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kyleechris's review against another edition
4.0
I've been a huge fan of Ellen Hopkins for awhile now. I had only read her YA books so when I found this I thought it might be interesting, it was just an okay read for me. The concept of the book was interesting but I found myself yelling at the characters a lot. Some of the things that went on in the book were just irritating.
Spoiler
Especially the ending where Holly takes her husband back but then says shes going to leave him soon again and for good. How selfish are you to give your family hope that you're trying to fix things only to be using his money and the house until you can find a way to provide a life for yourself?audreychamaine's review against another edition
4.0
Triangles is one of the most emotionally engaging, heart-wrenching books I’ve read in a long time. It was also my first encounter with Ellen Hopkins’ writing, and now I know why so many people rave about her. It took me a while to get used to reading everything in verse, although I think this was made easier because she does not employ a rhyme scheme. The end of each chapter includes a poem with a structure that singles out words so that they form a statement on their own based on placement on the page, as well as within the text. While that was a cool effect, those pages threw me and I usually didn’t end up reading them with as much attention as the rest of the text. Still, I think the verse was a very effective way of delivering this intense content.
What makes this book so effective is Hopkins’ ability to create real, three-dimensional characters that you can fully believe in. Really, this novel is almost entirely character-driven, rather than action-packed. We alternate narration and storylines from Holly to Andrea to Marissa. I wanted to strangle Holly, I could relate to Andrea, and my heart just broke for Marissa.
Hopkins describes the lives of these three forty-something-year old women with startling honestly and unflinching attention. We see as they go through infidelity; group sex encounters; children who are gay, having sex, doing drugs, have a severe fatal condition, or are just plain distant. This is not a book for the weak-hearted, and probably not appropriate for teens, although emotionally mature teens will probably still enjoy it. As a young adult who is not yet married and has no kids, the three futures here terrified me, mostly because they’re so plausible and true. It made me think about the meaning of marriage, family, devotion, and how much of yourself you lose when you have responsibilities to children and spouses. It isn’t all bad, though, and the futures are as individual as those living them.
Even though it was so intense at times that I could feel my chest tighten and my stomach turn, I did enjoy this book and the rollercoaster of emotions it brought forth in me, and made me curious to read some of the Ellen Hopkins YA books I’ve heard so much about.
What makes this book so effective is Hopkins’ ability to create real, three-dimensional characters that you can fully believe in. Really, this novel is almost entirely character-driven, rather than action-packed. We alternate narration and storylines from Holly to Andrea to Marissa. I wanted to strangle Holly, I could relate to Andrea, and my heart just broke for Marissa.
Hopkins describes the lives of these three forty-something-year old women with startling honestly and unflinching attention. We see as they go through infidelity; group sex encounters; children who are gay, having sex, doing drugs, have a severe fatal condition, or are just plain distant. This is not a book for the weak-hearted, and probably not appropriate for teens, although emotionally mature teens will probably still enjoy it. As a young adult who is not yet married and has no kids, the three futures here terrified me, mostly because they’re so plausible and true. It made me think about the meaning of marriage, family, devotion, and how much of yourself you lose when you have responsibilities to children and spouses. It isn’t all bad, though, and the futures are as individual as those living them.
Even though it was so intense at times that I could feel my chest tighten and my stomach turn, I did enjoy this book and the rollercoaster of emotions it brought forth in me, and made me curious to read some of the Ellen Hopkins YA books I’ve heard so much about.
bookswritingandmore's review against another edition
4.0
My first book by Ellen Hopkins but far from my last. I must admit the prose threw me at first. I wasn't sure how a story could be woven together in this form. Boy was I wrong!! The characters came alive for me from the first pages and I took a journey with them that I won't soon forget. Loved it!
kdurham2's review against another edition
3.0
Let me start this review by saying that I was very skeptical for a book in verse. I hadn't experienced one yet and am not much of the poetry fan, so I started this book with some apprehension. After saying that, this is a must read. Although the topics are controversial and the subject matter can be hard to read at times, the fact that it is written in verse worked so well. I was given enough details to feel like I was reading a full book, but not too much, so I could use my imagination. Blown away.
Told from the perspectives of three women who are right around that mid-life crisis point and all are second guessing the decisions they made that lead them to the life they are in currently. I thoroughly enjoyed how Hopkins broke up a few poems for each character and it was all labeled, so I could easily dip back into that characters mind and life and wasn't confused as to who was talking. I experienced every emotion reading this book, from laughing to crying, and even anger towards these women who were making decisions that affected them and their families. The reality of the situations the characters were put in made the verse personal and enabled the story to hit me deeper than I thought it would.
This book can be read by those who love poems and verse AND for those who are a little unsure of this whole different reading experience. I am going now to find her YA books and see how they compare to this adult novel.
Told from the perspectives of three women who are right around that mid-life crisis point and all are second guessing the decisions they made that lead them to the life they are in currently. I thoroughly enjoyed how Hopkins broke up a few poems for each character and it was all labeled, so I could easily dip back into that characters mind and life and wasn't confused as to who was talking. I experienced every emotion reading this book, from laughing to crying, and even anger towards these women who were making decisions that affected them and their families. The reality of the situations the characters were put in made the verse personal and enabled the story to hit me deeper than I thought it would.
This book can be read by those who love poems and verse AND for those who are a little unsure of this whole different reading experience. I am going now to find her YA books and see how they compare to this adult novel.
bmg20's review against another edition
5.0
Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!
Thank you Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read this early! I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to read this.
’Two lines that never intersect are parallel. Two lines that intersect forming ninety-degree angles, are perpendicular. Perpendicular lines cross each other. Crossing lines. Today I’m thinking about how easy it is to be perpendicular. And about how, while parallel lines may not intersect, parallel lives too often do.’
