highway to hell
Cover image courtesy of Meninadança
March 13, 2014

Book Review: Highway to Hell by Matt Roper

By Nate LaClaire

In Highway to Hell: The Road Where Childhoods Are Stolen, freelance journalist Matt Roper tells of the horrific child prostitution problem in Brazil, specifically along the 1,500-mile BR-116 corridor. The stories of numerous young girls – some as young as nine years old – who tragically sell their bodies to provide for their families are truly grotesque, but what is worse is that the stories told by Roper represent only a small fraction of the thousands of girls who are being exploited sexually in Brazil.

Highway to Hell tells of parents and grandparents who encourage or even force their daughters to stand by the roadside to sell themselves to long-haul truckers in order to provide for their families, of entire communities that depend on the income from child prostitution, of a government that tries to sweep the problem under the carpet, of girls who are so steeped in this culture that they don’t even recognize it as wrong, of pimps and brothels who exploit these girls (in some cases holding them hostage), and of the men who purchase these girls’ services. Praise the Lord, it also tells of the few but very important men and women who are working diligently to save these girls.

This book was eye-opening. I had never imagined that the child prostitution problem was so bad in Brazil, and while I know people whose parents did terrible things to them as children, I never could have imagined a parent or grandparent doing some of the things in this book.

I cried numerous times while reading Highway to Hell and I challenge you not to. There is a strand of hope running throughout the book, though: people such as Matt, Dean, Rita, Abigail, Fabio, and others who God is using to make a difference. You’ll cry about that as well. 🙂

I promise you that you will not enjoy this book. You will, however, be changed and that is a very good thing.