Postcard For Reader

Crank

Crank
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Series: Crank (#1)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
How Received: library

This is a story about a monster. Not a dragon or mythological beast, but a very real, very destructive monster--crystal meth--that takes hold of 17-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.
Buy | Borrow | Brush Off
First of all, all of Ellen's book covers are so simple. It's nice to see a book that doesn't have a trillion things sprawled out all over the front of it like some of the books I read.

Ellen Hopkins is the Bernadette Peters of the author world. She can do no wrong with what she writes. Crank was amazing, fantastic, wonderful - not what happened in the story, of course, but for the fact that it was written beautifully. I couldn't put it down, and Ellen really makes you feel like you're in Kristina's head, feeling what she's feeling.

And that's regardless of the fact that I'm a goody two shoes who couldn't be paid to touch any drugs or cigarettes.

The only downfall with her books, however, is the style of writing. I love the prose, but some of the ways she formats her words and everything (like in the shape of v's) makes it hard to read at times.

Overall Rating & Final Comments: 9/10 for the fact that I had trouble reading with some of the formatting. Not that it took away from the content!
Crank or Burned?: I actually liked her novel Burned better, but read both; they're great.