I didn’t know what this was about when I first added to my shelf. I struggled to get through it with the tough subject matter but found it beautifully written with realistic characters and dialogue.

This harrowing story delivers a dose of sobering reality as it delves into the dark world of sex trafficking. The lives of two young girls become intertwined, despite living worlds apart. *Trigger warning: there are some difficult scenes and sensitive topics in the book, but the reality is that they expose the dark truth that lies behind this narrative.

Sammy and Nico are teen girls, strong and mature beyond their years. Their horrible lives lead them to even worse fates as they try to get through their adolescence. While the characters really found their way into my heart, I felt the writing was boring and slow. It was not a joy to read. Part of that is definitely because of the subject matter. However, it could be done in a much more interesting way. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for this advanced copy. I wish I had liked it more.

This book is tough to review. A vivid novel about two teenage girls, one from middle-class Ireland and the other from a poor village in Moldova, fall prey to traffickers and end up sharing a room in a brothel. It's not a fun read, though it is a fast one, and beautifully written—at times too beautifully. Having Sammy and Nico each muse upon clouds and floating in similar terms, despite their radical differences in education and experience, allowed the symbolism to overrun each character's distinctive voice and viewpoint.

I also felt that too much time was spent on Sammy's wanderings in the beginning. I understand why it was done, for the sake of giving equal weight to how she ended up being trafficked alongside Nico's story, but on occasion it felt like treading water. Maybe the ping-ponging back and forth between Sammy and Nico in the beginning could have been handled more fluidly. Those are just quibbles, though, and I'm bringing them up only to explain why I'm giving this four stars rather than five. Overall, it's a moving book, one that I'm sure will stay with me.

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperVia, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Cloud Girls is about two girls who do what is expected of them. Nico is fifteen and is sold to a rich man by her father. Sammy is fifteen and wants to earn money by having sex with men. Sammy wanted this lifestyle. She chose to have sex with men in order to get away from home. Nico is a scared girl who had aspirations of becoming a teacher. Nico didn’t choose this lifestyle. Nico was once full of life. Sammy has no regard for her own safety. Sammy’s self destructive abusing her body with cuts and alcohol. The difference between these two girls is one chose this life while the other didn’t. Lisa Harding is here to show the reader how each girl handles this lifestyle.
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I seem to struggle with Lisa Harding’s writing style and voice. I thought it was a one time occurrence so I requested another book from Netgalley and I’m having the same issue as before. I can’t seem to find that hook or connection. I can handle the subject matter, it’s the approach and technique that she uses that loses my interest. I can’t even get off the ground with this one.
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The story alternates between Sammy and Nico’s perspective. Each character is a reflection into the childhood they left behind. Both girls take this opportunity to remember the family and friends they had in another life.
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Cloud Girls takes place in two different areas. The time period is hard to pinpoint. It’s hard to fathom that this continues to take place and people continue to turn a blind eye.
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I know Lisa Harding wrote a thought provoking story about these young girls, but I couldn’t for the life of me find anything interesting about these girls lives. The situation was horrific. The way Lisa Harding described the lifestyle was unimaginable. The writing held a dramatic edge to it. Lisa Harding has an interesting writing voice. I’m not accustomed to the way she pens her words. Very little makes sense. I know it’s because of Sammy’s character being under the influence most of the time. The story is difficult to read with its riddles and metaphors. The language is choppy as if Lisa was trying to write it the way as if they were speaking to her and she dictating each word.
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After 2012 Cloud Girls exploded onto these pages when Lisa Harding could no longer ignore the voices of these girls’ experiences. Lisa created Sammy and Nico’s childhood story using real life circumstances.
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I appreciate the attempt to bring awareness of this global sex trade business. However, the way the story was told regarding these two girls was overbearing. I felt like I was trying to unlock a riddle. Each girls voice was heavily ladled with so much confusion.
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I’m pleased that Lisa Harding chose not to include the nitty gritty details of the types of sex acts performed. This was not about the graphic sex. This was about the bonding between Sammy and Nico and how they held each other up eventhough they were there under different circumstances.

