Crank - Ellen Hopkins

Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Genre: YA Poetry

Blurb (on back of book): 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.

MY OPINION: ****

I don't even know how to write this review.

So I definitely did not expect that. I honestly had no clue what I was getting into. I hadn't read any reviews before and the blurb was less than helpful. I randomly decided to read this book because it's been on my to-read for a while and I'm trying to sift that endless pile and read some of the supposed "good" ones.

Well then.

**THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN IN POEM FORMAT AND I LOVED IT**


WHAT THIS BOOK CONSISTED OF:
Kristina, labeled a "good girl" in the blurb, is just that. She's good at school, she gets good grades, and throughout the book we see her alter ego, Bree, criticizing herself for all the decisions Kristina wouldn't have made. Kristina's parents are separated. Kristina lives with her mom and hasn't seen her drug-addicted dad. However, by someone's stupid decision, she decides to go visit him. When she's there, she's introduced to the addicting/powerful/horrible drug: crystal meth, or "crank" as it's called in the book. From there on, the whole book is a depressing spiral of what happens after you take a drug that's given to you by a boy YOU JUST MET.

Along the way, Bree/Kristina meets a bunch of boys and Bree gives her the confidence to actually talk to them while Kristina can't. We meet Adam, the boy who introduces her to crank in the first place, we meet Chase, who I actually legitimately liked despite his drug-induced ways (is EVERYONE in this book just on drugs??), and we finally meet Brendan, a seemingly okay character until he legit rapes her, criticizes her "lack of movement" after, and still makes her pay him for drugs.

Well.

And then we find out the AWFUL plot twist at the end which we'll get to.

I feel as if this book was beautifully horrible. I don't know how else to explain. It was written so well and it really helped you to understand how Kristina was feeling (and yes, maybe readers do judge her for it) but the whole premise of the story and the plotline is disgustingly horrible, as I've explained above.

CHARACTERS:
Well, we have a lot of loaded characters in this book. First off, we have Bree/Kristina, who is remarkably stupid yet easy to understand. She makes a LOT of bad decisions, you can't deny that, but she makes them because I think she is easily influenced by the people around her. She finds herself unable to SAY NO because of whatever reason, whether she's already addicted or she's too weak to fight. I think she was a weaker character than we see in Young Adult fiction these days which I LIKED because NOT ALL PEOPLE IN OUR REALISTIC WORLD ARE AS STRONG AS THEY ARE WRITTEN TO BE.

Brendan was an asshole. Legit you think he's going to be semi-okay in the beginning but then we find out that he's pushy, he's also addicted/sells crank, and he rapes a girl and doesn't seem to care the whole time. He goes along the lines of "you promised" and it's sickening to watch his actions.

Adam...  I don't entirely know how I feel about Adam. First off, he's a cheater. He gives mixed signals and then breaks Bree's heart. I think he was just the beginning of a whole lot of horrible results and that was the only reason he really existed. After she's addicted and comes back home, we don't really see him anymore.

Chase. I LOVED CHASE. Yes, maybe he was under the influence of a drug at some points but he's a teenager, he's stressed, and you learn to forgive him (or at least I did). HE IS SO NICE. He cares about Bree legitimately, he doesn't really push her to do things she doesn't want to do, and he even worries about her health and her drug intake and TRIES to stop her, which is something that not a lot of people can do.

THE ENDING
Wow.

So Bree is pregnant. And since we just read a whole long scene with CHASE our brains go to thinking that Chase is the father (red herring!). Chase is SO SWEET and says he's GOING TO TAKE CARE OF THE BABY and WANTS TO MARRY HER. Not many teenagers would do that. It's common for a girl to get herself pregnant too early and for the boy to just dump her because he can't deal with the stress and responsibility of their mistake. 

And then we find out that Chase is not the father and that BRENDAN is. 

And we still see the sweet side of Chase as he still wants to take care of the baby despite wanting to go off to college and pursue his own dreams. THAT IS A GOOD MAN RIGHT THERE. 

I read the whole thing in one sitting, something easily done. I enjoyed it/didn't enjoy it for a variety of reasons. It dealt with a lot of sensitive topics. Am I planning to read more? Possibly. Maybe. I don't know. I would recommend this book to readers looking for an insanely beautiful/tragic story.

Main Character: Bree/Kristina
Sidekick(s): Chase, Adam, siblings, etc
Villain(s): The monster (crank), addiction, Brendan, etc
Poetry Elements: This whole book is written in poetry format with beautiful/flowery words.