REVIEW: Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice McFadden

Every year I take myself to the bookstore on Christmas Eve, and buy myself a book. This was my Christmas Eve book last year, and I got around to reading it in early January. I started it in the morning, and all day I was very crafty about avoiding my to-do’s so that I could keep reading this book.

This book is a lot more hopeful than it sounds like. It’s the story of Abeo, a little girl in West Africa, who is left at a religious shrine by her father to atone for the crimes of his ancestors.

The subject is horrifying. Ritual servitude is basically sex slavery, and the tale starts when Abeo is only nine. (Not that it would be an easy subject to take at any age.) You know from the beginning that she eventually escapes, and Abeo’s journey from slavery to healing is truly unputdownable despite reading about the hard things she endures.

I highly recommend this quick and compelling read.