Review of Ellen Hopkins's Traffick.

I want to start out by saying I have loved every book by Ellen Hopkins I have ever read, this book is no different. A great companion to Tricks. The characters are developed well and distinctly different enough that you don't confuse them as you bounce between character story to character story.  I appreciate the way characters who make bad choices don't come out with as happy of endings as those who make good choices do.   

Throughout my time reading this book my husband asked me what it was I liked about Ellen Hopkins. I'm going to share that reason with all of you.  People can tell kids or even adults not to do something and give them ample reasons why but it's actually experiencing the shortcomings and problems that go along with the choices that people are grappling with making that actually convince them not to do it. In many of Ellen Hopkins's books readers are put into a world where they follow characters who are making choices that we would want our youth or adults not to make. By getting to put oneself in a book with the character that's making those choices readers can play out their possible choices without actually doing any of the things that they're debating about. It let's readers interest world they've never been in but are questioning and walk away saying you know maybe math sounds interesting but I don't think I want to go down that path. They also offer an opportunity for literature therapy. It's really hard to get used to talk about sexual abuse often but through literature therapy readers could read Identical.  for example and talk about the characters and come to their own revelations with I don't actually talking about themselves which can make you or anyone uncomfortable.