Review: Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Publication Date: 8-25-2009

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages: 640

Format: Hardcover

Source: Purchased

Challenge: N/A

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Goodreads Summary:

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching...for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don't expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words "I love you" are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story -- a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, "Can I ever feel okay about myself?"

 

Tricks was just as powerful as each one of Ellen Hopkins’ books.  It is a story of love, loss, and being lost in order to discover where you are supposed to be.  Each of these five teenagers has a story that needs to be told.  They are all looking for love from the most unlikely places, but they don’t know where to find it.

All the teenagers in this novel are being very promiscuous.  As the title insinuates, they are looking for love in all the wrong places by being a part of prostitution.  Each teen ended up here from a completely different path.  Neither took the same way down, but they all ended up in the same situation.  I don’t want to say too much about these teens to give away their situations and their stories.  Their stories are something that you need to read for yourself.  You need to experience the emotions.

  

Hopkins never fails to hit me on an emotional level.  I was depressed while reading this novel.  I was heartbroken for the situations these teens were in.  I was disgusted when I realized that there are thousands of people who likely go through these situations every day.  This was more than just a book to me; it hit me hard as all of her books do.  Great job Ellen for telling the stories that need to be told, but are so hard to tell!