| Title | : | Secret Slave: Kidnapped and abused for 13 years. This is my story of survival |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 |
| Publication | : | First published December 29, 2016 |
Growing up in a deeply troubled family, 15-year-old Anna felt lost and alone in the world. So when a friendly taxi driver befriended her, Anna welcomed the attention. She agreed to go home with him to meet his family. She wouldn't escape for over a decade.
Held captive by a sadistic paedophile, with the full acceptance of his family, Anna was subjected to despicable levels of sexual abuse and torture. The unrelenting violence and degradation resulted in numerous miscarriages, and the birth of four babies... each one stolen away from Anna at birth.
Her salvation arrived thirteen years too late, but despite her shattered mind and body, Anna finally managed to flee. This is her harrowing, yet uplifting story, of survival.
Secret Slave: Kidnapped and abused for 13 years. This is my story of survival Reviews
-
If this book does not make you angry you are not human.
Anna Ruston came from a background of severe abuse and neglect.
At 15 she naively accepted an invitation to come home with a Pakistani Malik, who then kept her prisoner for 13 years, and subjected her to a hellish life of daily beatings, torture, terror and rape. This was completely condoned and aided and abetted by his family, and particularly encouraged by his Malik's mother. Inserting objects into her, not letting her use a real toilet, terrorizing her by putting a cobra in her room of captivity (Anna had a phobia of snakes) ,, prostituting her to hundreds of Pakistani men, beating her into hospital, and removing from her four babies she had given birth to, nothing was too sadistic for Malik.
What made me most angry was that because it was an family of colour keeping her captivity the authorities would not help her for years and people were afraid to act to help her for fear of being accused of racism. The social worker who helped her escape lost her job as punishment for doing so. Today tens of thousands of British girls have been subjected to sexual slavery by Muslims in Britain in a rape jihad on an industrial scale This is not sexual, these are hate crimes against the British. Those who deny the reality of this are doing so for their own political agenda. -
I have read a few books similar to this one over the years, but this one has to be the most horrific I have ever read.
It was 'unputdownabe' as I just wanted the horror this girl was going through to stop.
The part which fruatrated me the most in this story, was how because the family involved were of a different religion/culture - professionals did not (or would not) question the abuse that was going on right infront of them. If a westernised family behaved this way, social services would be there the same day - but this behaviour was deemed 'culturally acceptable' so brushed off and 13 years of this girls life stolen from her. It shows how wrong the system has been in the UK for safeguarding concerns.
This woman had been in hospital - I have lost count how many times, broken arms, ribs, spine, she was anorexic, pelvic inflammatory disease and many miscarraiges - 4 births with no child to show for it. Dozens of health visitor appointments, and only one woman did her job right and she ended up being disciplined and sacked for overstepping professional boundaries. This book has really infuriated me for that reason, and is one of the worst cases of abuse I have ever read. I am just glad she is safe now, and hope she finds the courage to press charges towards these monsters. -
I could not put this book down. I have read many books on crime and human trafficking but this one haunts me.
If by chance the author were to read this - please consider filing charges against this filthy, vile, subhuman. He is never going to stop, he will always be treating someone like this. His pathetic family will always enable him and cover for him. He needs to be punished for life. He is beyond rehabilitation. -
What a whole lot of bull. I don't believe a word of this woman's story.
Attention - spoiler alert: She was taken to hospital countless times over the years, for all those horrific injuries inflicted on her, as as well as for giving birth four times - but she never turned to the hospital staff for help. Her kidnapper's family and her were visited and checked on regularly by health and social workers to check on the kids - but she never turned to them for help. The police(!!) came to the house several times, due to suspicions re drug use, or violence amongst family members and even stormed(!!) the house once - but she didn't turn to them for help. Then, after 13 years she finally comes up with an oh-so-clever plan for her escape, which isn't clever at all, but just stupid, complicated and unrealistic. No, she does NOT go to the police. And the "best" part of the story: she goes back to stay with her mom, who never wanted her, but then scares away her kidnapper and his family when they find her and try to get her back. Yeah, sure... and then!... wait for it! The doorbell rings and her sandpit sweetheart's there, like a prince in shining armour on his white horse, saying as much as "Oh, been looking for you. Here you are!" and whisking her away. And they lived happily ever after, with four kids of their own. Oh, and talking about kids! She gets the chance to get back in touch with those four kids conceived through rape during those horrible 13 years and who were then all sold off to Pakistani couples, but - nah! - why bother!
