This is a shocking novel but one which provides a 14+ teenager an important insight into a world they should steer clear of as they grow up. The world of prostitution exists and will always exist so better to read about it, know of its existence, than get involved in it. Together two teenagers with little in common become great friends and help each other, in the most extraordinary of ways to find a means of escape from the hellhole that one of them is in. Compelling and well written and certainly one that you should not judge the book by its cover.
Hope's mum doesn't get her. In fact, Hope knows that as far as her preoccupied parents are concerned, she's hopeless. She may be spoilt - but money doesn't buy happiness. Oksana doesn't even have a mum. And her dad and brother are miles away, left behind in Russia. She thought Europe would offer a better life - instead, bought and sold into prostitution, she feels dirty and used. Then, Oksana and Hope are thrown together in the most terrifying circumstances imaginable. Their only real chance of escape lies with each other, but how do two teenagers with so little in common find the way...? This is a tense, shocking novel - with a hint of hope.
Julia Bell is a novelist and lecturer on the MA Creative Writing course at Birkbeck, University College London. Her first novel, MASSIVE, was published by Young Picador to critical acclaim. DIRTY WORK is her second novel. She is also the co-editor of the bestselling Creative Writing Coursebook (Macmillan) written while she was teaching at the University of East Anglia. Julia lives in London and is working on her third novel.
