Glass

To say that Hopkins has done it again barely covers how freakin' incredible this woman is! (Not just as a writer, but as an advocate against censorship).

She grabs your heart and clenches it ever so slightly until you realize a little too late that it's been pulled out of your chest. Simultaneously you are thankful that the book is over while still longing for more.

Glass is the continuation of Crank, the story of Katherine and how she gets hooked on Crystal Meth. I read Crank last year and found it heart-wrenching. Man was I surprised to find Glass even more so. Hopkins is not just real (it's loosely inspired by a personal experience) it's raw.

I know I sound dramatic here and I don't mean to. BUT IT IS DRAMATIC! Especially when you show more realize that Kristina, while dealing with the Monster (her euphemism for crank) she's raising a baby. Really? REALLY? And it's like, the whole time I'm reading it, I am fighting with myself. Of course I am pissed at Kristina, she's a mom now. But then I get angry at Kristina's mom for waiting soooo long, even though I know it's hard on the family too. It's this never ending saga of pain and everyone is hurting and falling off of the cliff.

Glass is not for the weak of heart, but if you choose to pick it up, I promise you'll be suckered into Kristina's world. I must get my hand on the finally installment. show less

My VOYA: 4Q, 4P

Under the influence of the "glass monster", Kristina leaves the straight and narrow and her life rapidly spirals out of control.

I can't think of an uglier, more excruciating story than that of meth addiction. Kristina relapses and falls hard, hitting every branch on the way down. She literally never makes a good decision, and it doesn't take long to get exhausted by her self-justifying thoughts, or her checking up on what level of buzz she has that day. Her thinking is so screwy it becomes logical to assume that whatever she does next, it'll be the most terrible choice she can make.

Without the interesting format of concrete poetry (with some of the verses forming billows of smoke or question marks, and others fragmenting show more as Kristina loses herself in the fog of meth), I never would have finished reading this painful story, sequel to Crank .

To Hopkins' credit, the story could easily play like an anti-drug PSA: as much as I disliked it for its unrelieved darkness, there is no arguing with Hopkins' abilities with character and language. Everything Kristina does makes a twisted kind of sense, since we are privy to her deepest thoughts. The present-tense, first-person narration moves in a fragmented, telegraphic style, and the action is always clear. Glass can easily be understood without reading the other books in the series. ( Fallout , the third and final book, chronicles the lives of Kristina's abandoned children.)

In interviews and the afterward, Hopkins reveals that she based this story loosely on her own daughter's "walk with 'the monster' drug crystal meth." She has plenty of other series tackling difficult issues: suicide, incest, prostitution, and addiction - all the things parents pray they can shield their children from. I can see why the topics are controversial, but Hopkins doesn't go in for shock value for its own sake. In spite of the heavy drug use portrayed, there is no swearing and her depictions of sex are honest but not explicit. She's talking about real life, and sometimes real life is terrible and desperately sad. show less

Glass picks up where Crank left off. Kristina is back at home with her mom and stepfather, trying to stay clean, get her GED and take care of her baby son (born at the end of Crank). Except it’s not so hard to walk away.

Soon after Glass begins, she tries meth and it’s a whole new world and now even harder to stay clean.

I think in a lot of ways, Glass is even more heartbreaking than Crank was. In Crank, you saw the good, smart girl making a lot of bad decisions. In Glass, though, you see that she’s just sort of given up on herself and her life. She’s sort of trying to get her GED but not really, and she takes a dead-end job at a 7-Eleven (ostensibly to become more independent but really just so she has easier access to money for show more meth).

Kristina desperately wants to stay clean because she loves her son, but she can’t do it. The best/worst decision she made was turning her son back over to her mom to raise, because she knew that he deserved a better life than she was able to give him. I say worst because you could tell that she loved him and that by giving him up, she was so clearly choosing drugs and not even trying to stay clean anymore.

These books are so hard to read, but so important, too. show less

Glass by Ellen Hopkins is the follow up to Crank. It continues the story of Kristina (and Bree) as she plummets further into the addiction of Crystal Meth, making choices that have more far-reaching consequences.

Initially, I wasn't sure if I liked this. The verse that was so amazing in Crank felt a little forced here. The narration in the first few pages felt more like regular prose trying to be played off as poetry, but with still only a few lines per page. The writing improved over the pages, though, and threw me back into the dizzying world I was introduced to in Crank. I had some immensely negative thoughts about this story, but this is a compliment to Hopkins's ability to draw the reader into Kristina's world and addiction. show more Listening in to Kristina's thoughts and decision making angered and disgusted me. I work in the field of child welfare and have worked with many individuals just like Kristina with whom I have had to empathize. This book didn't make me any more sympathetic to the plight of these parents; if anything, it showed me how many times Kristina had the opportunity to turn her life around and continued to make the wrong choices. I wanted to scream at her and shake sense into her. But I cheered on the mother at doing what she needed to do to protect her family. So many families inadvertently enable their family members to keep using by trying to be supportive in other ways. The mother in this book does a great job of not doing that, while still trying to remain supportive when possible. The ability of an author to elicit such emotions from a reader signifies a great writer and story-teller, and Ellen Hopkins does just that! As frustrated as I became while reading this, I look forward to her other books! show less

2/5 stars
You can find all my reviews here.

What have I done? And more: What will I continue to do?

In comparison to Crank, Glass feels much less poetic. The story that was actually told was pretty good but that’s not the reason I read the book. I already knew a big chunk of what would happen from interviews with Ellen Hopkins. I picked up the book looking for rhythmic narrative poetry but for some reason it fell flat for me. I can’t catch the rhythm and to me it read sort of like a choppy journal. I much preferred Crank where you had to pay attention more to what was going on. Glass tends to just tell you what is going on without hiding anything. In this difference it lost me.

I also had a big problem with being unable to relate to show more Kristina this time around. I think I should have seen that as a good thing, like wow the drugs have changed her to someone unrecognizable but instead it made the book even harder to connect to. While I didn’t enjoy this book in comparison I plan to still read Fallout, and hope that I can forge a connection this time around. show less

Never have I disliked a main character as much as I do Kristina. At the end of Crank it seems like she is willing to to get her life together and leave behind the world of drugs for her son. But soon enough, in Glass, she goes straight back to "the monster." It controls her, becomes her obsession once again, and destroys her life.

Glass is an all too real look at life on drugs, specifically meth. It's heartbreaking and infuriating.

I really enjoy Ellen Hopkins writing style. The book is fast paced, I started it last night and finished it this morning. Once you begin you just get hooked. Im already looking up the next one to purchase it, because I have to know what happens. This book will take you on quite a ride. It really, I feel it gives you an inside look at what it would be like to have the lifestyle of someone on meth. The mindset is crazy. I would recommend this book as a read and overall, I give this book a 5 out of 5 because it kept my interest until the very end.