Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Crank

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

thealbapoems's review

dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

This is a book I would have loved when I was 13. It has all the lurid charm of a teenage girl flirting with handsome guys she thought would be out of her league, and suddenly becoming one of the cool kids. However, I wouldn’t call this book a poetry book. The poems are very superficial and don’t leave room for nuance or haunting imagery, surprising structure. I did enjoy the use of the two voices as a tool, but thought that the shape poems were somewhat abused. But I guess that is a key theme here anyway. The main character goes from being an innocent straight A student to

getting high on MDMA and coke and drinking her boyfriend’s blood.

Maybe the point is that this gets out of hand quickly but it felt a little too easy? Maybe rushed even. Or maybe I just didn’t believe it. Either way, I did essentially read this book in one day, so it clearly does something right.

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oddrots's review

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am no longer a member of this book's target demographic. I used to love the lyricism of the prose, but this time 'round I found it a little annoying.

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rhiannon814r's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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sandysmith's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A powerful, well written, empactful read about teenagers falling into taking crystal meth/crank so hence the books title. However, I've never really been a fan of poetry, and the book unfortunately didn't change my mind. I can see that it's cleverly written. How it is printed is interesting, but on a few pages, it was difficult to know how to read or follow the text. I read the book as part of a book club that reads banned books several times a year. The book does show a person and their downward spiral. I'm not a fan or agree that banning books is a good thing as I think it has the opposite effect as the lure of wanting something you cant have makes me want to read it more than if it hadn't been banned. I think that for young people, it gives them an understanding of how debilitating drug taking can be, and it certainly doesn't glorify it. So important content, but poetry is still not for me.

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imperfectnightmare's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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queenkath32's review

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I haven't read this since I was maybe about 13 or 14, but I was thinking about it the other day and decided to re-read it. Why was 13 year old me so obsessed with these?? I used to absolutely DEVOUR all of Hopkins' books that were out at the time through my middle and high school years. The writing hasn't held up (for my tastes) over time. Things I thought were super deep as a 13 year old no longer resonate with me as a 26 year old, aside from the ability to recognize quotes that I used to like. This isn't a bad or poorly written book by any means, but it has plenty of clichés and over-used tropes in it, and honestly the plot was so repetitive that it probably could have been a lot shorter (even with how sparse the writing on some pages is). Despite some of my issues with the book, I felt almost nostalgic reading this. It reminded me of being in middle school and how several friends I had at the time and I would carry these absolute bricks of a book around and read them during free time in class. It was interesting to see what I still remembered about the book and what I had forgotten.

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