|
Tricks |  | Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Category: Book
List Price: $18.99
Buy New: $10.68
as of 11/22/2009 21:17 MST details
You Save: $8.31 (44%)
New (36) Used (7) from $10.67
Seller: treebeardbooks
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 612
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 640
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 2.1
ISBN: 1416950079
EAN: 9781416950073
ASIN: 1416950079
Publication Date: August 25, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"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 bestselling 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.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 Love and Games are all the same November 16, 2009
LisetteBes (Raleigh, NC USA)
The master of prose-written novels has done it again. Ellen Hopkins has delivered yet another amazing novel dealing with difficult, but applicable subject matter.
Usually a taboo subject, Tricks follows five different teens through their decisions regarding sex. Hopkins deals with the reality of what can happen when things go horribly with careful consideration and a thought-provoking situations.
Eden is the sweet, innocent daughter of a hell-fire-and-brimstone pastor. Her mother and father have forbidden her to date until she is ready to marry, so meeting Andrew was definitely not planned. They shared a love that they hoped could withstand anything. That love is tested when she is sent off to a secluded, religious, reform center to have her "demons" excised. Eden holds on to her memories as she is forced to do unthinkable things in the name of escape and freedom.
Seth is a farmer's son who has hidden his true self for far too long. After finding and losing his first love, Loren, Seth is forced into outing himself as gay to his conservative father. Being forced from his home and everything he knows, Seth becomes the kept arm candy of an older gay gentleman, only he's not so gentle.
Whitney really just wanted to fall in love. She thought that Lucas was the one and even gave him her virginity. Sadly, he used her and then threw her away. Hurt and depressed, Whitney reaches out for help to the only person she can think of. Bryn promises to take care of her, she believes him, and he makes good on his promise; at least in the beginning.
Ginger hates her mother Iris but there's not much she can do about that fact. Being the eldest of six children, the responsibility of taking care of those younger than her falls on Ginger. While her mother is out with her new dirtbag boyfriend, turning tricks, or buzzed out of her mind, Ginger and her grandmother work hard to provide for the little family. After one of the youngest children is severely injured in an automobile accident and Ginger has an all-too-familiar encounter with one of Iris's "friends," Ginger decides to skip town with a friend. The two girls didn't really know how much worse things could get for them.
Cody doesn't know how to make things better. His mom and stepdad Jack are quite happy, until the unthinkable happens and his mom is left on her own with Cody and his little, troublemaker brother Cory. Cody retreats into a world of sex and drugs to cope. Unfortunately he can't shake the responsibility he feels for his family. Desperate time call for desperate measures, but even Cody is a little anxious about the lengths he is willing to go for his family.
Spellbinding and captivating, this book will ensnare your sensibilities and leave you breathless. Hopkins has an interesting way of weaving stories together just enough that you can see characters from another character's point of view. It gives a truly insightful glimpse into the truth that we are all interconnected on some level.
Another great one from Hopkins, but redundent characters November 15, 2009
M. Kovka
Since the announcement from Hopkins that she would be writing Tricks I have been extremely excited. And the book lived up to all of my excitement. While Identical still remains my favorite, I loved Tricks. Much like Hopkin's other book, Impulse, I feel she's progressed a long way of the multi point of view poetry novel. Once again, she didn't use much verity of the poetry style (such as making pictures with words), but it was very strong and hard to notice. Where as in impulse, the redundant lack of style was much more noticeable, the storyline and it's intensity of Tricks makes the reader barely notice. The characters had such a variety, it was almost mind boggling. When starting to read, I was a bit intimidated by the large variety of there being 5 characters. I also found myself questioning how she would make the story flow using 5 different stories. But, it came together very well. I also noted how most of the characters reminded me of characters of past Hopkin books.
Eden (which I love her name!) was a girl from a very religious evangelical family. Eden is much comparable to Sue from Hopkin's book burned. Being an atheist, her story was very frustrating, yet amusing.
Seth is a farm boy who is secretly gay. His story was in the middle for me. I liked the beginning, but as it went on, I became impartial to it. I loved the glam feeling to his story, but just the idea behind his latter relationship creeps me out a bit. I found him somewhat comparable with Tony from Impulse.
Whitney was one of the easiest to relate to (until deeper into the story of course). She is a virgin saving herself for the right moment. Though a virgin, she is very far from innocent. I found myself comparing her to Raeanne from Identical. As her story continued though, of all 5 stories, it is the story of Whitney that scared me the most.
Ginger was my favorite. She was unlike any of Hopkin's other characters I came to know and love previously. Ginger comes a family of 5 siblings and mother who turns tricks. It's almost surprising how her story goes given her situation. But I also founds myself falling in love her with gothy friend and loved how Hopkins finally put in a girl who wasn't straight. It was refreshing to have a character who came from a bad place and with a different sexuality.
