Crank

//﻿ Crank // By: Ellen Hopkins Ellen Hopkins was born in 1955 and started enjoying books since before kindergarten. She was always a straight A student and began writing as soon as she learned to read and write. The genre of Crank by Ellen Hopkins is realistic fiction. The book Crank is a story about a young girl who gets hooked on drugs. Throughout the story the young girl, Kristina, has to battle her addiction through the good and the bad.

Children's Literature
Kristina is a good girl. She's shy, studious, and eager to be liked. But that's before she discovers meth. That's before Bree. Before Adam. Before addiction. This novel in verse depicts Kristina's descent into drug addiction. It starts because she was bored and wanted to impress a cute guy, but quickly morphed into a controlling influence on her every decision. Told from Kristina's point of view, the story lacks any kind of melodrama. There is no "poor me" type of language. The author does, however, create a complex character who alternately arouses the reader's empathy and dislike. When she tries to reconnect with her friends you hope she will succeed, but her lying and stealing to satisfy her addiction are despicable. There is little action in this story, no great climax, no major realization of her situation. The story consists only of Kristina's thoughts, sometimes self-reflective, sometimes calculating. While this shouldn't make for a great YA story, it is somehow fascinating and readers will be drawn into it. There are graphic and detailed scenes of drug use and sex, so be wary when recommending it to less mature readers, but for others, it earns a definite place on the shelf. Reviewer: Heather Robertson Mason

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