ABOUT THE BOOK
Five teens victimized by sex trafficking try to find their way to a new life in this riveting companion to the New York Times bestselling author of 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
BOOK EXCERPT
YOU KNOW MY STORY
A POEM BY CODY BENNETT COULDN’T FIND
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.
WILL I WALK
Away from here, this dirty
city, where people come
in search of Lady Luck,
certain she’ll guide them to
the fortune she owes them,
or
to shed their skins, reveal
the extraordinary creatures
beneath, aliens they struggle
to conceal from spouses,
ministers, their local PTA.
Will
I walk away from her?
My best friend, turned lover
before our tumble from
enlightenment, if such a thing
ever belonged to me. Can
I
excise her from my heart
as easily as she deserted me?
If I opened my arms, begged
her to return, would she come
back, or would she turn and
run?
the monster.
REVIEW FOR TRAFFICK
REVIEWS FROM BOOKLIST:
“Hopkins’ undeniable empathyfor young people remains sincere and moving.” —Booklist