Traffick

by Ellen Hopkins Narrated by Julia Whelan, Madeleine Maby, Rebekkah Ross, Kirby Heyborne, Jacques Roy

Overview

Five teens victimized by sex trafficking try to find their way to a new life in this “sincere and moving” (Booklist) companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling Tricks from Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank.

In her bestselling novel, Tricks, Ellen Hopkins introduced us to five memorable characters tackling these enormous questions: Eden, the preacher's daughter who turns tricks in Vegas and is helped into a child prostitution rescue; Seth, the gay farm boy disowned by his father who finds himself without money or resources other than his own body; Whitney, the privileged kid coaxed into the life by a pimp and whose dreams are ruined in a heroin haze; Ginger, who runs away from home with her girlfriend and is arrested for soliciting an undercover cop; and Cody, whose gambling habit forces him into the life, but who is shot and left for dead.

And now, in Traffick, these five are faced with the toughest question of all: Is there a way out? How these five teenagers face the aftermath of their decisions and experiences is the soul of this story that exposes the dark, ferocious underbelly of the child trafficking trade. Heartwrenching and hopeful, Traffick takes us on five separate but intertwined journeys through the painful challenges of recovery, rehabilitation, and renewal to forgiveness and love. All the way home.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile

Ellen Hopkins’s distinctive characterizations of five teens who are in recovery from the effects of sex trafficking are given equally distinctive voices by five adept narrators. In this follow-up to Hopkins’s 2009 novel TRICKS, listeners benefit from the uniqueness of each narrator as the story shifts between changing points of view. The different narrators’ voices assist listeners who are new to the series to keep the characters straight. Straightforward deliveries work well as the narrators voice the traumatic pasts and painful rehab of the teens without resorting to melodrama or coming off as self-pitying. Overall, a weighty and difficult novel and an ensemble of highly nuanced and varied performances. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Booklist

"Hopkins’ undeniable empathyfor young people remains sincere and moving."

School Library Connection

Mature readers will...cry when reading this work.

Booklist

"Hopkins’ undeniable empathyfor young people remains sincere and moving."

School Library Journal

09/01/2015
Gr 10 Up—In this sequel to Tricks (S. & S., 2009), the author revisits the lives of five very different young adults who ended up victims of sex trafficking in Las Vegas. Hopkins spares no details while relaying the dire circumstances Eden, Seth, Whitney, Ginger, and Cody experienced and yet still manages to infuse each character's story with hope. The protagonists have to decide what their futures will hold and how much they want to fight to get there. Reading the first novel is not necessary, as enough backstory is provided. However, some readers may prefer to understand the teens' path to sex trafficking before reading this story of redemption. Hopkins clearly has done her research, as detailed in an author's note, and the stories carry even more weight when readers realize that this is the reality many children and teens face. Hopkins's use of free verse allows the raw emotion to shine through, and mature teens will hang on to every word. VERDICT Ordering is a must for libraries where the first was popular. Recommended widely for older YA readers.—Kelly Jo Lasher, Middle Township High School, Cape May Court House, NJ

JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile

Ellen Hopkins’s distinctive characterizations of five teens who are in recovery from the effects of sex trafficking are given equally distinctive voices by five adept narrators. In this follow-up to Hopkins’s 2009 novel TRICKS, listeners benefit from the uniqueness of each narrator as the story shifts between changing points of view. The different narrators’ voices assist listeners who are new to the series to keep the characters straight. Straightforward deliveries work well as the narrators voice the traumatic pasts and painful rehab of the teens without resorting to melodrama or coming off as self-pitying. Overall, a weighty and difficult novel and an ensemble of highly nuanced and varied performances. E.M.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-08-05
Five white teens move on with their lives after doing sex work in Las Vegas. At the end of Tricks (2009), three of the five protagonists saw glimmers of hope, one was stuck in a rut, and one had been shot. This sequel picks up with Cody in the hospital, awakening to learn that he's paralyzed from the waist down. Whitney, who had overdosed, heads home to an emotionally distant family, facing PTSD and addictions to drugs and to her pimp. Ginger has a kind grandmother waiting—but also a mother who's been selling Ginger to men. Eden can't go home: her fundamentalist parents sent her to a reform camp where she needed to trade sex for food. Farm boy Seth is still being kept by a sugar daddy and tricking on the side. "Tricking chews / you up from the inside out," but with some help—including two too-good-to-be-true romantic partners—can these kids "chisel a better path?" Hopkins' free verse shows the rhythm of their steady yet halting progress. Reading Tricks first is mandatory, both because this period of their lives ties so tightly to the teens' distant and recent pasts and because, while their back stories are distinct, their first-person narrative voices aren't. Less startling than its predecessor; a hopeful aftermath tale for readers already attached to these characters. (Verse fiction. 14-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171177218
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	11/03/2015
Series:	Tricks , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	430,978
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

Traffick
The courage to leap

the brink, free-fall

beyond the precipice,

hurtle toward

the abyss,

end the pain. Mine.

Mom’s. Oh, she’d feel

the initial sting, cry

for a day or two, but it

would be

short-lived, a quick

stab of grief. Finite.

A satin-lined coffin

and cool, deep hole are

preferable to

walking a treadmill

over a carpet of coals,

enduring the blistering,

skin-cracking flames of

this living hell.

Videos