Book Review - Tricks

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Brilliantly written with remarkable prose and a-little-too-good poetry (to believe it was written by the teens in the book, anyway!), Tricks is a dark book about the descent into prostitution as told by a varied group of young men and women who wind up on the streets of Las Vegas, with little to trade for their livlihoods other than their bodies.

Tricks exposes the dirty little secret that it isn't just bad kids from bad families who wind up on the streets. Sometimes it's good kids from good families, sometimes it's borderline kids who have a tragedy. Sometimes their parents push them out there, even if they don't want to be. Every kid's story is different, and heartbreaking, and very real.

I cried a couple of times during this book, and teared up at least a dozen times more. I got angry, and felt my heart break, and felt elation in some cases. You can't help but feel for these very poignant characters; they are so true to life, and so young that it just grabs you right around the heart.

This is a great read, but isn't for the faint of heart.

View all my reviews