Ellen Hopkins

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!! you have been warned...
tw/cw: mentions of csa, rape, homophobic rhetoric, narcissistic parents, emotional neglect, abortion, and suicide

this is quite possibly the worst book i have ever had the displeasure of reading. i take major issue with the way these characters' stories are written and with the way certain topics are handled. i'll be going through character by character in chapter order: connor, tony, vanessa.

part i: connor is failed by... well, show more everyone

connor is probably my favorite character out of the three main characters. which isn't saying much because i disliked everyone in this book. but, he was done very dirty and i have a soft spot for characters like that. connor has a very rocky relationship with his parents. his mom and dad put a ton of pressure on him to get good grades, to look presentable, and to just, in general, be perfect. he has a twin sister, cara, who his parents clearly display favoritism towards as they repeatedly compare connor to her. it's evident that there is nothing he can do that will ever be good enough for them. which is what leads to his suicide attempt that lands him in aspen springs.

the therapists at aspens springs are just... terrible. they are always undermining the way connor feels about his parents to the point that it almost seems like they're "siding" with his parents. often they act confused as to why connor has an issue with his parents' behavior. like they're oblivious. despite the fact that they've seen up close and personal the way his mother is less concerned about his well-being after attempting suicide and more concerned about how this is going to affect his GPA. and his father shares similar sentiments. a complete disregard of his emotional state. yet, connor is the one who's the problem here. he's ungrateful for everything his parents have done for him. he needs to be more understanding of his parents' perspective. nobody is perfect and they've done the best that they can. "you cannot allow everyday stress to make you put a gun to your chest and pull the trigger," this is an actual sentence from one of the therapists. at no point do these therapists attempt to validate connor's feelings. it's not like his feelings are unreasonable. his parents are absolutely emotionally abusive. at one point, one of the therapists is baffled when connor is reluctant to go home for easter because "there's no history of abuse." huh? what credible therapist doesn't consider years of emotional neglect as a form of abuse?

i bring this up because at no point in the story is this disbelief in connor's pain challenged. connor challenges it but nobody backs him up. not even his so called "friends." after connor's successful suicide attempt (who's bright idea was it to bring a bunch of suicidal teenagers camping next to a cliff?) tony can't fathom why connor would've done it because he's rich and has everything. what? have you not been paying attention when connor vents to you about his parents? it's like nobody believes him and i don't understand what the moral of the story is supposed to be there.

part ii: tony is conversion therapied

this is a hot mess of a character... tony is introduced to us as being gay. the more we get to know him we discover that before he came to aspen springs he was doing drugs and living on the streets. there's a point where he mentions that when he gets out of there he's going to change his lifestyle because it's caused him a lot of pain. which doesn't sound crazy until you realize... he's talking about being gay. it gets even worse when it becomes heavily implied that being raped by a man when he was eight years old is what caused him to be gay in the first place. eventually, he ends up in a co-dependent relationship with vanessa and it's described as him finding true love, finally. that his love for her, a girl, comes more naturally then his love for guys did. that this just feels "right." it's written how you'd expect a story about a gay guy coming to terms with his feelings for other guys to be written, except in this case it's in reverse. tony was never really gay and he just needed to find the right girl to "fix" him. it's gross. and i can't help but question the author's intentions by depicting queerness in this way.

part iii: vanessa has an abortion?

toward the end of the book there's a scene where connor asks tony and vanessa if they have any secrets. vanessa mentions killing someone she loved but never met. she's referring to an abortion. thing is, this is news to me??? if it was mentioned earlier in the story it must've been mentioned very briefly because the vast majority of her story is her thinking about her mom. actually, it was straight up said earlier in the book that her "secret" was finding her mom overdosing on the kitchen floor and instead of getting help, she just walked away. she feels responsible for her mother's death and struggles with the guilt of that. she mentiones how everytime she thinks of her mom she drops into "the blue" which is how she describes her depressive lows. this abortion plays no role in the story until this one scene. it's written like it's been tearing her up inside but she never thinks about this throughout the book. it's so out of place that i almost wonder if this was a plot point for vanessa that got scrapped in favor of the mom suicide storyline. especially, when she describes dropping into the blue everytime she thinks of the baby which is exactly what she says about her mom.

also, i struggle with the fact that no one pushes back against her equating abortion to murder. i don't have a problem with her character thinking that, i have a problem with it going unchallenged. she never has to confront that belief. and, again, it makes me question the intentions of the author.

there's another scene/plot point i want to talk about that involves vanessa so, i'm adding it to her section. there's a couple of moments involving paul, one of the "caretakers" at aspen springs, which showcase him being an absolute creep. one scene he walks in on vanessa while she's in the middle of changing her clothes and tells her she has to take her meds before she can put any more clothes on. all while he's staring at her exposed lower half. then, in a later scene, vanessa pops her head out of her room to ask for permission to use the restroom but, no one replies. she makes the decision to go anyways without permission. when she enters the girls bathroom she hears two people shushing each from one of the stalls. she pretends to leave and that's when she hears paul talking to one of the girls. mind you, the patients here are all teenagers. so, vanessa has walked in on paul raping one of girls here and this is NEVER brought up again. vanessa never thinks about how paul being creepy with her has affected her. the girl in question never brings up paul being sexual with her. it's like it never happened. like it had no affect on any of the characters involved. i don't know why this was written into the story.

