One of the nation’s largest independent bookstores just published a great review of The Black Lens. The Book Loft featured a review from Miriam Kahn, a librarian, historian and writer for The Columbus Dispatch newspaper:
“It could happen in your neighborhood, to your neighbor or child, to a friend or someone down on their luck. Sex trafficking or human trafficking, formerly called prostitution, is one of the rampant crimes and addictions in America and across the globe. This is a crime that pulls in the unsuspecting and traps them in a never ending cycle of degradation, abuse, crime, drugs, and addiction. There’s nothing pretty or sexy about this crime.
After many years of research and interviewing, Stollar peels back the curtain on prostitution in America. Although The Black Lens is fiction, it’s pretty close to the truth and it’s a gut wrenching book to read.
Stollar writes about sex trafficking in small town Oregon. The main characters are a journalist, who follows a lead, two sisters, Zoey and Camille James who are unwittingly forced into prostitution. The head pimp addicts the women he enslaves to meth. Poor, mentally deficient, hopeless, and/or without good role models, the women are forced into sex working. Descriptions are graphic and corruption and coercion is found at all levels of the community, where you’d least expect it. Classmates, supervisors, police, and authority figures identify Zoey, Camille, and others. Blackmail and drugs make it impossible for the girls to break out of the cycle of sexual abuse and addiction without serious help from the outside.
Stollar paints a sad picture of society that screams for a solution and an end to human trafficking. Read it and weep for the poor women trapped in a terrible situation. Everyone should read this book.”
You can now get a copy of The Black Lens at The Book Loft. Located in the heart of historic German Village, The Book Loft boasts 32 rooms of bargain books in pre-Civil War era buildings that were once home to general stores, a saloon and even a nickelodeon cinema.
To read more reviews of The Black Lens or order a copy, please go to Amazon.