Lisa Harding has done what seems impossible - getting into the minds of two young girls being held as sex slaves. Sammy and Nico come from two different countries but they end up together in a house where there is no escape. They are fed drugs and taken out nightly, where they are raped. We all know about it, but LH gives us a picture of what these girls feel and think.

Reading about the tremendous horrors endured by girls, hardly older than children, is chilling. With global migration on the rise, more girls are lost to predators who promise them money, jobs, and safety in places that seem like paradise. Pedophiles are everywhere in the world, and this novel gives a close-up view of the world of children whose brains cannot fully cope with the torture they endure from their keepers and the men who rape them.

I am grateful that LH spent so much time researching and learning about the tragedy of sex trafficking. Everyone should read this novel. Everyone needs to know what is happening every minute of every day worldwide.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Gut wrenching, heartbreaking, unimaginably difficult to read, Cloud Girls follows two 12 year old girls as they are helplessly thrown into the dark world of sex trafficking. I struggled through this book. It’s too raw, too real, too heartbreaking and too true. It made me want to hug my daughter close. The friendships built are the redeeming factor of their book, but goodness gracious, this is a heavy one. Proceed with extreme caution. Not for sensitive eyes as it comes with about 30 trigger warnings.

A hard , but brilliant read. Lisa Harding is an excellent writer and this is one of heartbreaking best

Excellent novel about two troubled young women who end up being trafficked. Disturbing to read, but very well written. Told from Sammy and Nico's alternating POV's, it is a gritty story about friendship, dreaming, and the sadness of being failed by their parents.

Thank you Netgalley and HarperVia for the ARC!

This is the most disturbing book I have ever read, and I mean that in the best possible way! To read a "first hand" account of what young girls go through at the hands of sex traffickers - it is hard to comprehend coming from a secure and loving childhood. That any child would have to experience repeated violations in such horrific settings - it presses upon me the importance of getting involved and doing what I can to make a difference to help put a stop to these atrocities.

Cloud Girls was a tough book to read at times, reminding me of the trauma from another similar book, A Little Life. I really liked the setting, and the grittiness of the two girls getting by in the brothel. It was sad but beautifully written.

5 stars.*

I have to confess I am giving this book 5 stars with a thousand caveats and as much of a trigger warning as I can possibly give. I loved the writing of this book, and I am split in a million shards by the painful reality of the tale of the Cloud Girls.

Lisa Harding researched interviews of women who survived being sex trafficked and pulled excerpts of those to create this work of fiction.

Told in alternating chapters, we meet Sammy, a 15-year-old Irish girl whose alcoholic, abusive mother and absent father parent her in such a way that her self-harm and lack of guidance led her to a life of sex work and painful decision-making; and Nico, an even younger girl whose poor Moldovan (?? my guess) father sells her to a man to be her husband, but who promptly trafficks her. They wind up roommates in a Dublin townhome/brothel where they survive on abuse, drugs, alcohol, and dreaming of the shapes in the clouds.

This story will stick with me. Maybe forever. I kind of hated this book. But it is important.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Cloud Girls follows two young women from troubled lives against a backdrop of the dark realities of human trafficking. I stopped around 50%; I think this book just wasn't for me. The characters and plot didn't really grip me, but other people will likely enjoy this work.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of Cloud Girls from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Cloud Girls by Lisa Harding is about friendship and how everyone no matter who you are grows from their friends. This book shows how you can redeem yourself and hope in the world by finding a kindred soul to be friends with. I find a few moments in the book to be a little blah but for the most part. The story was very relatable and keep me interested until the very end.

