Slave Girl

Abducted by Traffickers. Sold as a Sex Slave. This Is My True Story.

By: Sarah Forsyth, Tim Tate

Narrated by: Charlie Sanderson

Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Sarah Forsyth has spent most of her life in fear. After overcoming the hurt and heartbreak of a horrific childhood, Sarah managed to build a new life for herself as a nursery nurse.

Then, one day, she spotted a newspaper advert for a job in a crèche in Amsterdam. Excited by the prospect of a fresh start abroad, she eagerly signed up. But within minutes of stepping off the plane in Amsterdam her life began to fall apart....

There was no crèche and no job. That night, at just 19 years of age, her life - her real life, her life as Sarah Forsyth - ended. Fed cocaine and cannabis, and forced at gunpoint to work as a prostitute in the Red Light District of Amsterdam: Sarah was a victim of sex trafficking.

Sarah Forsyth is a survivor. This is her heartbreaking story.

©2013 Sarah Forsyth, Tim Tate (P)2019 Bonnier Books Ltd

eye opening!

so tragic! I read this book like I was watching a train wreck in slow motion.......horrific to think this is still going on in cities all over the world!

Us men have failed.....look at what we do with our freewill 💔

Is spectacularly told and read.

It's a harrowing tale but it's but is described inscribed perfectly and The reading by Charlie is the best I've ever heard.

As another survivor, I found this to be a brave and beautiful book!

In a world where there are still so many damaging stereotypes of prostituted women and people with addictions, this book is a lifeline. There are so many images of “party girl hookers” and “liberated sex workers,” yet still so few perspectives of people who have actually been trafficked, forced to take drugs, and hand over all the money to abusers. When this happened to me, in my youth, so many people didn’t believe that people can be forced that even when I got away, I didn’t have any way to process what happened or anyone to tell, and that is a very dark place. I can very much relate to going back to the life. There was no way I felt I would ever be able to relate to the world of school kids again, after jumping out of a moving car to escape a killer with a body in the car, and being raped on a daily basis. It took finding a book like this, and a group for survivors, to make sense of my experience and begin to figure out how my past groomed me for commercial sexual exploitation (incest, poverty, colonialism, etc.), what had happened (the hierarchy of prostitution, its relationship to patriarchy and domestic violence), and how I could still have goals for a meaningful future (obtain a GED and work toward a career helping others). Still, there were so few times that I came into contact with others who had existed in the same world. It was terribly isolating. and the drugs that were introduced so early would continue to call to me, promising not to have to think or feel about it, but I would have to go back to that life to get them. I guess you could say Forsyth could have written this book about me! This book will be very important to a new generation, where some forms of sex work are becoming so normalized that the devastating effects of an experience like this could be too easily swept under the rug. I hope that Sarah knows that it is normal that she got back in touch with the girl who lured her into her enslavement. I have done the same, because being a survivor is so, so isolating. I, honestly, see no complicity on either woman’s part. The trafficker is the only one in control in a situation like that. But, then, I don’t think women with Stockholm Syndrome, or who are under the gun, should be legally liable. I think whether or not you will “collude” has only to do with how afraid or how brainwashed you are, in almost all cases. I think we need to show much more understanding of those who have been trafficked. I hope my opinion doesn’t offend other survivors, and I respect their right to see it differently. I have continued to grow and heal, but this book is a break from the isolation, once again. I would love to see healing communities arise, in which there are support groups, shelters, political action groups, retreats, events, etc. where survivors of trafficking can form community, and healing bonds. There used to be something like this where I’m from…there are certainly enough of us! I felt the narration sounded a bit angry and depressed. Most of the women I know who have experienced things like this discuss them more matter of factly, with a bit of ferocity and attitude, when needed. Never do they sound pouty and melodramatic, like this reading. At least, not in my experience, and I’ve attended many speakers and known many women in the life. I loved the book, but thought they could have done better with the narration. What a brave soul, and an excellent book!

Excellent book!

Great narrator. My only regret was that the book was too short. I would have been nice to learn the fate of those horrible men.

unbelievable

this is a MUST read. how stupid that I did not know the scale of this horrible Industry.

Educational, but full of terror

What an exceptional work of the narrator! I could feel through the narrator that the author loathe men (us). Maybe the narrator does too, but I was mesmerized sometimes with the emotion coming through the reading.
Other than that, this book brings to light a lot I suffering. I myself have been to Amsterdam and skipped the red light streets. But maybe I did because I was just broke. At the time, I think that I believed that the girls working there were there because they wanted to. Before reading this book, I thought the city was just one of the best, most beautiful to visit. Now I’m just sad.
It is strange how we disbelieve some events due to how horrific they are. I feel this book made me more educated on the subject. And for that, I’m grateful.

Excellent. Moving story.

This book is well organized, with an excellent narrator. You think you are listening to the actual person. To me, this is a grown up version of the outstanding book, Violated, by Sarah Wilson. That dealt with the Rotherham Scandal. The ineptness and corruption of the Rotherham police were similar to the local Amsterdam police in this story.

This is so well done, that you actually feel Sarah Forsyth’s pain. I always associated the city Amsterdam, with Anne Frank. It was on my bucket list. No longer. How can such despicable practices be so widespread in that city. Apparently, once ensnared in human trafficking the girls are made so drug dependent, they will probably never be whole again. Those that do become whole, must have a great support system and be very strong willed.

Congratulations to the author for an outstanding book, and to an equally outstanding narrator.

Terrific!!

This book is a bit heartbreaking well it's definitely heartbreaking but worth listening to and it's so well written God bless her wherever she is

I am disgusted with myself

Years ago I walked through Amsterdams red light district just to see it. Did not participate. I was under the illusion that the girls were willingly working there. Doing what they decided to do then going home and living a life. I had no idea, how naive I was. After reading this I am so disgusted with myself for being so stupid.
Sarah I am so sorry for what you endured at the hands of those people, those cops and those johns. Bless you Sarah for surviving. The thought of all the girls still suffering at the hands of sick criminals makes me just want to give up on the human race.