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.

Very raw.

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

I very much enjoyed

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

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.

Great read. Excellent listen.

I absolutely loved the book. The narration is awesome. Great sound and all. I first read the book as a high schooler and have reread it multiple times as an adult. I love how they use different voices for all the characters just like I do! Ellen hopkins is a great author with the magical ability to transport you directly into the minds and lives of her characters.10 out of 10

The best Ellen Hopkins book out there!!!!

If you're reading this, trust me. take a chance, spend the credit or the couple bucks on this book. It's fantastic.

I may be biased though. was maybe 14 when I read this book for the first time, ten years ago or so. I devoured it in one night on my bedroom floor. It drowned out the troubles in my life, educated me, and started what has been a long love affair with Ellen Hopkins' books. it is by far her best one.

this production did not disappoint. if I have to complain about one thing though, Cody's voice actor didn't fit the character, but hes an amazing narrator nonetheless.

Eh.

Wasn't my favorite, definitely relatable though. Its so hard to connect to the character when its the wrong narrator. I thought the voices didn't match up with the characters or even their ages. some stories just seemed to far fetched. I didn't love it but I finished it.

Awesome

Great book cant wait to hear the next which ive already bought! great voice actors!

This book will shatter your heart

Heartbreaking story of five teenagers forced into a life of sex trafficking. At times it was hard to listen to.

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

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.