I usually only review Indie titles, but as of late all I'm reading are the usual comics and the wonderful Ellen Hopkins. As a result, I wanted to review what I've been reading. Enjoy!
Burned was my
first Hopkins and soon after completing this wonderful work of free verse
poetry, I found myself immersed in Crank.
Ha, not in the way that you’re thinking.
I found myself pulled into Kristina Snow’s world with the
opening lines of this novel:
Life was good before I met the monster. After, life was great. At least
for a little while.
The monster
in this situation is the same one the novel is named for: Crank. Which I actually had to Google because I thought it was
cocaine, when, in fact, it is meth.
A summer
spent with her absent father let the monster peek inside of Kristina’s bedroom.
Despite this fact, I got the feeling she was already open to hitting rock
bottom.
Soon after her father introduces
her to meth, she falls in love with a boy that convinces her to actually use.
He says teenage boy shit like, meth will “make you want to make love to me.”
I can’t really say that Kristina’s
first love was responsible for her subsequent downfall. Why? Because it was
actually disturbing how willing she
was to try the drug.
Then she
does it again…
And again… gets raped, experiences true love for a short
time, which seems to become null when she gets pregnant by the rapist and
decides to keep the baby.
Good news is: she does quit for Hunter (her son)… but Hopkins
gives you the eerie feeling that she isn’t done with her real love. As Crank comes to an end you can feel the
itch along with Kristina.
She uses again and her sordid story is continued in Glass, which I did read and will review
for you all at some other time.
All in all, every living person should read Hopkins. Her
writing is simplistic and speaks volumes. Not easy to do. She is a master at
what she does.
2 comments:
Thanks for reading, Natasha! And thanks for the great review.
:) Eeeeek. So cool. =)
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