Crank

Fiction by Ellen Hopkins
Reviewed By Sam D.
5 available - check it out of the NVHS Library


Kristina is the perfect daughter, good grades, always does what she’s told until she meets the monster. When she is forced to visit her dad for three weeks in the summer, she is introduced to meth through a boy named Adam. She discovers that the way she feels on Crank is great, and decides to give herself an alternate name, Bree, who represents the part of her that is reckless, carefree, and total flirt. When it is time for Kristina to return home she is not sure how to live without the monster. Crank, loosely based on a true story, by Ellen Hopkins, is a tale of the constant up and downs to drugs. But, when she meets Brendon, a gorgeous lifeguard, who seems to have only one thing on his mind, he takes from her and leaves behind something that could just ruin her life. Will the results of that be too much for her to handle? Or will Chase, a sensitive guy who is always there for her, bring her back to reality and make everything okay. Read this amazing book and find out for yourself.

This book is quite vivid in its descriptions and told as if you were feeling her emotions. Because of this I would recommend this book to girls ages 14 and up. But, this nature of writing, is what keeps you in the book and thirsting for more. I enjoyed this book, and will be reading the sequel entitled Glass. When reading, you experience the turmoil Kristina is feeling, trying to sort out who she is…Bree or the Kristina she has always known. You will connect with the story, and wonder what will happen in the next part of her life.

Written as a series of poems, the book is truly unique. Written from Kristina’s point of view, you have a front and center view of the mind before and after drug use. At a lengthy 544 pages Crank seems long, but due to the poems it goes quite fast. Ellen Hopkins wrote Crank based on the events she witnessed as her daughter struggled with the addiction to the monster. She wrote this book with the sole purpose to inform, and give people information as to how to stay away from the addiction and the devastating consequences it could have.