"Crank" Ellen Hopkins

My Rating: 4 stars 

This is one of those books that you have to enjoy reading in order to get through it. I know it came out a while ago but I never really knew what it was about. My sister told me I should give it a try so I did.

I thought it was a little weird at first all in poem and what not, it is like a modern day Shakespeare novel, with a dark little twist.

Lets start with Kristina, junior at high school, who visits her dad, meets a boy and gets started down a road that will only lead to bad things, I am also not to sure what I think of Bree either, the alter ego of the crank, the one who has the courage and the bravery, to meet the guys and take over every aspect of getting the drugs, I know all to well what that’s like.

This book touched down on some real issues about drug use, the way that you will do anything to get it, the bad people that you meet while doing it (Brendan), and the way you only ever think about it.

Kristina got raped as a part of bad deal gone wrong, fell in love with a boy who had the same bad habit but wasn’t totally at its mercy, and then she got changed when she found out she was pregnant at 17, and it was the rapists fault.  It still didn’t help her from taming the "monster" it just made her slow down a little, maybe even stop, it seemed for a while there she had the babies interest at heart, but it was still all she could think about, she was definitely at mercy of the addiction.

This story Touched down way to close to home for me, having struggled with addiction and so forth, it also make me think of what my life could have turned out like if I never would have turned it around.

I did feel extremely moved by this story and it felt very personal to whoever reading it, I hope that there is someone out there who can actually be helped by this story and not follow down the same roads as many teens do.

I will highly recommend this book not only because its excellent, but it doesn’t tone down the way of addiction, this is raw and powerful, and hasn’t been turned into something superficial.