Prayers for the Stolen

By: Jennifer Clement
Image result for 9780099587590Location: FIC CLE
Genre: Documentary Fiction: Mexico

Now we make you ugly,’ my mother said. ‘The best thing you can be in Mexico is an ugly girl.’

On the mountainside in rural Mexico where Ladydi lives, being a girl is dangerous. Especially a pretty one. If the Narcos hear there is a pretty girl on the mountain, they steal her. So when the black SUVs roll into town, Ladydi and her friends hide in the warren of holes scattered across the mountain, safely out of sight. Because the stolen girls don’t come back.

Ladydi is determined to get out, to find a life that offers more than just the struggle to survive. But she soon finds that the drug cartels have eyes everywhere, and the cities are no safer than the mountains.


... an angry piece of land that once held a real community, but was ruined by the criminal world of drug traffickers and the immigration to the United States. Our angry piece of land was a broken constellation and each little home was ash.

"Clement was raised in Mexico and based this book on extensive interviews with women affected by the country’s culture of drugs and violence, as well as women in prison. In a world where up to 800,000 people are trafficked annually (a U.S. State Department estimate), often for sexual purposes, it is essential to raise awareness of the plight of women. That is what Clement has done with her gritty and at times disturbing coming-of-age novel. Though the plot grows darker than you might imagine, there is still a glimmer of hope for Ladydi at the end. "- Rebecca

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