Collateral

I really liked Ellen Hopkins' novel in verse Triangles (I stayed up all night reading it), so I was eager to read her latest work, Collateral. However, this story didn't grab hold of me like the story in Triangles.

Told in alternating past and present time, Collateral is the story of the relationship between Ashley, a grad student at San Diego State, and Cole, a United States Marine. Theirs is a passionate relationship, but also a volatile one. The story spans 5 years, with Cole being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times, and Ashley left behind to deal with the emotional trauma of having a loved one deployed to a war zone.

In the author's signature "novel in verse" style, she accurately portrays the impact - the collateral, if show more you will - of being in love with a soldier. It's a difficult road to travel, with the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. You can see the deepening impact that being deployed has on Cole, and in turn, the impact on Ashley, who increasingly depends on alcohol and pills to make it through. I thought the ending was unfortunately realistic, shocking, and sad, but not in the way you might expect.

My only quibble with the story was the poems that were "written by" Ashley and Cole. They didn't fit with the rest of the novel at all. Maybe that is my general dislike of modern poetry coming through, but about halfway through the book, I started skipping over those to get back to the main story verse.

An interesting story that makes you think about the impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on not only the men and women serving our country, but also their families at home. show less

Collateral is the first book I've read by Ellen Hopkins and I approached it with hopeful optimism - mostly because I had heard that it was written in free verse style and, after having immersed myself in poetry this year, I thought it would be fun to try something like this.

At first the story really worked for me. It was the same story told a hundred times over - girl meets boy, boy is charming/cute/wonderful/strong/respectful/perfect, boy is in the military and is taken away from girl, etc... All of this told through free-verse that was simple and easy to read. The story in its most condensed form.

Then things got a little weird for me. You see, the boy in this case is a poet and the love interest takes his poetry to her professor and show more has her professor read it, and the professor proclaims about the talent of the boy (essentially indicating that he is talented and wasted in the military). All of those things are fine on their own except for one: the complimenting of the poetry.

This is where things really started to rub me the wrong way. If you are an author who writes in free-style poetry a story and then, in a round-about way, compliments your own poetry, it just makes me go "ick" a little bit. Because, honestly, the book would have been just fine had Cole not been a poet - sure there would have been tweaks needed here or there, but writing poetry and then writing in another poem how wonderful your previous poem was... yeah, it just didn't work for me.

And, sadly, that spoiled the rest of the book. It's funny how little things like that can color the way a reader interacts with a story but, as time has proven in my case, one of my biggest pet peeves is the patting of oneself on the pack through fictional characters.

p.s. The rhyming poems really didn't work for me. Please stick to the free-verse, Ms. Hopkins. show less

Wow, this is a gut-wrenching emotional tale of love and passion between a civilian and a soldier. Their relationship survives years of separation and deployments. But will their commitment, love, and determination be enough? Ashley is forced to make a choice to marry the man she loves and live a life full of war and uncertainty or to give herself a chance of a normal life outside of military. But will the soldier who owns her heart make the decision for her?

Ashley and Cole are well-developed and likable characters. I shed tears and laughter for both of them throughout this novel and wanted nothing more than for them to finally have their happy ever after. But life (and books) do not always go the way you want them to. The ending was show more heart breaking, but sadly realistic.

Collateral is beautifully written in Hopkins' signature poetic verse style that alternates between present and past. This book flows well and draws you in from the first words. I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author. show less

Holy wow. This was my first Hopkins book and let me just say that I was blown away. This is a story that packs quite a punch and left me reeling. She totally surprised me with the ending but yet I was happy and broken hearted all at the same time.
Collateral is def a book for mature teens and if it is not classified as.new adult I think it is a perfect candidate. There is more steamy scenes than I am used to with traditional ya but I think it was still in good taste and fit with the tone of the story. There is also drinking and sinew pretty disturbing scenes but I think it use one of the most realistic stories I have read about soldiers. I think that it was said best though that you can't really understand unless you are a soldier or show more the emotional toll that it takes on a family or loves one that the soldier leaves behind.
Ashley the main character took me on quite a journey with her and it was an emotional one. I really felt for her and understood the places her mind took her. She was brave for the decisions she made and I appreciate the emotional cost of the decisions she made and the growth that I saw in her how she loves Cole, finds herself and ultimately makes the best choices for herself no matter how.
Bottom line: Hard hitting, emotional story about a soldier at war and the woman he leaves behind. show less

This novel is written in verse, which makes it an incredibly easy read, but also adds a rhythm to the story. This is a novel that will not be easy to put down. Ellen Hopkins wastes no time connecting you to the characters and getting down to the meat of the story.

Review Originally Post HERE


I have been a fan of Ellen Hopkins since first reading her free-verse novel Crank. The series about her daughter's drug addiction captured me and still haunts me to this day. I drifted away from Ellen's writing once her novels became mostly about teen issues and jumped back on board as a fan with her first adult novel Triangles. Collateral even though I enjoyed it falls short of her normal gripping heart wrenching tales.

Ellen is a master in tragedy and I always know I can shed a few tears during her novels, so when I learned her latest novel was about a young girl and her love for a soldier I could not wait to grab my box of tissue and leap into this story. Unfortunately I just couldn't fall completely in show more love with this novel, or get completely lost it in either.

Ashley is a people pleasing college student who falls in love with a soldier she meets in a bar. A majority of the relationship these two lovers are in separate countries from one another, and you kind of don't really get to meet Cole accept for in flashback scenes in the book. With each flashback scene I started to hate Cole more and more. You as the reader witness Cole's demise to anger the life of being a soldier has brought him through the "rewind" scenes. Now all of this works for me I get it but where it went wrong for me was the plot, it was pretty much nonexistent.

It is more like just reading the life of this girl who's entire life revolves around the life of her soldier. I get that this is what the story is about but I kept waiting for something to happen. While something does happen it isn't exactly worth the buildup of a 500 page book. This is why this book gets 3 out of 5 from me because while I enjoyed the story it could have been stronger and not so drawn out.

In the story Ashley has a friend named Darian, I felt like Darian's story was far more powerful than Ashley’s story and had the plot this book was lacking. Only problem; Darian is just a side character with a side story. I am keeping my fingers crossed Darian's story will be her next novel.

Now like I said before I did still enjoy the story and I enjoyed Ashley as a character but I just wanted more something. It took me a pretty long time to finish this book and the only reason I made it to the end is because normally Hopkin's has powerful endings, this novel’s ending followed the same pattern as the rest of the book, it just was. You do get a bump but nothing close to the catastrophic endings I am used to as an Ellen Hopkins reader. Normally I finish her books and walk away tearful hungry for more, this time I was just happy for an ending. show less

It took some time getting used to the verse style of this book and I'm about 90% sure that my ebook version had some major formatting issues ( or else I got less from this than I thought).

Overall I found the story enjoyable although sometime it did get confusing going back and forth in the verse style. The ending left a lot to be desired though.