Renting Lacy. Wow. What do I say about a book that tells such a shocking, disturbing, and heartrending story of America’s prostituted children? When I read Renting Lacy, by Linda Smith, of Shared Hope International, and Cindy Coloma, I was horrified, sickened, and overwhelmed by what I was reading. Honestly, I wrestled with whether or not to even write a post about it because it deals with such a difficult and dark subject.
Shared Hope International has spent years doing extensive research and undercover investigations on the issue of child sex trafficking in America and has put together The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children *. Based on that research, Renting Lacy is a gripping book that presents actual stories of girls living in the dark world of sexual slavery. In the introduction of the book, Linda Smith shares her heart when she states:
I don’t wish to offend anyone . . . Yet I pray for their understanding and pardon, because this book is tragically necessary. It is clear to me that only the harshness of the truth can wake the world to this horror. It will take a real-life confrontation with the agony these children are living through. It will take a painful but authentic look into the ugly underworld. Then, perhaps – and I hope and pray – people will rally to the cause of putting a stop to it all (page xi).
Written in the form of a story, with comments and insights from the author throughout, Renting Lacy is an open window into the lives of prostituted girls and the terror they face everyday. Linda Smith has taken the difficult issue of child sex trafficking and dealt with it in such a way that the reader is drawn into the story and hopefully finishes it with a desire to do something about the tragic injustice of child sex trafficking.
Renting Lacy is a well-written, eye-opening, and thought-provoking book. I encourage you to get a copy of it and read it. It is uncomfortable to read, I admit, but I hope it will spur you on to join the fight to end child sex trafficking. As Nancy Winston, National Awareness Board Member for Shared Hope International, says in her endorsement of the book:
Don’t start this book unless you commit to read it all the way through. It will take courage to do that. It will take even more courage to accept it as truth. If you do accept it, you must then have the courage to join us in the fight – in any way, large or small. Once you know, you can no longer not know!
Will you join the fight to pursue justice and help put an end to the injustice of child sex trafficking?