Sorry to say, but this book is a disgrace. It goes so much into detail and it's hard to believe anyone could make such horror up, and for the first 50 pages or so I was in shock and feeling so sorry for the woman, but that changed right from when she was taken to hospital for the first time and didn't ask for help. And then the story went on and got more and more rudiculous. -
A badly written dodgy story
I read an account of this tale in a newspaper. I was intrigued enough to download the book. However, I don't believe most of it. I think Anna went to this vile family of her own volition. She was a disturbed young girl, nobody wanted her, she was ripe to fall into this foul mans clutches. The real tragedy is the countless of vulnerable girls in society that have no one to turn to and end up in exploitative situations like Anna. -
This is a particularly hard one to rate because at the end of the day it is an unverified personal account by an anonymous author, and I couldn't help but question it in that light. Certainly the number of people complicit throughout the book seems suspicious, and the point where it emphasised that "people don't want to listen when you're accusing Asians because they don't want to seem racist" in the middle made me even more cautious of the author's motives, but at the end of the day maybe I am also reluctant to believe it and more keen to pick up on the inconsistencies because I do not want it to be true. I'd like to review it in a vacuum, but here is one case where authorial intent seems vital.
For much of the book, I felt that it was inappropriately descriptive, almost lurid as it described some of the rape and torture. If it was a cathartic "look what I survived" story then it's justified; if it was invented to entertain or enrage then it is awful.
These sorts of judgements pervade my view of the book throughout. However by the end I was desperately rooting for the protagonist to escape, so despite my concerns about veracity I definitely got sucked in.
At the end of the day, I don't think that this is something I'll be recommending, but it doesn't mean that it wasn't engaging. -
I really want to give this book a one star for the ending, but I cannot just ignore what happened to her throughout the 13 years of her captivity (if this is really what happened and not a made-up story or exaggerated) I just cannot believe she didn’t report on Malik or the whole family! I would have killed them all for doing this to me not only put them in jail! And the fact that she gave up on her first 4 children!!!!! And that she had the opportunity to get rid of all this catastrophic life and she didn’t!!!!
At last i just cannot ignore the torture she went through and that life in that time is completely different adding to it that she had no one to stand by or defend her... -
i feel so bad and being ashamed for you Miss anna , not all mans are same ! Peace from Pakistan . :/
-
I feel terrible giving this 2 stars, but I am simply not convinced this happened. It's not that I am in denial that horrific things happen. It is that some retellings in this book were logically inconsistent, bringing some parts of this story into question. I feel truly sorry for anyone who has had to suffer even a fraction of this. If the embellished/illogical parts were removed, what is left is horrific enough on its own. No need for the other parts to be added (if they were; could simply be my own misguided opinion).
I am still very interested in reading books about sex slavery/trafficking, if anyone has suggestions for a more credible source than this book. -
This memoir of a girl who was kidnapped by a Pakistani taxi driver at the age of 15 and then held for 13 years, with the full collusion of his family, really made my blood boil. If even a fraction of the events narrated by Anna were true, the whole family should be held to account for their cruelty and abuse - I just hope she gets the strength to report them to the Police as they deserve to be incarcerated for a very long time, having denied Anna her childhood and the key years of her life, with the clearly long-lasting effects of their brutality affecting her even now (and probably always will). It would be an offence to animals to call these people 'animals' as they are far worse than that! Disturbing and frustrating read - 8.5/10
-
Secret slave is a true life story I rated one star because how do you put a number of stars to rate someone's horrendous life,I don't read real life as a rule and I can't say why I did with this one but once I started I needed to know if she got away.
I had so many emotions such as heart break,sadness and anger whilst reading this book.
I can't believe how someone life can be so horrendous from day one and I can not believe that this poor girl/womens life was seen by many important people and nobody seen a thing, I can't recommend it either because I don't think anyone should feel the way I felt when reading this.
My god I don't know how anyone can survive what Anna did. -
I hate to say anything negative about a person whose life was a literal fucking hell, but the writing in this book was not good. And it really could have been. That said, I read it in less than 24 hours waiting and hoping and praying there would be a satisfying ending. There kind of is... but not enough. I honestly I wish I hadn't read this.
-
I’m surprised by the number of people this author fooled. This simply is a work of fiction! If you want to write fiction, that’s totally fine! But call it fiction, don’t lie!
The things this girl supposedly endured night after night would have left her so traumatized that she would most likely have a mental breakdown and not have the capacity to “bake with the other wives in the kitchen”.
And the romance with a former boyfriend? Give me a break—she went in a few dates with him at the age of 15 and she happened to have a picture of him in her almost non-existent belongings and she happened to find a lose floorboard? Puh-Leeze!
So every single adult in her life except her great grandma hated her?? Her dad beat her nightly and locked her in a coal shed?? A woman she trusted and stayed with had a husband that raped her at age 11 and the lady accepted it immediately and divorced him? -
This was really hard to read.. I can't believe this actually happens to people!
