Deliver Me From Evil by Kathi Macias

Deliver Me from Evil introduces readers to Mara, an eighteen-year-old girl who has been enslaved for nearly ten years, having been sold by her parents in Mexico and then smuggled across the border into San Diego where she was forced into sexual slavery. Readers will also meet 18-year-old, Bible-college-bound Jonathan and his 16-year-old sister, Leah, whose paths cross Mara’s and who become involved in her dramatic rescue. Interwoven between the stories of Mara, Jonathan, and Leah is the heartbreaking story of another young woman in captivity in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, whose past life mysteriously connects to the young people in San Diego. (from Goodreads)

The subject matter in this book is not an easy read at all. It’s heart breaking in moments and you can most certainly feel the despair and helplessness these girls feel and you just want to reach out and save them from this miserable horrible life. It’s hard to believe Mara still manages to survive this ordeal and manages her sanity at the same time. She’s unbelievably strong and I greatly admire her as a character. She’s got a huge amount of strength to be able to put up with this kind of life.

However, the story that really got to me was the one with Chanthra and Lawan. As the book progresses, her story gets bleak, and gets bleaker each time she appears. It was difficult to read yet it shows what millions of people are enduring as a result of sexual slavery, and are not fortunate enough to get out of this horrible vicious cycle. I liked the relationship they had and thought it was interesting of the author to tie both these girls to another family in the US. It wasn’t obvious at first, and when the reader understands, it makes their story even more tragic.

The plot was good, however what bugged me was the ending. I do realize it is a Christian Fiction novel, so obviously it’s going to be different from other fiction novels I have read. Yet I just can’t believe the ending. It just did not seem realistic to me. The idea of the bad guys not even doing anything even at gunpoint is just not possible. They’re criminals. I’m sure they can overtake a couple of teenagers as well despite a gun being held by one of them. The ending just seemed way too good to be true in my opinion.

Because I just could not accept this ending, it made a huge impact on my opinion of the book. Had the book ended different (ohhh I don’t know? maybe at least give Jefe a big punch to the head???) then I would have given this book a much better grade. Otherwise, I just felt disappointed with it.

Despite my dissatisfaction with the ending, I still liked the book. This is Christian Fiction so there are a lot of references to God. I can’t say I recommend this to everyone, but I do think it should be given a read through. Slavery, in all kinds of forms does still exist.

I give it a 5 out of 10.