By Kevin Myers | Friday, October 24, 2014 Off the Shelf
I didn’t know anything about Tricks, by Ellen Hopkins, when I picked it up in 2009. I just thought the cover was interesting. Then, I read the blurb on the cover jacket and thought, “Whoa. This sounds intense.” And my instincts were right. This book made me angry. I wanted to do something to help the protagonists, even when they were doing horrible things to survive. I wanted to save them from themselves, to protect them, to tell them they’re worth everything in the world and to hug them until they believe it. Wait a minute, gang. I’m way ahead of myself here.
Told in blank verses of poetry, Tricks is laid out in stanzas on the pages, and the poems contain other poems within them (you’ll see what I mean). The fictional story that unfolds tells of five young people who, through various circumstances, end up surviving in Las Vegas as underage prostitutes, “turning tricks” to survive the rotten hands dealt them by their families and lives. Eden, Seth, Whitney, Ginger, and Cody come from families of various economic classes, religious upbringings, and sexual identities. As they all begin to experience what loves means to them, their young lives take turns both unfortunate and misguided. You’ll see how it’s very possible that young people end up in bad situations that no one ever intends or believes will happen to them. And it’s not a life of high-priced call girls and boys. It’s grotesque and horrifying. It’s the kind of stuff no one should ever have to deal with. - More
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