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.

Waiting on Wednesday: Fallout (Crank #3)

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

I am so stoked for the September 14th release of the final chapter in Ellen Hopkin's Crank series. Fallout will continue where we left off in Glass and carry us through to the bitter end.

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow's five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They...more

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow's five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.

Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He's struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she's ever known crumbles, Autumn's compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there's more of Kristina in her than she'd like to believe. Summer doesn't know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father's girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother's notorious legacy. As each searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together—Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.

Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family's story, FALLOUT is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by CRANK and GLASS, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person's problem.

From Goodreads

Goodness gracious great balls of fire. Simply astounding. Ellen Hopkins seems to promise us a conclusion that dares to be trifled with. I for one am truly looking forward to seeing where this story goes and what happens to the newly defined children.

Cover for Fallout released!

This is the final chapter in the Crank trilogy by one of my favorite authors, Ellen Hopkins. It's currently scheduled for release on September 14th. How exciting! I can't wait! Just thought I'd share the love. You can read more from Shelf Awareness.