Tricks.

Watch me sell my body to strangers so that I lose all my self-worth.

Five teenagers, five different lives, five heart-breaking stories. Each of them has gone through his/her own personal hell and through it all, they've learned the basic art of survival. They each earn cash through some form of prostitution. Eden, Whitney, Cody, Ginger, and Seth discover how bad their lives can really become.

I know I'm probably in the minority when I say that I didn't like this book. Yes, it's a good lesson for all those teenagers that think they have it rough, but I found most of the situations to be extremely cliche. Maybe it's just because I have heard all these stories before, told other ways, in other books.

Over-religious family bans their daughter from seeing her "one true love."
Homophobic father kicks out his gay son.
Girl lives in sister's shadow and gets depressed about it, so she decides to run away with her boyfriend.
Mother who isn't much of a mother ends up with a rebellious lesbian daughter.
Boy loses his father and gets addicted to gambling.

It's all common story topics, but crammed into one novel that's supposed to be suitable for Young Adults. When I think "Young Adult" I think teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17. No 13-15 year-old should read this, it's far too graphic. Perhaps if they were extremely mature for their ages, they might be able to handle it, but otherwise I'd advise them to stay far, far away.

Hopkins is one of my favorite authors, don't get me wrong, but this book just didn't do it for me. I found all the characters too difficult to relate to, therefore it seemed so fake to me. Some of the stories branched out in interesting ways and I did enjoy having a few of them over-lap towards the end, but I just expected more.

Confession: I skipped almost every poem that began a character's new perspective because they were so dull to me.
Revelation: Maybe I'm too old for Young Adult books? It feels like the ones I've been reading lately have fallen short of my expectations. Either I'm maturing (God forbid) or my expectations are too dang high.

2 out of 5 stars.

Hopkins, you are disappoint.