Originally Posted: January 30, 2013
My rating of this book: ☆☆☆☆☆ out of 5 stars
A friend gave me this book, Priceless: A Novel on the Edge of the World, by Tom Davis, for Christmas. I just finished it yesterday…and it wrecked me. I knew a bit about human trafficking before reading this book, but had always thought, “I’m glad someone else is doing something about this. It’s really important and needs to be addressed.” But after reading this book, I now want to be one of those someones who does something about it. Be warned, this book could wreck you, in a forever, good way. The author apparently doesn't just write about horrific situations faced by youth in our world, he actually does something about it. I recently discovered he has a nonprofit. I haven't looked into the caliber of the nonprofit, so can't vouch one way or the other for it myself, but feel free to check it out!
Now back to the book! Although you know the author is trying to convey a dark reality to you, it’s also well written. It doesn’t feel like a propaganda piece at all. It’s creatively constructed, well crafted, with believable, likable, and sometimes horrific, characters. A definite page turner. At the end of the book, I discovered this is actually the second in a trilogy! I may just have to go back and read his other On the Edge of the World novels.
They all follow a reporter, Stuart, who’s life is rocked as he travels around the world to report on various problems in our world today. Instead of being just an observer, he ends up quite in the thick of things with his life in danger and finding out what is really going on. I did just fine jumping into the second book, but the first book, Sacred, has to do with the affect of AIDS in Africa on children, this second one (which I read), Priceless, is about human trafficking and the sex-trade in Russia, and the third one is going to be about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. That one is not out yet.
They’re all difficult topics to swallow, but with Tom Davis’ writing, I think you’ll want to take every last bite.
Go ahead, wreck your life a little... it probably needs it.