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Like all of the other novels written by the talented Ellen Hopkins, Tricks is an amazing novel written in verse.  Tricks was released in August 2009, and right away it gained a lot of exposure.   The book may be very controversial to some because of it’s subject content.

However,a lot of people can relate to the book in some way.  They either have been down the road as one of the characters, or know that someone that has. 

In Tricks, you meet five different characters,all in different places with different stories.  First there is Eden.  Eden’s background was that she came from a family of faith.   They went to Church every Sunday and lived life following the rules of their faith.  Eden fell in love and her family sent her away because they thought falling in love was an abomination for Eden.  While she was in the institution of sorts, being purged of her sins, she started turning tricks to escape.  Did the tricks really help her get anywhere? 

Then there was Seth, a young man just trying to find acceptance (mainly from his father) in his sexuality.  When his father found out that he was gay, he was kicked out, and not given a dime to help him make it through the day.  Luckily he found an older man looking for some ‘arm candy’, who gave him a place to stay and food on the table as long as Seth followed a few conditions.  After he got kicked out by his ‘keeper’, he had hoped to find forgiveness from his father, and acceptance- of which he found neither.  The sad part is he did not find love from his father after all.  Isn’t a father supposed to love his son no matter what? 

Next in the story, Whitney was introduced.  Whitney was a girl who was always following her sisters shadow.  Her mother loved her older sister more, so she felt left out a lot. She fell in love with someone she thought was a great catch, until he left her after they slept together.  She wound up following an older guy to Vegas and turning tricks to find the next buzz.  She did not want to try the big H (heroin) because she knew she would become addicted, and that is just what happened.  She got so addicted that she almost died near the end. 

Ginger’s story is the one I feel the most for, the one I find most heart touching.  Ginger lived with her grandmother (called Gram), brothers and sisters, and mother (who rarely was there).  She was raped more than once, and surely traumatized from those events.  Ginger found love in Alex (perhaps because they share tragic events from their past), but she never thought she would fall for someone like Alex because she never thought she could like girls.  Ginger and Alex ran away together to Vegas (where all stories eventually collide) and find themselves in the Escort business, turning tricks. 

Finally, there is Cody.  You would not suspect a character like Cody would be in a book about turning tricks, but nevertheless he fits in the story pretty well.  Cody drank, did some drugs and got hooked on gambling, Internet gambling mainly.  The gambling got it’s worst when his step-father died.  They were running out of money, so Cody tried his hardest to win big and pay off some of the bills that were piling up.  He decided that the gambling was not cutting it, so he joined the escort business, not knowing that he would have to sleep with men.  However disgusted he was, he knew he had to do it to pay off the bills, and to keep his families house theirs.  

Each of the five characters stories are compelling and heart touching.  Ellen Hopkins writes them in such a way that you pulled in instantly.  I am sure if you read this novel, or any of her others you’ll be amazed and hooked!  

If you haven’t read Tricks yet, what are you waiting for?