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