Dirty Work

Hope Tasker, an upper-class girl from Britain, is sick of her petty friends and distracted parents. She just wants to be free, to have fun, to live a little. So when she meets a mysterious foreigner named Natasha, something tells her that this could be her way out of her mundane life.

Except Natasha is really Oksana, an impoverished girl from Russia, who was tricked into being sold into sexual slavery as a way to support her family. Oksana, far from being Hope’s way out, is instead a trap that lures Hope into an international prostitution ring. The two girls soon realize that if they are ever going to escape, they must learn to find enough common ground to work together—and to trust each other.

Told in authentic alternating narratives, Dirty Work will immediately draw readers in to the shocking world of human trafficking, and proves that the issue is not only prevalent in today’s world, but that it could be happening right under our very own noses.

Publishers Weekly

Two teenage girls from vastly different backgrounds alternately narrate this complex, gritty story about an international kidnapping and prostitution ring. Oksana, poor, cold and hungry, is easy prey at 13 when a man comes to her Russian village, promising a good job in London; raped and shamed, she tells her story from a vantage point of two years, in pained flashbacks. A chance meeting on the ferry from France to England acquaints her with Hope, a wealthy 15-year-old, who is returning from a vacation. As Hope and her dad disembark, she discovers Oksana hiding in their van, pleading for help; Hope knows her materialistic parents well enough not to alert them to Oksana's presence. But Hope will soon regret her decision: Natasha's pimp captures both girls, and Hope's nightmare begins. Suggestive rather than graphic, this story is heavy with grim details. The satisfying conclusion, with the protagonists reaching safety, doesn't dispel the realistically depressing atmosphere the British author has labored to build. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)

Julia Bell was a DJ before she became a writer. She worked as an editor and tutor at the University of East Anglia where she has also established Pen & Inc, a small press. Her first novel Massive was printed in several languages including French, Finnish, and Thai. She lives in London, England. Visit her Web site www.juliabell.net