Girls Burn Brighter

"What's going on with the sex slaves?

That's a real question my husband asked me as I was about 3/4 of the way through this book. I typically refrain from explaining the plot of every book I read, but I was just overwhelmed with this one and tried to describe it to him halfway.

Girls Burn Brighter is gripping, heart-wrenching, awful - and, good. I don't mean that the subject matter is "good"; I mean that the book was well-written and even hopeful even in its darkest moments.

The story is actually the story of two girls that overlap. They're incredibly close as young girls in very poor India, but horrific circumstances (rape + forced marriage) rip them apart. They spend the next several years enduring absolute horror as they desperately try to find each other. One is sold to someone in Seattle; the other is desperate to track her down. How she tries leads us on a terrible and improbable journey.

The characters are rich and real; the stories are heartbreaking and easily true. The ending... Well... I have a coworker who was in happy tears at the end. I was just frustrated enough to toss my book onto my bed and sigh. But, it was still the best possible ending I could have imagined.

This book is tough to read. The things this young girls endure should almost not be available for our "entertainment". But, it's raw and real and utterly page-turning. Even though I think it would be better if it were about 75 pages shorter.