A World Like This is the story of Brandy, a

seventeen-year-old ex-con who wants to

become simply ordinary. In a struggle mat

Is both poignagtand brave, she tries to

become the kind of person wno can find

love and Keep it in a world dead set

against her.

After her release from Bullwood Hall, a

prtson for minors Brandy is caught n a

clash between the behavior she learned

to help net survive "inside" and me

behavior demanded of ner By life on the

outside. She soon discovers that her

tougn, streetwise ways jeopardize her bid

for free(tom n a world that pretends to De

benign but is, in many ways. as sinister as

me one she knew behind bars.

As Brandy struggles with her new

freedom she is helped by the lessons she

learned from ner romantic relanonsnl 9

wire Roanna Reardon a pnson guard at

Butlwooo Hall wno is ostensibly on me

side of the law. Brandy s expenence with

Reardon helps her evaluate me nazy line

between right and wrong as she pits her-

self against the traps of class, gender, and

c rcumstance waiting to ambush in

her pursuit of an ordinary life

A World Like This is a profound and

mowng nove Helen Benedict does not

shirk the responsibilities of writing in a

dangerous and untamaBle t me She

deft y creates a modernworld el fractured

tenderness and tougnness, exposing me

hypocrisy of hope, yet never forgetting tne

human capacity for caring. Brandy is a

nero for an empty world. A World Like This

is an important literary debut .