relationship causes problems with his friends, and Alexander puts his life on the line when he refuses the local crime lord's command to dump Patti. Although the gratuitous profanity, sex, and drug use quickly become tiresome, the plot is intense and well paced.

Reviewer: Randy Ribay

(3) YA In small-town Montana, Grace (a runaway and a victim of sexual abuse), Mick (a thief's son), and JJ (an orphan) find a dead body. As the teens play detective, they also try to piece together their own lives--making messy decisions along the way. Price's mystery, gritty and heart-wrenching, spotlights what life can be like for teens on the fringes.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(3) YA Since Ray's family emigrated from China to Canada, the teen hasn't been able to live up to his father's expectations. After Dad finds out Ray is gay, he gets kicked out of the house. In his brief time on the streets, he's beaten, robbed, and introduced to prostitution. Ray is a strong and sympathetic protagonist making his way through problem-novel territory.

Reviewer: Randy Ribay

(3) YA "Lizzie was my job / And I was hers." In transparent free verse, twelve-year-old Hope narrates the aftermath of her sister Lizzie's near suicide. As she slowly discovers that her family's secrets extend beyond her mother’s prostitution, Hope finds the strength and courage to help both Lizzie and herself. This dark, mature story fully develops its damaged yet sympathetic characters.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(4) YA Written in Hopkins's trademark style--largely free-verse poems that make use of broken lines, double columns, linked phrases, and other devices--this hefty volume follows five teenagers as they flee troubled families and fall into prostitution. Each character is sympathetic with an independent voice. As usual, Hopkins's preference for excess (the more vices and victims the better) pushes the tale toward melodrama.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac