Final Thoughts

The ending of the book was somewhat confusing, and I didn’t quite understand it but the book is filled with many problems that are occurring in teenagers lives. Maybe not all teenagers but there are a lot of teens out there who can relate to this story.

Eden Streit - Her parents sent her to Tears of Zion, a facility to bring her back to her relations with God all because she fell in love with a teen named Andrew. Eden resulted in turning tricks towards a man named Jerome who worked at Tears of Zion. He fell for Eden, so he decided to break her out of the facility and run away together, he succeeded but not the way he expected. Eden ran, she went as far away from his as possible, and ended up in Vegas. Eden’s ending was that she ended up in Walk Straight, an organization that puts teen prostitutes back on their feet, to get them an education and somewhere to go. Eden was able to contact Andrew through email and is planing on getting out of Vegas.

Seth Parnell - He was told to get out of his home. His father told him to leave all because of a letter. A letter that brought out Seth’s secret - he is gay. The letter was from Loren, Seth’s ex boyfriend who moved away. Seth left, he did as his father said and went with his "sugar daddy" Carl to Vegas. Seth played the female role in their lives together. But that didn’t hold a good ending Carl caught Seth with another man so he got kicked out of Carl’s house. Forced to walk the streets because he had no where to go. Then came David, a friend of a friend that let Seth stay with him. The role is basically another Carl. Seth is determined to get out of Vegas as soon as possible so in order to make money, Seth went into an escorting service called Have Your Cake.

Whitney Lang - She’s the shadow of her older sister, Kyra. She is brushed aside by her mother, but her father and her are very close. Whitney was used by a boy named Lucas - her ex boyfriend, who had taken her virginity only to say that he had sex with a virgin. Whitney being upset called the first person who came to mind - Bryn, a guy she had only met once in the mall. Bryn was good to her... at first. He was always there telling her how beautiful she was, and she fell in love. Bryn was going to Vegas though, so Whitney being in love went with and that turned out to be the worse mistake she had made. Bryn started selling her body to men of all ages just to get some cash. He let the men rape her, beat her, and inject Heroin into her system. She became addicted to the drug and was continuously wanting more. She got the drug once, thinking it was Heroin, turned out to be a drug known as Black Tar - she over dosed. Whitney was in the hospital and what happened next was what she never expected. Her family was there. Her mother, her sister, her father. Her sister complained that Whitney ruined her reputation, and her father was angry, but she never expected her mother to care. Her mother wants to fix everything, and to be a family at last.

Ginger Cordell - She was used to being pushed around, and being the oldest child who took care of her six siblings with her Grams, because her absent mother was always out turning tricks for cash. Ginger, due to her mother selling her own daughters body for money, had been raped twice in her life. She was friends with Alex - a girl who lived down the road from her. Alex and Ginger wanted to run, to get away, so they did because they were both tired of their lives, being raped and used by both mothers who were absent in their lives. They ran away to Vegas. Alex knew a girl down there who took them in and turned them into strippers, and later Alex turned to prostituting and because Ginger fell for Alex, she became one too. Alex ended up going out for a "job" one night and Ginger refused to let her go so she followed her and little did they know that the "job" was set up and it was a cop. After being arrested, Ginger went into rehabilitation and plans on returning to her family. Also Ginger found out that her mother is dying - she was diagnosed with Advanced HIV.

Cody Bennett - A teen boy who had just lost his stepfather, his mother was traumatized, and his little brother was in jail for breaking into a house and getting caught. They lived in Vegas and he figured the only was to help out his family was to gamble. He gambled a lot, and brought his family even more into debt. Cody decided to talk to a friend and find out what to do, later he was introduced to Misty - she ran a prostitution center. Cody was not agreeing with anything, but with more thought he came to the conclusion that it was sex for money with some woman which was bad, but the good part was the money being made. So he took the job. Later he found out that it was men who asked for other men, not woman asking for men. Cody started out hating it, being touched my other men. But he soon started questioning his sexuality because he was enjoying having sex with men. Cody and Misty had a job together and they both went, then Misty’s boyfriend came in unexpected and beat both Misty and Cody. Cody was in the hospital with a few broken bones, and his mother showed up and expressed her sorrow for his situation. Cody was done, he wanted out of the business for good. He has begin taking steps to get out of the business and stay out.

I enjoyed the book, it kept you reading, and you couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. Many parts were overwhelming and somewhat graphic at the rape scenes, but it was able to make you feel for the characters and have pity for the situations they were in. The overall outcome of the book though is that it was an amazing book.

Blog Three - Conflict

Whitney Lang. She did anything Bryn asked, and even when it came to doing Heroin. Bryn was gone for the whole day, no call, no nothing. But when he got home to their tiny little motel room he was ecstatic. He screamed in joy he was so happy. Whitney was happy too but did not know what to be happy about. Her face dropped once he pulled out te drug. Whitney looked at him and refused to do it, up until Bryn lost his temper and yelled at her saying "if you love me, you will do it!" Whitney does love Bryn so she said she would do it, but no injecting. Bryn said it was fine and that she could just smoke it.

One time, one hit, second time, second hit, and it goes on and on. Whitney was hooked she couldn’t get enough. Bryn went out again, and Whitney realized that Bryn didn’t have any after he swore he would with her. When he came back in he wasn’t alone. Bryn had brought this guy, this guy she had never seen before, Bryn never even mentioned him once. Bryn said, "baby, this is the guy who has been good to you," while pointing at the Heroin, "you are going to return the favor and make him happy." Whitney was confused, she didn’t understand what he had meant. Up until the guy who came with Bryn grabbed her. He was getting rough, he wouldn’t stop, he was hurting her, wouldn’t let her go she screamed stop and asked Bryn for help, but he stood there and did nothing but watch. Bryn let the guy rape Whitney, and he watched and didn’t move a muscle. Whitney was shocked. She couldn’t believe what was happening.

After the guy was done, Whitney had tears down her face, crying and crying. She didn’t know what to do, she wanted to get high, she wanted to run away, she wanted to punch someone, something, she didn’t care she just wanted out. Bryn told her that all she have to do was cooperate and they get more drugs whenever they wanted.

It wasn’t the first time, it continued but it wasn’t always the same guy. The rape, the Heroin, the men coming in and out of the room. Bryn started to have guys come in paying to rape her, some even held her down and injected Heroin into her so she was easier to handle. Whitney was nothing, she felt nothing, she was addicted to the drug more than ever, she didn’t know what to do, she lost herself.

If you were in Whitney’s position, how would you handle it ? Do you think something will change or do you think she is already in to deep to get out ?

Blog Two - Ginger Cordell

Within the book Tricks, there are five characters and one character I feel stands out more with her problems, Ginger Cordell. Ginger lives with her grandmother, six siblings from five different fathers, and Iris - her mother. Ginger, being the only teenager of them all takes the responsibility for almost everything. Her grandmother is fifty three and is doing as much as she can as well to help. Ginger’s life is nowhere near fun because Iris is a prostitute. Iris used Ginger as the voice of reason all the time especially when she gets dumped because Ginger will sit there and convince her that she is way to good for the loser guys she dates but Ginger is still just a child herself, and can only take so much, she has her moments where she snaps at Iris and then Iris turns and will shake and hit her until she realizes that she has had enough and then spends the rest of the day apologizing until she gets another "gig" and once Iris is gone, grams is always saying how she wishes that Iris would be more like Ginger.

Ginger has a friend, one friend, her best friend she can talk to about anything, her name is Alex. Ginger talks to Alex about everything that has occurred in her life, she even talked about Walt. When Ginger was 10, Iris had a boyfriend known as Walt and he was this big, scarey guy who had raped Ginger when Iris was not home nor was the other children because Iris took them out for ice cream. But that was not the only time she had been raped it happened one day after she spend almost the whole day at Alex’s house. Ginger walked through the door and went to the kitchen, no one was home, grams at work and god knows where Iris is with the other five kids. She hear the tv on, and then suddenly shut off, she thought it was Harry, Iris’s new "man" but it wasn’t. Its was a man that Ginger had never seen before in life. A man that was at least 45 and he was built like a bull, that reminded her of Walt, so she got scared and started to back away. He backed her right against the fridge and said "wow your mother was right you are a knockout." Ginger was confused, very confused and even more scared, she could feel him stocking her body up and down. He grabs her starts to rip of her shorts and she yells "get away from me, let me go!" but he doesn’t and he says "I paid 200 bucks for you girl, so im gonna give you 200 bucks worth of pleasure." It dawned on her, of what he said - $200? Paid for? Iris has sold her own daughter’s body for money. After it happens she runs, and keeps running until she reaches Alex’s house, she tells Alex everything and starts thinking how much she likes Alex. The way she talks, the way she looks, everything. Ginger felt something between the two of them and so did Alex, because Alex leaned in and kissed her.

Later then decided to run away, Ginger couldn’t bear seeing Iris again, she feels sorry for leaving grams and the other children, but she figured grams is smart she will take good care of them. But the only problem was money. They needed money especially with running away to Vegas. That is where the decided the were going to run away to because Alex new someone in Vegas who would let them stay with her. Ginger new exactly where she was going to get the money from. She was going to get it from Iris, but not directly. Iris had a stash of money in her velvet blue socks in her dresser, Iris doesn’t know that Ginger knows where the money is because Iris was really drunk one night and forgot that Ginger was standing right there. She ran back home, only grams was home then, she told her that she was sleeping over at a friends house and grams said that was fine. So Ginger ran upstairs right to Iris’s room and there was the dresser, she walked over to it, opened it and then saw the velvet blue socks, she went in and looked for $200, after all, that was what she owed Ginger, but then she got thinking. If the big guy who raped her paid for it, maybe so did Walt, so she took it all. There was over $400 in the socks and all she did was leave the dresser open and a note that said, "Isn’t even close to what you owe me, I hate you!"


How you would react if you or a friend had gone through the same thing as Ginger? How would you feel? What would you do?

My Initial Reaction to Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

My initial reaction to the book so far is that it is full with problems and issues that the characters constantly face just like we all do in everyday life. Sure some of the problems I have read about don’t apply to everyone but we all understand the hardship that comes from being a teenager in high school for we all have been living it for the past 4 years or so. Whether you are a teenage girl who is questioning her faith and in love with someone her parents don’t approve of like Eden Streit or if you are a teenage boy hiding a secret you cant tell your father because you are afraid of what he might say when you come out and say “Dad I’m gay,” like Seth Parnell.

In this novel there are many different problems that the characters face on a daily basis. At the beginning of the novel is when the characters problems are all pointed out to the reader and they are all problems that keep you reading to see how they would solve them. I have already mentioned Eden Streit and Seth Parnell. There are three more characters in the book that I am still going to introduce with their problems. The third character is Whitney Lang, her problem is living in her older sister’s shadow which many people can relate to but that’s not the only problem this character faces. Whitney is also completely in love with her boyfriend Lucas and she is sure she is ready to let him take her virginity but that doesn’t go as well as planned.

Another character named Ginger Cordell is living with many problems. Problems that involve her six siblings all younger and all having different fathers, living with their grandmother. Ginger’s grandmother does all she can but Ginger is still doing so much and basically taking the place of their mother because their mother, Iris, is a prostitute.

The last character needed to be mentioned is Cody Bennett. Cody is a teenage boy living his life without knowing his real – well biological father, but that doesn’t come to an issue in his life. Cody is dating his ex-girlfriend’s best friend Veronica. The major problem in Cody’s life is that his stepfather is sick.

These stories all carry desire in them. The desire to help, love and live their lives as a teenager with no problems, no issues and nothing to hold them back. How would you handle any of these situations if you were living your life this way?