Anna was so brave and I'm glad she managed to escape in the end.. -
How can you put any rating on someone’s awful, real-life experience?
This is the most horrendous book I have ever read but I just could not stop reading. I just had to know it would get better. Incredibly graphic and not for the faint-hearted.
I don’t know if I could recommend it purely for how disturbing the experience is. I shed tears throughout and in the few breaks I took, all I thought about was Anna’s experience which made me feel sick to my stomach.
The Jamie part at the end- to me, seemed unrealistic (as many other reviews have stated) but I would LIKE to think that someone who had endured so much would get such a wonderful surprise, god knows she deserved it!
What is perhaps the most heartbreaking is the negligence of the NHS, social and law enforcement in this country. So devastating to see that given so many opportunities, nobody sought to intervene.
I doubt the real ‘Anna’ will ever read these reviews but if you happen to I truly hope you are some way to finding any sort of peace. -
This was honestly such a heartbreaking read. At times it was really hard to read the horrible things that she had to go through and it was honestly one of the worst cases of abuse I've ever read about.I couldn't put this book down and I finished it in one evening as I was eager to find out how she managed to survive such a awful ordeal. I felt this book was well written and made the reader feel as if she was directly speaking to you and she described how she was feeling throughout all her terrible experiences. She was truly so brave and I just hope she's in a much better place physically and mentally and that all her children are too.
-
It’s always difficult to write a review for a true life story such as this but here goes.
The story was really addictive and found it rather graphic at times. It’s a harrowing read that provokes many questions. In such true stories I always find myself asking ‘why’. Why not inform somebody sooner, why not try to escape sooner, why waste opportunities to have these people prosecuted but until you are in that situation I suppose you would not know how you would react. What a life this girl has lead! -
This book evoked so many emotions in me - anger, sympathy, sadness, depression and still more anger. What was done to this poor girl was beyond comprehension. This true story is very well written, but to be totally honest, it was repetitive with one abusive rape after another. After a while the story became so draining for me to read that I had to "push on" to finish it. I so wanted something awful to happen to her captors, but sadly it never did. There is a HEA of sorts if you stick it out.
-
this book was really hard to read but also a hard book to put down.
-
What a Read! … This Story is Full of Torture , Sexual abuse & Racism Definitely I don’t recommend it to Everyone!
Anna’s story has broke my Heart She was only 15 Years Old How can someone be this Cruel With no Mercy? Anna has been Locked As a Prisoner in a Room For 13 Years and no one had tried to Look for her Not even her parents because they never cared for her & Everything has been Taken Away from her , Her life & Even her own Name She didn’t had the Chance to Hug her Own Baby They took it Away from her to And given to Other Family ! And above all of This Anna still had a Hope that one Day she will be Out of This prison & She did Escaped! What hurts more that Its a True story & There is More girls other Than Anna in This Reality World That Are facing the Same issue & That Scares More , This book Took me Only Two days to Finish i still Don’t know How many stars shall i Give it but Its a True Story I don’t think I should Rate it -
Absolutely horrific.
A shocking account of Anna - kidnapped at 15 and held captive for many years by an evil man and his twisted family. The descriptions given in this book made me flinch - utterly, utterly awful. I hope that one day her main captor is bought to justice, I hope Anna finds the courage to put him away for a very long time. -
Despite the horrific course of events and appalling atrocities inflicted on this woman, the story lacked any real emotion for me and I did not enjoy it. I am not, however, denying that the production of this novel was a great step forward in the healing process for the author and appreciate her need to do so (in fact the author's afterword was one of the most moving parts of this reading experience for me). A difficult story to share and to read, no question and one that did stir up feelings of absolute dread, wondering how it was all going to end, for I have witnessed the uncompromising, maleficent nature of some of our mankind in real life. Bile-raising stuff. The hope is that novels like this one serve to instill courage in those who really have been coerced to silence, to stand up and speak out.
-
This is not a review of the book, as such.
It is a very upsetting story and providing it is all true you wonder how she survived, let alone get pregnant so many times.
What I found most disturbing was that Anna seemingly had quite a few times when she could have asked for help, especially when she was in the hospital (numerous times) alone with the staff.
I also found it unnerving that despite her many many visits to the hospital no flags were raised, surely they had her medical records or could see the obvious signs of abuse. So maybe the system let her down.
Not an enjoyable read and really giving it stars is a difficult decision. -
Interesting book .. to hear how this captivity was brought about . As I read more .. it became a repetition of violence and rape .. I
I ended up fast forwarding at least 1 hour ( audible)
to hurry along to the ending! -
I kept having to put this book down as I was getting so angry at the depravity & torture this poor child was put through
