I've been on a huge nostalgia kick lately, and part of that is reading any book I can get my hands on that I read as a teenager. I was probably 12 or so when I read this book for the first time. I think I was in the 6th or 7th grade.

I had forgotten that it was in verse. I had forgotten most all of the details of the plot and only had a vague recollection of what the major themes were.

I remember thinking that I hadn't learned about these topics, about sex trafficking and women in oppressive cultures, in school. I didn't have anything in my head or in my world book (ah, the pre-internet days) to check this book against.

Now, I find it doesn't age all that well. The white-saviorism is unpalatable. Well to do white men are typically the clientele in sex trafficking, so I wish someone else had been the savior. Lakshmi herself, although a child, does fight back. But I would have liked to see the Nepalese women featured in the end notes as the heroes of the day. They're far more interesting than the white soldiers featured in the book.

The beginning of this book starts with a lot of promise. All the characters are fully developed, and the nuance with Lakshmi's step father is heartbreaking. The verse doesn't add much to the novel, but in my opinion it doesn't take anything away either.

Now that I'm 30 and know more about the world this book is set in, I find it's a bit like reading a book about a Middle Eastern person of color from a white American. There's a lot of perspective that's absolutely lacking, even if the writing is well done.