Lester Levenson

Once again Ellen Hopkins takes an already depressing subject (in this case, teen prostitution) and turns it into one of the most joyless books you'll ever read. As with all her books, this one was fast-paced and gripping enough to keep me reading it almost non-stop. But her troubled teens are over-the-top and unrealistic. Sure, I know there are kids out there with bad lives in bad situations. But seriously...a pentecostal girl sent to a Christian prison camp for having a boyfriend, and then forced to give up her body for freedom? Okay, it could happen, but it's more likely you'll read about it in Ellen Hopkins' books than in the newspaper.

An additional note: even though the focus of this book is prostitution and sex, I felt like the descriptive scenes thereof were bordering on pornographic, and were a bit unnecessary.… (mais)