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Dirty Work (Paperback)

by Julia Bell (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 181 pages
  • Publisher: Young Picador (5 Jan 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330415212
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330415217
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.2 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 384,035 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
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.

About the Author
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.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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 (2)
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Pulls its punches, 23 Feb 2008
By tybalt-quin (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
Prostitution and sex trafficking may not appear to be appropriate subjects for Young Adult fiction, but when so many of the girls being tricked and sold into prostitution are under the age of 18, it's a subject that should resonate with teenage readers. For her willingness to tackle such a difficult subject matter, Julia Bell should be commended.

However ...

Whilst Bell does well in creating two distinct first person voices as she tells the story of Oksana (a Russian girl who's been sold into prostitution) and Hope (an English teenager who gets kidnapped by Oksana's coked-up trafficker), I felt that this is a book that very much pulls its punches. Oksana's voice is well-handled and Bell doesn't try to shield the reader from the horrors that have been perpetrated on her (including rape and other physical abuse) whilst at the same time never descending to gratuitous description. I liked the way in which Bell built up a credible picture of the Russia that Oksana's grown up with and in particular, its crushing economic deprivation. I was interested in her relationship with Adik, a boy who like her, dreams of a life in the West and who buys into the promises made by flash-car driving Tommy and I could believe in her attitude towards her brother Viktor and her widowered father.

By contrast, Bell is curiously protective of Hope, the spoilt, sometimes dense and most definitely whiny, English girl. I had big problems in buying into the reason why Zergei would kidnap her in the first place as it seemed more of a contrivance to bring her into the plot, but Bell makes it even more difficult to believe in by shielding her all the time. Given that we're shown the ruthlessness of the people responsible for trafficking these girls, I didn't understand why they were so reticient to either put Hope to "work" or to otherwise mistreat her. Bell seems to be suggesting that Hope's ethnicity makes the Turkish brothel owner reluctant to engage with her beyond a lame ransom claim towards the end of the book. Consequently, any tension that may exist when we see Hope being made to try on cheap lingerie or threatened is too hollow to be believed. I will also admit that the 'poor little rich girl' set up that Bell creates for Hope made it difficult for me to sympathise with her as her biggest complaints seemed to be that her dad worked too much and her mum was too interested in material possessions. When you contrast this with the genuine deprivations that Oksana has suffered, you do wish that Hope would suffer more of a reality check.

The ending to the book is very much a soft soap. The fact that there is a 'sympathetic' Turkish boy who wants no part of his uncle's gang operation stretches credibility too thinly and the build-up to the book's denouement rests on contrivance more than it does on character initiative. I questioned whether anyone in London living near a business identified as a "massage parlour" would really be ignorant as to what goes on inside and Bell's open-ending made me wonder if Hope had actually learnt anything from her experience or grown emotionally.

To be fair, I think that writing about this subject-matter is a difficult tightrope to navigate, particularly for a YA audience. However, the message I took away from it was that forced prostitution and sex trafficking only happens to girls from poor countries, which I found distasteful and incredibly misleading.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Dirty Work, 1 Dec 2007
By Stampy (England) - See all my reviews
Teenager Hope runs into a young mysterious Oksana who has had a difficult past and is eager to get away from reality. These two girls are thrown together and now they must rely on each other to get away from the scary reality they find themselves trapped in.

This story focuses upon many interesting issues such as fear, control, power and society.

The story is also told from tow different girls, which brings the story to life in a shocking way.

Its very intriguing how the men in this story are very dominant and by stereotyping males as gangsters and sex driven people, Julia Bell is able to release the fear of the two girls through these male characters, making it a very tense but absorbing read.

Having these issues encoded in the book made me wonder if Bell has chosen to focus on current issues which are so regularly focused upon in the media today, such as underage sex, prostitution, robbery, drugs and killings.

Where as the story is quite short it is still strong to absorb the issues necessary.

However the characters aren't focused upon enough to feel a strong enough emotion. The writing at the beginning is a bit all over and jumpy and realism is also an issue in regards to the ending.

Its an interesting read regardless as it focuses strongly on everyday issues.

7/10
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 22 Jan 2008
By TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
Hope never thinks anything interesting will happen in her life. She seems to be on the fast track to nowhere, and her parents despair of ever understanding her.

She is jolted out of her quiet and idyllic life when she encounters Oksana, a Russian girl who has been sold as a sex slave. Hope's tentative friendship with Oksana leads to her own kidnapping by the owner Oksana is running from. These girls have only each other, and they will have to overcome their bitterness and prejudice and work together to escape from their captors.

But will it be too late?

DIRTY WORK is a riveting and captivating read. The pages go by quickly, and Ms. Bell keenly builds suspense throughout the entire book by interspersing flashbacks of Oksana's past in between telling the two girls' predicament. Without being inappropriate or too mature for teens, DIRTY WORK easily conveys the horrors of human trafficking and how very easy it is to get caught up in it.

This terrifying, entrancing novel will certainly grab your attention, and won't let go until long after the book is finished.

Reviewed by: The Compulsive Reader
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