Finally there was Cody, my least favorite. He was an atypical boy working at game stop who has an addiction to gambling. I have a hard time relating to boys in books who are not gay, so that was the first set off to Cody. He wasn't that interesting of a character either. And his addiction of gambling was frustrating. The interesting thing of his story is simple how he ended up. While interesting, it felt a little impulsive and was done so quickly, it felt as if Hopkins just forced him to a path very quickly to make him fit into the book. The change was so random and quick, it felt unnatural.
Over all, the book was a good read. It pulled me in, and there was no getting out. It also opened my eyes greatly to the scary world of teenage prostitution. Once again, Hopkins has written a great book. Though the characters were similar to past, the storyline over takes all, and is completely recommended to anyone.
 I wish they would add more stars to the rater... November 7, 2009
booknerd11
I envy Ellen Hopkins. She is by far the most amazing author alive. Of course that is just an opinion, but I'm sure someone out there agrees. I have read all of Hopkin's books, so it was just necessary that I read Tricks; boy am I glad I did. This book was so powerful I had to stop reading and just stare at the wall for a minute to remember that this is just a book. Lol, OK, a little exageration, but you get what I'm saying. It is so amazing to me that Hopkin's can begin five stories, all complete opposites of eachother, and in only about 600 pages, intertwine all of them to make one large picture; and she did it without confusing me! HAH! But anyways, the point is, this is an AMAZING book and I definitly recommend to all who have read her books, and if you haven't, START!
Happy Reading~! (:
Edgy and intense... November 3, 2009
Sarah Woodard (Bremerton, WA)
Tricks is a story of five teens that find them in a place that they never though that would be. Each characters comes from a different background and had their own journey there. Their stories are all intertwined and create a large story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. 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.
Tricks is a powerful book. The characters are like those that I know. I related to aspects from pretty much every character. They were definitely three dimensional. I cheered for their them and cried for all of their sadness. I felt that the plot moved a bit too slow for some of the characters and was resolved rather quickly. It was a original look on teen prostitution and how people get in to it. I love how Hopkins makes sure to keep the story real and edgy. Hopkins created a wonderful book that I think that you should check it out. At the end, you will be thinking "What if this happened to me?" and will want to read more.
 Anticipation Sometimes Leads to Disappointment October 23, 2009
The Boleyn Girl (Pennsylvania, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I hate to be the one to rain on the parade, especially if its Ellen Hopkins's parade, but TRICKS was a bit of a letdown for me. I have read and loved all her other books, but at times it felt like TRICKS was holding up too many different story lines at once and none of them were very well developed. It would have been much better if Ellen had taken one of these characters and centered the whole book on them, with more detail and without the breaks in between stories. Personally, I felt that the way TRICKS was divided made it harder to attach to any specific character or their story. By the end of the book I had a hollow feeling, as if I'd been reading a newspaper article about these people rather than a novel. In fact, the main problem with TRICKS is that it didn't elicit any kind of emotion in me apart from the slightest pity now and then--given the topic of this book, a lot more than a little pity was called for; I just wasn't feeling it.
TRICKS chronicles the lives of five different teenagers, all around the ages of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen. Eden, the daughter of a born-again pastor and his equally (perhaps even more) zealous wife, falls in love with a boy named Andrew. Andrew is not born-again or even particularly religious. Ginger is the daughter of a prostitute with zero maternal instincts who sells her to the highest bidder. Seth is gay and from Indiana, with a conservative father who believes being gay is a sin. Cody is a normal boy until a combination of death in the family, his girlfriend's older brother introducing him to gambling, and just screwing things up really badly comes back to bite him. Whitney is a girl who feels ignored by her mother, and only loved by a mostly absent father. All these teens are faced with hard choices, make a few really awful ones, and all end up "tricking" for money. At some parts, TRICKS was very sad, but again, it didn't really seem like Hopkins was doing justice to how sad the situation really is. It was sort of like, "Look, isn't it terrible! Aren't they unfortunate! Couldn't you just cry?"-- terrible things happened to the teens, but because the story is sectioned in a way that doesn't really let the reader connect with them, it doesn't leave as big of an impact as it should. After the last page, you hardly remember any of the characters well enough to even feel anything for them.
TRICKS is written in characteristic Hopkins style-- free verse, and written the way a real teen would talk. But something was missing in this one. There was none of the heartbreak I felt with IDENTICAL, none of the sympathy I felt for the characters in IMPULSE (which was also divided, but only between three characters), none of the suspense of BURNED or CRANK or GLASS. TRICKS was an all right book, but coming from Hopkins, I expected something more.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Working Dogs | |
