Crank by Ellen Hopkins is like no other book I’ve read. Not only the style, but also the way it was written. I never knew one poem with few words and sentences could mean more to a story. Hopkins told this story with more meaning and description in her few poems, than a fully written book. The story is overall amazing at first you think Christina (the main character) was a real goodie two shoes, but it’s so much more that is to the story. The down side, I didn’t like is when at first reading an Ellen Hopkins book I didn’t know how to read it. I was a little confused and frustrated by the way the poems were written; also the beginning was a little boring.
As I kept reading, it kept getting better and I understood how to read the book. I really did not have a lot of dislikes about Crank at all. I would recommend this book to my peers, but they probably already read Crank and the other series books it was really popular last year. It is a first of 3 books. I took a chance of reading a Ellen Hopkins book, and I’m happy I did. It goes to show girls that you don’t have to do anything to get a boy’s attention. Now Christina is hooked to the most addicting drug in the United States: Meth a.k.a crank. She is addicted to something that will bring her though absolute hell. She is now trapped in a world she cannot escape at all. I would inform more high school females due to the language content and overall content of what is happening. It would not be appropriate for anyone younger.
1. Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
Certain stories within Crank did make me feel uncomfortable. When she describes how she needled meth through her veins in her arm. The very thought of it was too much for me. She also told how she snorted, needled, and smoke it. I couldn’t even imagine what that is like, especially that type of drug where it is so addicting, the first try you’re most likely already addicted. Out of it all the most uncomfortable part for me is when Christina’s “boyfriend” took her virginity by force because she was under the influence of drugs. That section is one of the reasons why I wouldn’t tell the younger ones about this book. That left her emotionally scarred.
2. How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?
Crank is the book where the main character changed the most out of any book I’ve ever read. Christina was the smart, quiet, reserved; but had many friends type of girl. She lived in the suburbs of California she got everything she asked for. Until she decided to take a summer trip to meet and spend time with her dad. Her mom left him because he wasn’t doing anything with himself and she didn’t want him around her daughter. Christina was 16 years old now and wanted to meet her dad; he lived in Las Vegas, single and worked in a bowling alley. He was still doing crank after all these years later. While staying with her dad Christina met a boy name Adam who she liked and when they met he introduced her to her monster meth. You would think her dad would keep her away from him because he knew Adam wasn’t doing anything for himself and smoked? No, he was snorting alongside his daughter and her boyfriend. She went from the average girl to a meth addict in one summer.
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