Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Hello all! Life caught up with me, but I'm back on track and hoping to get a multitude of posts rolling here soon. Stick with me and you won't be disappointed!

In Glass we pick up a few months after the end of Crank. Kristina is holding on tight to her reality. She's cleaned up, is raising her son Hunter at home with her mom & step-dad's help, and is working towards obtaining her GED. Unfortunately it's too much for Kristina. She wants some independence and considering how much of her parents' trust she lost, that's not so easy to come by. Yet she manages to score a job at the local 7-11 and that allows her some limited freedom.

Soon though, it's too much for Kristina and she starts using the monster again. At first it's just to pep up and keep up with the demands of motherhood, but soon it turns into something she can't function without. With her usage up, she starts hanging out with the wrong kind of guys and is soon booted from her home when her mother figures out that she's using. While living with her dealer she becomes entangled in a three-way love affair and falls deeper into the drug world. Scrambling to make her world work, Kristina is left with few options. What depths will she sink to in order to continue on her walk with the monster?

The second installment is nothing short of astounding. Glass continues the nightmarish world that Kristina lives and breathes in. I was really hoping that she would be able to pull it together in this installment, although I figured she'd fall apart again. I was mesmerized by her justifications and excuses for her drug use and behavior. It was almost convincing when she said "just to get me going in the morning" or "just to lose a few pounds." I found myself almost thinking, "well if it's just a little, that won't hurt too much." I think the way it is written really lends itself to helping the reader understand just how easy it is to relapse into former bad habits.

Ellen continues her amazing ability to tell a story through poetry and prose in a tantalizing manor. I devoured this book in just a day or two despite it's length (688 pages) because the writing was so accessible! I really enjoyed getting to see Kristina's interactions with other drug users and dealers because I think it reinforced her actions. There were people just as misguided as her and they seemed to feed off of each others' actions.

If you've read Crank then you need to read Glass so that you can understand where we stand when you pick up the third, and final, installment in the series Fallout which comes out in late September of this year.