part iv: conclusion

i feel like this book doesn't know what it's trying to say or what it even wants to say. i'm sat here wondering what lesson i'm supposed to be taking away from this. i've walked away from this experience being a little hurt by what was written. tony's queerness being "cured" is in such poor taste. it bothered me so much, in fact, that i knew i needed to write this review. queerness is NEVER a choice. queer people can have trauma and still be queer. it would have been so much more impactful to have him meet a guy who liked him for who he is and didn't just want him for sex. he could've had this beautiful character arc where he goes from feeling like being gay is nothing but pain and misery to realizing that being gay can be joyous, and exciting, and loving. instead he feels like being gay is nothing but pain and misery which is why he has to leave it behind if he wants to heal. and the book just treats this as a good thing. it's bizarre.

little side note here at the end: this is very clearly written by someone who has never had to deal with mental health issues a day in their life because what do you mean vanessa is "getting high" on prozac after being on it less than a week... girl, that's not how antidepressants work... show less

Last year I discovered the verse-novel writing style through a few of Sonya Sones books. Through further searching, I found out about Ellen Hopkins, and in turn, the Crank books. I was pleased what I found within the covers of this book.

I’m amazed at just how much weight this book can hold, yet compared to a normal prose novel, there is a significantly smaller word count. Hopkins takes her worse seriously and provides a heavy, dark atmosphere to Kristina’s/Bree’s narrative as she goes show more down a path of drugs, first loves, and more. There’s little to no happiness in this book, yet there’s a beauty in how the lines of each poem keep the reader glued with their nose in the book. I kept reading wanting more and more, even when seeing it was only going to get darker.

I don’t think I’d have gotten as strong of a reaction to Crank were it to be a prose novel. There’s something about the way verse allows an author to tell a story with such raw emotions and bluntness that even the most well-written of prose has a hard time doing. This is why I keep going back to verse novels, and will be continuing on with this series very soon. show less

4Q4P. I loved Crank and I was devastated by it, in the way that some books worm your way in and rearrange your brain. I listened to it, which I think is probably a much different experience than reading it. But I loved hearing the verse spoken aloud.
Crank is the story of Kristina, a 16 year old who's life changes drastically after going to visit her junkie father for 3 weeks one summer. She meets a boy, tries meth and falls in love. Both with the boy and "the monster." She discovers, or show more invents, a personality or persona that she never knew existed. Kristina takes a backseat to Bree, who doesn't make the best decisions. Bree loves to flirt wit boys and get down with the monster. When Kristina returns home, Bree doesn't won't be stifled and Kristina's life spirals quickly out of control.
I would have given Crank a 5Q, but there were a few things I thought were off. I'm not sure any respectable teenager this side of 1985 would refer to a line as a toot. I could be wrong, but it seems kind of like a modern teen saying something is far-out (which actually, Kristina does at one point). I also thought that Kristina's family had way to many "annual events." After the first couple It started reading like a tired device meant contrast old Kristina with new Kristina/Bree.
The book ended abruptly, and in my opinion, powerfully. The reader isn't sure if Kristina will ever break free from the monster, which I suppose is realistic. Meth is scary hard to quit. There are two follow up novels in the series, so I suppose we find out whether Kristina ever shakes the monster.
After reading Crank, I found out that it was semi-autobiographical. Ellen Hopkins' daughter struggled with meth addiction. I think this makes the scenes with Kristina's mother especially touching. When Kristina wonders if everything would have been different if her mother had reached out to her, it's hard not to think that maybe Hopkins wonders the same thing. show less

Again, another beautifully written book that left me speechless. I mean, I had no words. I wanted to talk about it, but wasn't sure where even to begin.

This book not only gave me a whole new aspect to think about, but it angered me to hell. It's these kinds of people or situations that make Christians look bad. People who present this "holy roller, I'm so good and your not attitude" when they are the ones that are in sin themselves. Jesus said it in the bible, Matt 23: 1-39 "The scribes and show more the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, ..." Basically saying, that they make look good on the outside, but in the inside, their heart is not right. So they do good deeds to show how right they are.

So this book, I REALLY loved. I mean from start to finish, I was captured. Pattyn knew that what is going on in her household is not right. I was glad that she had the chance to go away, but of course going away doesn't mean your past no longer follows you. Pattyn is brought back to horrible things, things I could never even imagine. Ms. Hopkins, once again captured an experience so vastly hidden, yet exposed. I love how Ms. Hopkins can capture the reader and make them fall right into Pattyn shoes.

The whole situation that Pattyn goes through, leaves the reader heartbroken. I admit that I cried in the end, for my heart could no longer take it anymore. No one should suffer or go through that ever. I can say that in the end, even though Pattyn went through a lot, I was glad that it was over.

Look, I don't know what else to say but if you want a real life changing, take my heart out of my chest and step on it experience, read this book. It will blow your mind, break your heart, but give you something you have never ever read before. show less