What Unbreakable Looks Like – Blog Tour Review
Hello readers!
If you could sum up 2020 in one word, what would it be? I would choose the word uncomfortable. First, the pandemic swept the world, pushing us to re-evaluate how we live as we hid from each other. Having our children home while working and now becoming teachers. Very uncomfortable. Having to face an uncertain future of what will happen when the world opens up again. Yup – uncomfortable. Watching the Black Lives Matter movement gain momentum and having to face your role in it? Extremely uncomfortable. But all have been necessary to elicit change.
This book will make you uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. But with that comes understanding. With that comes change. So let’s push ourselves, hopefully for the last time, and see what we can learn.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
I was nervous going into this. Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press provided me an early copy, asking if I would like to review this book. As I keep realizing my books are all the same genre, I have been mindful of trying to read outside my comfort zone. And this was out there. What would it bring? Would it scare me?
Right off the bat are the TRIGGER WARNINGS: Human trafficking. Sexual assault. Violence. If these are triggers for you, please do not proceed unless you feel you can. If these make you uncomfortable, or you would like to pretend these things do not happen, please read on!
Prior to reading this, I had very limited knowledge of human trafficking. It scares the living daylights out of me as I raise a daughter. I keep seeing stories in our local mom Facebook group of kids being grabbed in our town. Of men following teens around the mall but being scared off. There was an article about 7 or 8 years ago that a girl was caught having sex in a high school bathroom with a group of boys. The parents pulled out their pitchforks and attacked her. An aside was thrown into the mix that she had been a victim of human trafficking and did not know how to behave. The story was swept away, and never spoken of again. This story has always haunted me as I wondered what happened to her.
SUMMARY: Lex was taken–trafficked–and now she’s Poppy. Kept in a hotel with other girls, her old life is a distant memory. But when the girls are rescued, she doesn’t quite know how to be Lex again. After she moves in with her aunt and uncle, for the first time in a long time, she knows what it is to feel truly safe. Except, she doesn’t trust it. Doesn’t trust her new home. Doesn’t trust her new friend. Doesn’t trust her new life. Instead she trusts what she shouldn’t because that’s what feels right. She doesn’t deserve good things. But when she is sexually assaulted by her so-called boyfriend and his friends, Lex is forced to reckon with what happened to her and that just because she is used to it, doesn’t mean it is okay. She’s thrust into the limelight and realizes she has the power to help others. But first she’ll have to confront the monsters of her past with the help of her family, friends, and a new love. Kate McLaughlin’s What Unbreakable Looks Like is a gritty, ultimately hopeful novel about human trafficking through the lens of a girl who has escaped the life and learned to trust, not only others, but in herself.
WHAT I LOVED:
Right off the bat, I want to comment and say that I thought this would be much harder to read than it was. I was picturing non-stop scenes of being trafficked. Don’t get me wrong – those stories are sprinkled throughout. But we start the story meeting Poppy – I mean Alexa – as she was being rescued by the police. We journey with Lex as she goes to a detox of sorts to help her stay off drugs, but also for therapy for what the girls go through. We are with Lex for every flashback. For every trigger. For every moment of happiness she allows herself. For every real friend that she made. For every person who cast her aside rather than try to understand her. And for every fear that she lives with. Will she go back to the life that she knows (better the devil you know) or will she be forced back into it? Will she make it? Will her pimp ever be caught? All of this felt so raw. So honest. So REAL.
It felt so real, I had to stop and research the author, Kate McLaughlin. Did she experience this? I discovered through Twitter that she really did her research, and told the story of a girl who was trafficked.
WHAT MADE ME SCRATCH MY HEAD:
A couple of head scratching moments – the first was “how do I convey even one person to read this book.” During this uncertain time of the world, I hope people will not shy away from this. #METOO is still a reality for many of us to varying degrees. This story deserves to be told.
My other head scratching moment comes, not from the story, but from myself. Just like with BLM, I had to reckon with myself on what would I have done if I were in a spectator’s shoes. Just like the girl in the article, would I blame her? Would I blame the boys? Unfortunately, I blamed everyone. What this book showed me was the aftermath of how the girl’s (and boys, but this book doesn’t touch on that) minds are conditioned to think. In my mind, I thought “she’s safe now – she doesn’t have to that anymore.” But I know better now. This book showed me that. And for that, I will be forever grateful for opening my eyes to that.
QUOTE I HOPE MAKES IT TO FINAL PRINT:
“What if it never happens?” I ask. “What if I never feel whole again?” She smiles sympathetically. “Then maybe – like a lot of us – you’ll have to find strength in being a little cracked.”
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This book comes out on Tuesday, 06/23/2020! Give it a try!
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