97 pages • 3-hour read
Tricks
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Background
Author Context: Ellen Hopkins
Content Warning: This section includes discussion of child sexual abuse, substance use, and addiction.
Ellen Hopkins is a best-selling author who writes young adult fiction. Hopkins’s novels deal with themes of abuse, mental illness, and societal pressures for teenagers. Most of Hopkins’s novels are written in free verse, which allows for an easy reading style that contrasts with the severity of the issues she explores. The free-verse style that Hopkins writes in highlights the emotion and pain of the narrators, particularly in a novel like Tricks where the narrator changes repeatedly. Hopkins cites her inspiration for addressing intense themes in her young adult novels as her daughter’s addiction to crystal methamphetamine. A straight-A student who wanted to study art in college, Hopkins’s daughter met someone who exposed her to drugs, a relationship that led her to decades of drug addiction that “affected everyone who cared for her” (Tanner, Courtney. “She’s One of the Most Banned Authors in Utah Schools. This Is What She Has to Say.” The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 Oct. 2023). Crank is Hopkins’s daughter’s and the family’s story, and she wrote that novel and Glass to outline how complicated drug addiction is, which she witnessed firsthand through her daughter. Her desire to write Crank also stemmed from a desire to help portray drug addiction honestly, reduce the stigma surrounding drug addiction, and “show how easy it would be for that beautiful kid to make a wrong decision,” encouraging other children to not go down this path (Tanner).
Hopkins continued writing other novels to give voice to the complex struggles of teenage life and depict complicated societal issues, such as the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Due to the explicit content in her novels, several of her novels have been banned or censored in 13 states in the United States. Her novels have faced controversy since many feel that the content is too explicit for teenagers and that some themes, such as suicide or drug addiction, can romanticize the issues rather than show their problems. Yet Hopkins believes that her content is instructive, as it depicts the dangerous reality of these issues and sheds light on the support systems available for teenagers who feel that they are reflected in her novels.
Cultural Context: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Teenagers
Tricks outlines the sexual exploitation of teenagers, particularly analyzing the potential reasons and structural factors behind how adults target, coerce, and force teenagers into the commercial sexual exploitation of children. While Hopkins does not demonize adult sex work, the novel reflects the problems that can coerce teenagers into commercial sexual exploitation, such as isolation, addiction, and abuse. Commercial sexual exploitation of children exploits and traffics young people who are outside of the age of consent, as predatory adults take advantage of them. The age of consent is the age when a teenager is legally able to consent to sexual activity; having sex with a teenager under this age limit is considered statuary rape. While the age of consent differs across the US, many states place the age of consent between the ages of 16 and 18.
However, the US considers the legal age of consent for sex work at a different age, despite the state’s consenting age; the legal age of consent for sex work is 18. Any teenager under the age of 18 is considered a victim of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The system of sex trafficking children in the US takes advantage of children and teenagers in desperate positions, often promising to meet a child’s emotional and physical needs using psychological manipulation, drugs, and/or violence (“Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Fact Sheet.” International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2010). The US legal system attempts to prosecute the adults who take advantage of teenagers in complicated and often unsafe situations, especially when teenagers engage in “survival sex.” This term refers to when a teenager or child engages in sexual activity with an adult to obtain safety, necessities like food and water, or a place to live, much like Eden and Seth in Tricks. According to a 2025 report in the Journal of Human Trafficking, 40% of unhoused youth in the US rely on “survival sex” to fulfill sustenance needs; of this group, 40% also identify as a sexual or gender minority, a population that already faces increased risk of substance abuse, physical and sexual trauma, and sexually transmitted infections (Preble, Kathleen, et. al. “Understanding Survival Sex Engagement Among Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults Experiencing Homelessness: A Seven-City Study Using Individual and Social Network Perspectives.” Journal of Human Trafficking, 29 Jan. 2025).
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