(release date: August 25th)
"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?"
Hopkins says in an author's note at the end of the book that the average age of a prostitute in the US is 12 years old - 12 years old! That statistic drew her into this story and this book, and she does a hauntingly poignant job bringing the issue to light.
The five main characters - Eden is a preacher's daughter whose parents send her to a home for troubled teens, Seth is having trouble dealing with his mother's death and his father's distance (especially because he doesn't feel he can tell his father that he's gay), Whitney, feeling ignored and living in the shadow of her sister finds affection wherever she can, Ginger feels betrayed by her mother who's a prostitute, and Cody goes from all-American kid to the one who has to hold his family together when his step-father gets sick and his brother starts acting out. All five of them have different circumstances that lead them to the same horrific place - simple survival is their motivation for selling sex for money.
Despite the fact that the story is told from the point of view of five different characters, they became so real to me I sobbed for them. Hopkins' has a brilliance when it comes to creating real characters and getting inside the minds of real teens. At over 600 pages, I couldn't put the book down. I devoured it in only a few short hours. Fans of Ellen Hopkins' earlier books will love Tricks as much if not more. She's realistic - no sugar coating the subject matter, and she weaves the stories of five total strangers together - albeit slowly at first - and creates a truly heartbreaking look at what survival can mean to ordinary teens.
I loved it - as I love all her books - it takes someone truly gifted and talented to create such a tapestry of human emotion and do it in-verse. So...since I loved it, I have to share.
Contest!
I have an extra ARC of Tricks by Ellen Hopkins to give away. You want it? Here's what you have to do -
Comment with your contact info to enter
+1 for new followers
+2 for current followers
+2 for linking back/posting about this contest
+2 for answering the question, "What's the one book that moved you the most and why?"
+3 for referring someone to the contest
+3 for being the person referred
Be sure to tell me specifics otherwise I won't know how to tally up the points! Contest is open to anyone and it ends 8/5.She's the bestselling living poet in the country - Visit Ellen Hopkins' myspace page or her website.