Tricks

By: Ellen Hopkins

Narrated by: Laura Flanagan, Jeremy Guskin, Cassandra Campbell, J. Paul Boehmer

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 best-selling author Ellen Hopkins, who has been called "the best-selling 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.

©2009 Ellen Hopkins (P)2009 HighBridge Company

Outstanding and Scary

This book is excellent. It following the path of teenagers who are rejected, feel unwanted, or trapped, and how their choices result in drugs, death, and even prostitution. The key emphasis is that the teenagers and the parents for a variety of reasons are not communicating. That means that they are not talking AND listening to each other. The result is that a schism develops and widens. This is NOT a parenting book. Rather it is a book that lets you, as the observer, watch and become scared as you want to save these kids from their path of destructiveness only to realize that the saving needed to start before they ever left home. I believe that it is a very good book for teenagers and parents. However, there are multiple sexual descriptions that may not be appropriate for the preteen or the sexually naive teenager.

5 people found this helpful

Very raw.

I really enjoyed the realism in the stories. This isn't a feel good book, it's an eye opening book.

3 people found this helpful

I very much enjoyed

This was a very addictive book I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to any body.

1 person found this helpful

Dark and depressing

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who likes sad and debauched stories

What was most disappointing about Ellen Hopkins’s story?

I was hoping for the story to turn around and get more positive so I listened for a while til I couldnt take it anymore, making me ill

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Illness, darkness. I guess the title Tricks was the clue.

Any additional comments?

It might actually be a good wake up call to some teens to be careful and that the world does have alot of treachery in it.

2 people found this helpful

Great Book

I really enjoyed this book. It "flows" very well from one character to another. (It's not confusing) It's a very vividly written book, as I was listening to it, I could actually picture, in my minds eye, different "scenes" in each person's life. It's very raw and there is so very much truth behind some very "taboo" topics, even in 2019. I am excited to listen to Traffic and find out how each person's life changed through so much tragedy. I will absolutely be referring this book to others, and I will definitely be listening to this one again! (I can tell that there is so much more, to hear(read) that I may have "missed"!
Fantastic Book. Fantastic Author

Amazing book

Ellen Hopkins writes the most intense books. The narrators were very engaging. I loved this!!

Ellen Hopkins books will forever give me life

I love how real her books feel . she does research and twist the stories just right . I have never read a book with her topics and talent that compared .

Better than expected

I really enjoyed this book on Audible. I love Ellen Hopkins books and the characters sounded how they should for the most part. Good job!

great!

another great one by Ellen! not as good as crank an glass but I loved this to!

loved this.

cant wait to listen to the next one! I love reading books by Ellen Hopkins.

Excellent

This is gritty and real, heart breaking and hard to listen to at times, but impossible to stop listening to. Following the lives of 5 young adults in the US. This book is hugely relatable and brings home the unfairness of life and how young adults are thrown into difficult circumstances through no fault of their own, but also helps to bring home the effects and impacts of choices that people make and how easy it can be for "ordinary" people can quickly get snared into an underworld of drugs and prostitution. Highly recommended for older teens & upwards. Although no longer a "young adult" myself, I see many parallels with my own life of what I have seen and experienced. This isn't just a scare story. This stuff happens and is really well written.