Title: Crank (Crank #1)
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Rating: 5/5 stars
“In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the “monster,” the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or “crank.” Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne’er-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: “there is no perfect daughter, / no gifted high school junior, / no Kristina Georgia Snow. / There is only Bree.” Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won’t, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.” (description from Goodreads)
Last year I discovered the verse-novel writing style through a few of Sonya Sones books. Through further searching, I found out about Ellen Hopkins, and in turn, the Crank books. I was pleased what I found within the covers of this book.
I’m amazed at just how much weight this book can hold, yet compared to a normal prose novel, there is a significantly smaller word count. Hopkins takes her worse seriously and provides a heavy, dark atmosphere to Kristina’s/Bree’s narrative as she goes down a path of drugs, first loves, and more. There’s little to no happiness in this book, yet there’s a beauty in how the lines of each poem keep the reader glued with their nose in the book. I kept reading wanting more and more, even when seeing it was only going to get darker.
I don’t think I’d have gotten as strong of a reaction to Crank were it to be a prose novel. There’s something about the way verse allows an author to tell a story with such raw emotions and bluntness that even the most well-written of prose has a hard time doing. This is why I keep going back to verse novels, and will be continuing on with this series very soon.
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About the Author:
Ellen Hopkins is the New York Times bestselling author of Crank, Burned, Impulse, Glass, Identical,Tricks, Fallout, Perfect, Triangles, Tilt, and Collateral. She lives in Carson City, Nevada, with her husband and son. Hopkin’s Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest pages get thousands of hits from teens who claim Hopkins is the “only one who understands me”, and she can be visited at ellenhopkins.com.
Like most of you here, books are my life. Reading is a passion, but writing is the biggest part of me. Balance is my greatest challenge, as I love my family, friends, animals and home, but also love traveling to meet my readers. Hope I meet many of you soon!
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