Glass

Glass, the sequel to Crank. This was a good book. I wouldn't say Ellen Hopkins best(I think it is still Impulse)but, it was in the top three at the least. This one once again dons the poetic writing style that is Ellen Hopkins. This one is just as dark as Crank or maybe darker(debatable). For some reason, this one didn't engulf me in its story. Maybe it was the fact that I was on my fourth Ellen Hopkin book in a row and was just tired of reading or the series. Who knows. All I know is yes, I did enjoy it, but I probably should have taken a break between the books, but I didn't.

The story was decent, picking up were Crank left off, telling the tale of Kristina and Bree and thier neverending decent into the monster. Now that Kristina has a baby(established at the end of Crank), she is a mother. Everything else involved in the story is Kristina's every falling descent into the black pit that is the monster. She meets new friends, distrust grows greater within her family, and because of the monster she doesn't care.

Another thing that bothered me was that there was really no payoff at the end of the book. Maybe, if you really think about it, theres no payoff in any of Ellen Hopkins book's. But, nevertheless it still was engrossing, and I was compelled to read it to the end. I give the book a three out of five stars.

688 pages

Impulse

I really enjoyed Crank. I sorta enjoyed Burned. I loved Impulse.

I think this is ultimately the best Ellen Hopkin book I've read. She goes back to her roots and gives vivid poetic shapes and scriptures. She goes back into the depths of the abyss and shows what its like to be in a uber-tunnel of darkness, and not see the light. I don't know if that makes me demented or not, but that is why I loved this novel.

The Story is told in three different perspectives. The first is a boy named Connor, the second boy is name Tony, and the third, a girl, is name Vanessa. These three have all attempted suicide and know they are in Apsen Springs to overcome what they have done to themselves.

688 pages

Burned

In this book from Ellen Hopkins, I was kinda disappointed amongst other things.

Don't get me wrong it was a decent book, but I can't put my finger on it, just something about. Anyway, once again it is written in poetic form, but it's not as bad as Crank. Yes, it is still for a more mature audience but its not as dark and sinister. Another thing is that in Crank, the poetic shapes she created were more vivid and alive in the text, but in Burned it was just like she was just putting it in poetry form just to do it. I don't know, maybe it was just me, not the book. But I seriously don't think so.

The central story of Burned consists of another girl protagonist, Pattyn. She's a Mormon whom doesn't think women should just bow at the feet of men and do as they are told. She believes that women deserve a place in the world just as any other man does. Silly little women(just kidding). In believing this she strives to do things she not permitted to do by her family, which consists of about seven siblings, a lazy mother, and an abusive father. One includes her getting with a boy and doing inappropriate things. The town soon knows of what they have done and it gets back around to her family due to gossip. Decisively, her family disapproves. She is then sent off to live with her Aunt J and finds retribution with her and a boy named Ethan.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell, without giving too much information away(I hate when people do that). See, the thing that really drove me towards Hopkins books is that they were dark and sinister. Don't get me wrong, this is still a little dark, but it wasn't what I was looking for. In the end this book gets a three out of five stars.

544 pages

Crank

Crank...

What can I say about this novel?

It has been a really wierd upside down corkscrew omega extra death rollercoaster. This book is not for a young audience at all. It's mainstreem audience will consist of the fifteen and twenty age range. I strongly suggest making sure your child or whomever is reading this be advised that it has very strong adult content. However, on a good note, the book is written in poetic form. Meaning, that its not a straight forward, "read to left to right", but rather sometimes the words will make shapes, and or artistic means. This was very interesting because,well it was just one word.

Different.

Different can be good and it can be bad, but in this case it was a positive attribute. It was cool sometimes reading a sad moment and realizing that the text was in the shape of a tear. Pretty deep stuff.

I guess a novel wouldn't be worth anything unless it had a good story. I'm here to tell you that Crank has a very cool story consisting of: loss, destruction, hope, and ultimately the fight for redemption. It has all the things a good book needs to have. So whats it about?

The story consist of a sixteen year old named, Kristina. She goes to Alburquerque for three weeks to visit her father that she barely sees, due to her father and mothers divorce. In the course of those three weeks she meets a boy named Adam whom appears really bad for her. He is. She then creates the alternate character Bree to cope with the new things going around her. Kristina is kinda like a dog to Bree's cat, complete opposites. Adam shows Kristina/Bree the monster. Crank. The monster then spirals Kristina's life until there is nothing left to spiral. She then returns back to her hometown with her mom and family and finds that they are just not her style any more. As life is completely changed by the monster, she starts to steal,cheat, and lie to get more. Kristina can't do all of that stuff, but Bree can.

Ellen Hopkins has truly written a powerful novel that explains what happens when you dig a hole to deep for you to pull yourself out of. I give this book five out of five.

544 pages

Thoughts about the end of level literacy test...

Once upon a time there was a boy, and he pulled his hair out because he was so mad and frustrated at the end of level literacy test. Actually that didn't happen, or maybe it did... somewhere. In this case though the end of level(which will now be refered to as the E.O.L)literacy test was not that bad.Yes it was a little long, but what E.O.L test isn't? The content in the test was not as nearly as bad as usual, yes there was a little misunderstandings, but othere than that it was a pretty decent test. My only prolbem was that it was very time consuming. Which in the end it wasn't a prolbem at all considering we got to miss about two-thirds of the day, for two days! In the end, do I think the E.O.L test is not a very intelligent idea?

Yes.

The Reason I think this is that in the end the actual test will not help benefit us at all, it could only,in the end, hurt us. All the test is for schools to compare to other schools and is pretty much bragging rights and maybe the school will get money for it... who knows. So, why do I care you ask? I care because all it is doing is wasting my time so our school can show people a ribbon and if I don't do well enough on the test then I get remediated the next year. I don't think thats fair at all. Hypothetically, lets say that your a straight-A student but doesn't happen to do well on test or under pressure. Then comes along the E.O.L test. Awesome. You then mess up or whatever and then you have to be remediated for the next year when your GPA(Grade Point Average) is 4.0, which is the highest possible grade average you can have. Where is the justice in that?