Find your next great read for National Human Trafficking Prevention Month by exploring my reviews of these great YA books about human trafficking.

Human trafficking happens all over the world, affects both men and women of broad age groups, and takes several forms: forced labor, sex, and organ removal. Victims of human trafficking may be sold and transported across country borders. Human trafficking is a form of global modern-day slavery.

Reading thrilling YA books about human trafficking can raise our awareness of this prevalent problem and help us be more alert for potential victims as we move through airports, stay in hotels, and shop in holiday crows. Seeing a young protagonist escape a terrible situation can even inspire us to activism and social justice.

Here is my list of amazing YA books about human trafficking. With a list about teens who’ve been deceived and trafficked, I can guarantee some disturbing content here, but you will also find great reads.

Purge by Sofi Oksanen

"The only thing left alive was the shame." ― Sofi Oksanen, quote from Purge

I picked up Purge to add to my list of YA books about human trafficking, but this novel is pure literature, a stunning international masterpiece that spans decades of history, generations of pain, and dark twisted family secrets.

Set in Estonia and bouncing between 1941 and 1992, two protagonists tell their tales in a long and dizzying narrative that weaves between present terror and past horror. These women are bound to each other in multiple ways. Their mutual distrust them unreliable narrators, so that only the reader really only has the full picture, and sometimes even that picture is murky.

As I think back on each of these women's experiences, I see so many parallels in what happened to each, even though the details are very different on the surface. For example, both are raped. Both are silenced. Both are shamed. One is betrayed. One is a betrayer.

This is the kind of epic novel that I can think about for a long time and even read again. I missed things and know that I would see even more in a second reading because the book is so sweeping and full of such meaningful symbolism and detail.

A true masterpiece. I loved it!

Trafficked by Kim Purcell

Trafficked an absorbing YA novel about human trafficking that shows how an orphaned teenager easily becomes a victim of this terrible crime. Hannah was easily duped into leaving her home for the promise of a better life in the United States, a salary, and a chance to study English. Instead, she became a slave, forced into being an unpaid nanny and a maid, fighting off sexual advances of the husband of the house and his male associates, and being beaten and verbally abused by the wife. She is young, slow to realize her situation, and not great with English.

The plotting of Trafficked was thrilling. There were plenty of twists to keep me invested. For example, there is a backstory about how Hannah was "chosen" by this family that is revealed little by little.

I was rooting for Hannah to find a way out and take charge of her life. I worried about her because I knew the odds were not in her favor.

Human trafficking is a real, modern problem across the world, and you won’t want to miss Hannah’s heartbreaking and thought-provoking story. She begins the novel in a state of naïve innocence in her home country, and by the end, she has become mature and wise to the adult world. It’s a realistic and sad tragedy.

Sold by Sue Barrow

I wanted to like this book. Sold is a YA book about human trafficking where the parents sell one of their children to a wealthy relative in the UK. Roza is forced to clean and babysit for this abusive family. The plotting is very similar to Trafficked, but its execution doesn’t meet the mark.

There are a lot of unrealistic aspects of the story, like the way Roza goes to the library and gets a job that her “jailers” don’t know about. She has too much freedom to make her captivity seem realistic. Her character is shallow and not well developed.

If you’re looking for YA books about human trafficking, read Trafficked instead.

Other YA Books about Human Trafficking

If you are looking other YA books about human trafficking, check out the Human Trafficking Books and Novels on Human Trafficking lists on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of YA contemporary books about tough topics for teens.

Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.