Secret Slave

This book made me appreciate the freedom I have. I lived through her agony and read this book in one day! I only hope and pray that any other Anna’s out there can escape and get the help they need.

I cannot adequately say in words how much your story touched me. Here in the United States, human trafficking and , specifically, your story resonates so very, very much. What a survivor you are. I read your book in 4 hours. It broke my heart, but, hopefully, you have an amazing survivor's introspection, and have a fine marriage, beautiful and healthy children, and know that living well is the best ever thing. I wish you the very best, and fine people like you remind me, as is your legacy, to pay attention to ANYTHING THAT SEEMS UNTOWARD OR UNNATURAL. Thank you, Anna, for that. Be happy, these heinous freaks can't touch your life now. Believe it. Thank you for sharing your book. I so hope it was cathartic for you. I would have paid$50 dollars($USA) for this book. You are a hero. Everyone should read this book and have the guts to keep their eyes and ears open. I wish you every joy and happiness.

This survivor's account of her kidnapping at age 15, the endless torture, violence, persecution, cruelty, terrorizing, unending solitary confinement, rapes, forced prostitution and being made an unwilling surrogate mother is sadly true. What this girl endured for 13 years is mind - blowing.

It was a compelling read,yet somehow, for me, having such bated breath in not be able put this Kindle down, I felt guilty in my sorrow . I felt guilty just because of my interest and eagerness for her story because all of this really happened to Anna. Guilty because so many of us had 'happy teen and young adult years. Anna did not have any happiness.

I enjoyed that it was a quick read, albeit a bit,( and forgive, me) monotonous...I got the picture of her countless torture sessions, controlled behavior, the shame at being made an unwilling prostitute for the immigrants from her abuser's country, etcetera. That said, I would have preferred some omission of the endless torture chapters.

It is a good book but I wonder if Anna is able to give back to the world now that she is happily married and has four children. From the epilogue, it sounds as if Anna struggles daily, physically and mentally, from the 13 years of victimization and physical and emotional torture. I was saddened to read the brief description of her life at this book's printing and all she still endures. I hope she can turn it around as Elizabeth Smart has been able to. (Anna endured far worse physical abuse and for a much longer period of time.)

Thank you Anna, for sharing your story. I am so sorry. No one should have to go through such and you have raised awareness in communities in every country in which book is printed. {{{{{ Hugs }}}}}

Only because she signed rights away to her children and never pressed charges. I think author would have a healthier recovery if she had. Also bothers me that by not pressing charges, other young woman are at risk, including the children she signed away.

I feel like parts of this story is completely made up. She went too far with parts of this story. The main part I don't believe is that a boy she met 13 years ago and didn't even date would wait on her for all those years. Some of the abuse was also over the top. Sorry I dont buy it

I was really wanted to read this book seen someone else reading it on a vacation trip I took. I was looking everywhere to find where to buy it and found it here. I just picked up the book to read it even though I purchased in the beginning of December but have been to busy to read it. Let’s just say I barely started to read it and it’s falling about I’m so upset. I will be returning it.

Writing this review as a male is difficult - I don't want to be a part of the "silencing" men crowd; however, having read about twenty-five percent of this book, something feels "off" about its authenticity, paarticularly - as one reviewer writes - no major, credible outlets have done anywork to verify this story.

Very sad and emotional book. I enjoyed reading it but also had to read it in stages because of the horrible abuse and neglect. It's hard to digest that people can be that cruel. What bothered me the most is how the nurses and doctors didn't investigate because they all had suspicion that she was being abused.

I cant decide if this is real or a sensationalized piece of Islamaphobia. I researched it, and I did find a few news articles about it. But only a few, and the papers that wrote about it are tabloidy or have a definite extreme anti Islam slant and are known to report completely false info. No reputable news organization reported it, nor is there a wiki page about it. Thats suspicious, because in other "woman/women held captive" stories like Fritzl, Natasha Kamputsh or that one in Cleveland, OH they made international news for months, with every major and minor news organization writing about it, doing full magazine exposès and so on. Youd think that a story of a 15 year old being held against her will by an entire family with an entire community colluding would be all over every paper in the Western world. After all, that stuff sells.
At the same token, there is nothing debunking it either. Maybe because its too new, I dont know. It is also well known that in some (not all of course) interpretations of Islam, women are considered property and subservient to men. So its really hard to decide. It really does smack of sensationalized "Muslims are barbaric pigs" stuff, especially without any corroberation from a reputable source whatsoever.