Cloud Girls by Lisa Harding… I’m so excited that I received this one to review from @netgalley. It definitely has trigger warnings… sexual trafficking of underage girls is a big one. It was so well written and told such a necessary story. Two girls from completely different countries and backgrounds, for different reasons, end up the victims of sex trafficking. It was horrifying to read about these children being trafficked to grown men who don’t care. They don’t help them. They use them instead. The ending was a little vague, but I think it was on purpose. I loved this story. It helps get the word out about sex trafficking to a larger audience. Definitely recommend!

Cloud Girls is a devastating story told with skill and compassion, in luminous prose and at a perfectly pitched pace. Nico is a young girl from Moldova, a child whose family is poor and desperate enough to give her away for cash. Sammy is from a troubled home in Dublin, Ireland, a situation which has driven her to make poor choices and ultimately a decision which will change the direction of her life in a very dangerous way.Both girls get shuffled into the world of sex trafficking, their stories unfolding in alternate chapters until they end up as roommates and find in each other a measure of understanding and strength along with glimmers of hope. The story is not graphic, but the images it evokes of depravity, entitlement, neglect and abuse, and of all the ways these girls were failed by their parents and society is haunting. An important story beautifully told.

In a small village in Europe, Nico is a child, playing with her friend and brother in the trees near their house. Their days are filled with school, games, and swimming. Nico’s family is poor, and when she is promised off to be married it seems to be her ticket out of her community and into something better (even though she is still a child and younger than the other brides). It seems that her life is about to begin.

Sammy is a teenager in a challenging home. She’d rather be anywhere else. One night after staying out too late she makes a decision that changes the direction of her life. Her choices and the terrible actions of others led her down a path that she never would have chosen. Fate throws her together with Nico and the two will face an uncertain future together.

Cloud Girls was an amazing story of the impact of broken family support and a society that doesn’t always see or support actions taken against women. Throughout the story there were family members and friends who should have supported the girls but failed to do so. Both were let down by a society that didn’t prioritize their individuality and safety. The book was haunting and beautifully written. At the end (which I won’t give away), as well as some of the scenes throughout the book really stay with you after the book is over. An easy 5 stars from me—I really enjoyed this meaningful and heart wrenching read.

Sammy and Nico are teenagers in different parts of the world living in dire circumstances and are washed into sex trafficking. This is a brutal story based on a very real situation. There is hope and there is grit when the two young women come together. This story isn't for the faint of heart but I hope that it helps advocate for this cause - a very real issue that very little is said about in main stream media. #HarperVia

A fictional story about Sammy and Nico who are pushed into the international and domestic sex traffic world. This was a well written story that gives some insight to the dangers and abuse the 2 girls encounter. The story is about a hard subject that most people would not want to read or hear about. The author write the story in brutal honest way I feel. I would recommend this book and thanks to Lisa Harding for putting this story out for others to read..

While one of the toughest and darkest books I have ever read, I was surprised at how quickly I got through it. I couldn’t put it down and was engrossed in the storyline, which is a testament to how exceptionally well the author carefully handled these realities for millions of children.

I really appreciated the parallel stories of Nico and Sammy; it shed an incredibly important light on domestic trafficking (I feel most of the discourse solely focuses on international, but it is crucial to remember that sex trafficking happens here and everywhere, in our home countries, in our backyards) while also providing some lightness in the form of Nico and Sammy’s convergence and budding friendship.

The writing is beyond amazing and I was really stunned by how well the author tells these stories so wholly and authentically, while not providing any graphic details that too often read as trauma porn. Harding tells the realities of these children but it is so thoughtfully and carefully written and really emphasizes the nuances that come with these complex experiences of severe trauma and degradation.

I know a lot people will and have said this is too depressing of a read and on some levels I might agree, but it also sheds light on something not many people talk or think about often. It gives a voice to so many invisible and stolen children who often never get to tell their stories due to the invisibility of this trade (so important!!!!)

CW: domestic/international sex trafficking (not graphic but the implied images will stay with you), child abuse, substance abuse, physical/emotional/mental abuse

Thank you HarperVia and netgalley for this ARC!!