Sold by Patricia McCormick is a touching story of A young girl named Lakshmi. She is from Nepal and has been brought to the city for work. (At least that’s what she has been told.) She ends up working in the “Happiness House” where her and many other young girls are forced to work as prostitutes. When entering the Happiness House, Lakshmi sees girls wearing makeup and she has never seen such a thing. She believed that she was among movie stars. This gives readers an idea of how out of place Lakshmi is in India. McCormick creates Lakshmi’s character in the beginning to be innocent and naive. But, Lakshmi is smart for being so young. She quickly accepts that there is little chance of her escaping so, she does the math to find out how much she has to work to “pay off her debt” when actually her debt is never-ending. She’s brave, she works and works and works. You have to give her credit, she even worked after she was told that she would never be able to pay off her debt. The author gives Lakshmi a friend, he teaches her English and gives her hope that her life hasn’t ended. From here, the book really picks up. The story was a quick read for me because there was always something going on. I struggled to put the book down at the end of the day. McCormick does a fantastic job of keep the attention of the reader. To do this she mainly changes the mood. The tone also changes about every chapter. Because these change very often it keeps the reader on their toes (to make sure they are always totally understanding what is going on in the story). Overall, the storyline is definitely intense and can be disturbing but, not too sexually graphic. There is rarely a moment in Lakshmi’s life in India when there is no chaos. As a reader, I received a sense of calmness when the author would pause to share what Lakshmi was thinking to herself. The author does a fantastic job of writing about such a controversial topic. She does end the story on a cliffhanger, bu that makes the book that much better.