Traffick [Paperback]

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

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, inTraffick, 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,Trafficktakes us on five separate but intertwined journeys through the painful challenges of recovery, rehabilitation, and renewal to forgiveness and love. All the way home.Traffick

A Poem by Cody Bennett

Can’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 treadmilll§