Customer Reviews
Gripping - By: Andrea Smith, 21 Dec 2008 
Tess Stevens' mother, who ran a brothel, sells her daughter into a life of vice when she is just a child. The book follows Tess' life from her not-so-innocent childhood into her troubled adulthood & shows the struggle she has with her emotions throughout. Where this book really shines however is the matter-of-fact way that it is told, without over-exaggerating events. This shows that after so many years the author has clearly come to terms with her horrendous childhood & the appalling behaviour of her bother. The fact that she does not seem to feel too sorry for herself makes the book slightly easier to read despite the subject matter. It is not so much of a weepy as a story of courage & resilience. Overall, it is a book that - having taken you through the pit of society - makes you appreciate what you have just that little bit more.
'Sold!' - Review by Chris Colverson [real name] (London) - By: C. Colverson, 20 Apr 2008 I couldn't put this book down. I went to bed, got upin the night & carried on reading till dawn...
Writtenin the simplest, clearest & most frank way, Tess Stevens' love-starved childhood unfolds like some nightmare from Dickensian London, except that this was for realin Fifties' Croydon. She was the good little girl sitting quietly next to you at school, who never made any trouble. But as she grew up, Tess was the one who got touched up by the boys, left out by the other girls - the one who was destined for a life of petty crime, savage personal relationships & an inevitable slide into prostitution. Yet Tess never gave up on the cruelly manipulative mother who wheedled her into her 'business' by telling her that her younger brothers & sisters would go into care if she didn't contribute to the family income by being 'nice' to men.
'It couldn't happen now,' we say, but doctors, police, lawyers, Social Workers, teachers, Councils & care-workers, Tess slipped by them all, eventually becoming, despite everything, & through her own determination, the good & loving parent that she had longed for. If you were hoping that someone else would take care of this side of life for you, this is a real wake-up call. More than a moving tale of survival & tribute to a 'rough diamond' personality, 'Sold!' is a socially significant book, an indictment of our 'caring' society & something that we must all learn from. Highly recommended.
