The Price of Worthlessness - Petra's Story by Gloria Eveleigh is a novel whose strength is in the powerful message it conveys. Fourteen-year-old Petra has been the in-door kind of kid who prefers to play with her siblings than be outside with her age mates. She has confidence issues and overhearing her parents talk about her not going out is not even pleasant. When she meets Marvin, a twenty-eight-year-old man, she believes her world is about to change — for the better. Her world changes, and in a direction she never could have imagined. Now she is trapped in a world of sex trafficking and hemmed in with no means of escape. Will she be able to keep her sanity and survive the trauma and can she escape from her abusers?

The Price of Worthlessness is a heartbreaking story that strongly exposes the dangers that lurk in the corners of the lives of young girls. Gloria Eveleigh injects realism into the depiction of the protagonist, writing her into a world that readers can relate to. While the world-building isn't vividly drawn, The Price of Worthlessness - Petra's Story is character-driven and the author excels in exploring the psyche of the young female protagonist, exposing her inner world with internal dialogues and streams of consciousness while painting a dazzling portrait of the world of sex trafficking. From the opening pages, readers are greeted with a scene where a woman reports a rape that happened on a date arranged by the victim's teacher. That immediately introduces the theme of abuse. Petra is a young innocent girl who simply wants to outgrow her introverted personality and be outgoing. She is deeply flawed and believable. Falling for the wrong guy becomes her tragic flaw, a phenomenon that is common everywhere. Eveleigh has crafted a story that parents and adults should read, a story that is as enlightening as it is engaging. It is a young girl's struggle to survive in a world of sexual abuse and readers will admire her inner strength and resilience as she faces the ordeal. It is suspenseful and filled with thought-provoking moments, a story with strong and intelligently developed themes.