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Wednesday Books
July 2020
On Sale: June 23, 2020
336 pages
ISBN: 1250173809
EAN: 9781250173805
Kindle: B0818PSVG1
Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook
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Young Adult | Women's Fiction Contemporary
Lex was taken–trafficked–and now she’s Poppy. Kept in a hotel with other girls, her old life is a distant memory. But when the girls are rescued, she doesn’t quite know how to be Lex again.
After she moves in with her aunt and uncle, for the first time in a long time, she knows what it is to feel truly safe. Except, she doesn’t trust it. Doesn't trust her new home. Doesn’t trust her new friend. Doesn’t trust her new life. Instead she trusts what she shouldn’t because that's what feels right. She doesn’t deserve good things.
But when she is sexually assaulted by her so-called boyfriend and his friends, Lex is forced to reckon with what happened to her and that just because she is used to it, doesn’t mean it is okay. She’s thrust into the limelight and realizes she has the power to help others. But first she’ll have to confront the monsters of her past with the help of her family, friends, and a new love.
Kate McLaughlin’s What Unbreakable Looks Like is a gritty, ultimately hopeful novel about human trafficking through the lens of a girl who has escaped the life and learned to trust, not only others, but in herself.
Author NoteI don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember that my husband came home one day and told me
about something he’d heard on NPR. It was a story about a group fighting against human trafficking.
He knew I’d been looking to write about something I could really get behind and he thought this was it.
He was right. I started doing some research, and I was appalled by what I uncovered.
Then, a new friend introduced me to a detective who worked trafficking. This amazing woman
answered all of my questions and gave me so much valuable research. I would have been lost without
her. One day, she called me and asked if I’d be interested in talking to one of the girls who liked to
write poetry. This girl was sixteen and in a locked facility for troubled teens. I said of course I would
talk to her.
That conversation changed my life. I fell in love with the girl, who had been incredibly damaged by so
many people in the course of her short life. She also had this spark inside her – this brightness. They
hadn’t managed to destroy her. Not completely.
Over the next two years, she and I talked almost every day. She shared her stories with me, and I helped
her with her writing. We even published a volume of her poetry on Amazon. My husband and I had
plans to become her guardians at one point, but then she ran away. Running is what she does when she
feels overwhelmed.
The last time she ran was from our house. She’s eighteen now
and was being released from prison into our custody under
house arrest. She didn’t even last the night. Someone came
and got her and she’s still out there. I think – and worry –
about her every day. I wrote this book for her – could never
have written it without her – but she is a living reminder
why these stories need to be told. We need to fight the sex
trafficking industry, not just because of how it exploits
society’s vulnerable members, but because of the lasting
damage it does. Fighting trafficking doesn’t stop with
simply getting victims off the street. It’s not enough. We
need to break the programming and help them realize they
are so much more than a commodity. That’s what I would
love to achieve with What Unbreakable Looks Like. I want
to raise that awareness, so we can not only rescue the victims,
but protect them and care for them, so they can realize their
own worth. It’s not easy to do, but we can’t stop trying. I’ve
had to let her go for now, but I’ll be here when she wants to
break the cycle.
- KATE MCLAUGHLIN
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