Tricks

Ellen Hopkins

Aug 2009 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love in this #1 New York Times bestselling novel from Ellen Hopkins.

When all choice is taken from you, life becomes a game of survival.

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?”

A brilliant achievement from New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins—who has been called “the bestselling living poet in the country” by Mediabistro.com—Tricks is a book that turns you on and repels you at the same time. Just like so much of life.

Ratings and reviews

Tricks is a story of love - love that is misguided, love that is misinterpreted, love that goes wrong. In her signature beautiful poetic writing style, Ellen Hopkins takes the reader on a journey that interweaves the lives of five teenagers who are desperate to be loved and are trying to figure out what saying “I love you” really means. Let me introduce you to our cast of characters: Eden, the daughter of a born-again minister in Idaho, who falls for an older boy and has to deal with the consequences of misbehaving in an ultra-religious family. Seth, a gay teen in Indiana, who is struggling with the loss of his mother and the fear of showing his real self to his homophobic father. Whitney, a girl who has always felt that her mother loved her sister more, and is desperate to be loved in the way she feels she deserves. Ginger, the oldest daughter of a prostitute, who is dealing with raising her five siblings and what happens when her mother’s life leeches into her own. Cody, a teen living in a happy, supportive family in Las Vegas - until everything starts to fall apart. Some of these teens are living in awful situations, some are very well off, but all of them are struggling with the idea of love - familial love, romantic love, even love of themselves. Throughout Tricks, the reader follows these five teens as they make different decisions in the name of love, and land themselves on a path they never imagined could happen to them. Ellen Hopkins tells their stories beautifully, and interweaves the stories of these teens who just need someone to care.

I'm not a big fan of reading, but Ellen has books that actually capture the reader. I could read her books all day ❤📚

Ellen makes the best books ever. Real life that people never want to discuss but it's the cruel reality of the world.

About the author

Ellen Hopkins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous young adult novels, as well as the adult novels such as Triangles, Collateral, and Love Lies Beneath. She lives with her family in Carson City, Nevada, where she has founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit youth housing and resource initiative. Follow her on Twitter at @EllenHopkinsLit.