Trash is a young adult romantic dramady written by Cherie Bennett. The series focuses on Trash, an exploitative TV show ala Geraldo and Jerry Springer aimed at teenagers. Its main cast is made up of six teen interns working on the show for the summer, following their lives as they fall in love and their dark secrets get exposed. But at the end of the day, it's all just Trash.
Tropes featured in Trash include:
- Bastard Boyfriend: Lisha's dark secret is that she escaped an abusive boyfriend named Harley who followed her from Europe back to America. The second book ends with him breaking into her apartment and holding her, Karma, and Demetrius at gunpoint.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Chelsea's biggest fear is that people will find out she's the daughter of Charles Kettering, a man who shot up an entire restaurant one day before his wife shot and killed him in self-defense when he returned home. Her fears intensify when one of Trash's producers wants to do an episode about the children of mass murderers and is determined to hunt down Kettering's daughter.
- Embarrassing Nickname:
- Producer Roxanne is unflatteringly referred to as "Bigfoot" by the interns because of her large feet and nasty personality.
- Chelsea is repeatedly called "Chutney" by Roxanne.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Karma discovers she has a twin sister she never knew existed when Demetrius kept insisting he was running into "Karma" throughout the city. Karma's twin was raised by a conservative Korean family, opposed to Karma's Jewish New Age Retro Hippy parents in Long Island, and isn't comfortable with the idea of reconnecting because of how vastly different Karma's life is.
- Recovered Addict: Lisha reveals in the third book how her ex-boyfriend Harley got her addicted to speed which resulted in her losing a lot of weight.
- Refuge in Audacity: Invoked in-universe, as that's the whole point of Trash. There's no low they won't sink to.