Crank
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Series: #1 in the Crank Trilogy
Description:
This is a story about a monster. Not a dragon or a mythological beast, but a very real, very destructive monster–crystal meth–that takes hold of seventeen-year-old Kristina Snow and transforms her into her reckless alter-ego Bree. Based on her own daughter’s addiction to crystal meth, Ellen Hopkins’ novel-in-verse is a vivid, transfixing look into teenage drug use. Told in Kristina’s voice, it provides a realistic portrayal of the tortured logic of an addict.
Review:
Have you ever picked up a book by an author who has a fairly decent backlist for the first time, and after finishing it, you are like, how the heck have I never read (insert name here) before? That was me and crank/me and Ellen Hopkins. I had routinely seen her books at the library in the YA section, but for some reason, I had never picked them up – maybe it was the idea of poetry, since I am normally not a huge fan…it wasn’t until I managed to need 2 poetry books for a reading challenge, and having Ellen Hopkins recommended to me by a good friend (I now blame her for my addiction), that I picked up Crank…or more specifically, I downloaded the audiobook of Crank to listen to. I was sucked it…
This isn’t the typical poetry that so many of us were “tortured” with in school (and trust me, I think a lot of my distaste comes from those experiences). I was sucked in by the free verse, it was almost at times, like reading a story – the story of Kristina and her addiction to crank (crystal meth)…the transition from her being the good girl to the drug addicted bad girl and the emergence of her alter-ego Bre…there was just something about it – I couldn’t stop listening…
the audiobook itself wasn’t all that long – i think just shy of 4 hours, but considering that it was 4 hours of poetry and I actually listened attentively to the whole thing…lol! I’m pretty sure that I have never listened to anything done by this narrator before – Laura Flanagan – she had the teenage lilt just right…I felt like I was in Kristina/Bre’s shoes…felt her falling into the void created by the crystal meth…it was kind of freaky in a few places…
Personally, I want to say everyone should read this book, but at the same time, i also realize that caution should be given to reading this book. I would advise parents to be prepared to discuss topics with your teen during reading and after, because I’m sure that they will have a lot of questions. But at the same time, I think its something that needs to be read/discussed – because in essence, it isn’t just about drug abuse, its about peer pressure that our teenagers face as they grow up – they wanting to be cool, even for just one minute, even the “cool” kids…I’m interested to see what the other 2 books in the trilogy bring. This is a hard book to rate, but I would probably give it a solid 4 stars, if not 4.5.
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