Thoughts
I got this off of Galley Grab and it went on my list of ‘I might read… maybe’. Truth is I had heard about Ellen Hopkins YA books and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle the harshness of the subjects that she writes about and if her YA books were harsh I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from her adult novel. I picked it up one morning when I had some time to kill and was completely blown away. This woman is an amazing writer.
’Falling to pieces. That’s how my life feels. Fractured. Crushed. Disintegrating. And the weird thing is, it’s all because of that stupid little word: love. I’ve fallen in love with *name omitted*, and it’s tinting everything normal about me with shades of insanity.’
I could go into the storyline and what it’s all about, but the summary of the book pretty much says it all. The storyline wasn’t what made this book amazing though, it was the writing. The author also did the most amazing thing with the formatting of each page that really added something spectacular. I’m not often a fan of POV changes, and this book switches the POV often between the three main characters, but it totally worked in this situation. She also used a different font to differentiate between the characters which I thought was a brilliant touch.
As many of you already know, this author writes in verse, and I was not expecting to fall in love with that style of writing as I have. She would write in verse and then often between POV changes she would insert a poem… which was simply remarkable.
This was my favorite piece of hers:
Spilling a Secret
What its size,
will have varying
consequences. It’s not
possible to predict
what will happen
if you
open the gunnysack,
let the cat escape.
A liberated feline
might purr on your lap,
or it might scratch
your eyes out. You can’t
tell
until you loosen the knot.
Do you chance losing
a friendship, if that
friend’s well-being
will
only be preserved
by betraying sworn-to
silence trust? Once
the seam is ripped, can
it be
mended again?
And if that proves
impossible, will you be
okay
when it all falls to pieces?
Thank you Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read this early! I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to read this.
’Two lines that never intersect are parallel. Two lines that intersect forming ninety-degree angles, are perpendicular. Perpendicular lines cross each other. Crossing lines. Today I’m thinking about how easy it is to be perpendicular. And about how, while parallel lines may not intersect, parallel lives too often do.’
Thoughts
I got this off of Galley Grab and it went on my list of ‘I might read… maybe’. Truth is I had heard about Ellen Hopkins YA books and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle the harshness of the subjects that she writes about and if her YA books were harsh I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from her adult novel. I picked it up one morning when I had some time to kill and was completely blown away. This woman is an amazing writer.
’Falling to pieces. That’s how my life feels. Fractured. Crushed. Disintegrating. And the weird thing is, it’s all because of that stupid little word: love. I’ve fallen in love with *name omitted*, and it’s tinting everything normal about me with shades of insanity.’
I could go into the storyline and what it’s all about, but the summary of the book pretty much says it all. The storyline wasn’t what made this book amazing though, it was the writing. The author also did the most amazing thing with the formatting of each page that really added something spectacular. I’m not often a fan of POV changes, and this book switches the POV often between the three main characters, but it totally worked in this situation. She also used a different font to differentiate between the characters which I thought was a brilliant touch.
As many of you already know, this author writes in verse, and I was not expecting to fall in love with that style of writing as I have. She would write in verse and then often between POV changes she would insert a poem… which was simply remarkable.
This was my favorite piece of hers:
Spilling a Secret
What its size,
will have varying
consequences. It’s not
possible to predict
what will happen
if you
open the gunnysack,
let the cat escape.
A liberated feline
might purr on your lap,
or it might scratch
your eyes out. You can’t
tell
until you loosen the knot.
Do you chance losing
a friendship, if that
friend’s well-being
will
only be preserved
by betraying sworn-to
silence trust? Once
the seam is ripped, can
it be
mended again?
And if that proves
impossible, will you be
okay
when it all falls to pieces?
kailaflick's review against another edition
3.0
I love Ellen Hopkins. I'm pretty sure I've read just about everything she's ever written. of all such novels, this one was probably my least favorite. I feel like most of the novel was spent on a grown woman being a drama queen because she never taught her husband how to make her orgasm. It was still a good read, But just not on par with her "teen" writings.
meandmypaperback's review against another edition
4.0
Full review at: http://justaddchampagne.blogspot.ca/
Triangles was my first ‘adult’ Ellen Hopkins book. And I was not disappointed. Not that I thought I would. I’m going to go all fangirl on you for a moment- I love Ellen Hopkins. Something about turning poetry into a novel just excites me. She writes beautifully, and maybe it is the poetry, but every time I read a book of hers I feel like I can relate to every single person in some way or another and I'm just drawn in, making it extremely hard to put down!
Anyways, back to the point...
Triangles is a novel that concentrates on three different women; Holly, Marissa and Andrea.
Holly: She is pushing 40 and was going through a mid-life crisis. Focused on working out and trying to start it up as an erotic novelist, Holly gets bored of her life. She has 3 kids, a loving husband, great house, everything anyone would ever want. However... sometimes once you have everything you get bored. Holly starts experimenting in the sexual realm of things, saying it's all research for her book. She basically is throwing away something for a little excitement, instead of just talking to her husband!!
Marissa: A mother of a gay son (who by the way is amazing portrayed in this book- strong, sometimes rebellious, independent and trying to help out whenever he can) and of a terminally ill daughter. Oh she is also wife to a husband who is never there, always focused on work and not helping out with their daughters rigorous health routine. Once she learns a very detrimental secret of her husband she has to figure out what's in her best interest. Tears were shed during her story.
Andrea: Is the middle thread as mentioned before. Holly is her best friend and Marissa is her sister. Andrea, she goes from one bad guy to the next, never catching a break. She sees how great Holly and her husbands relationship is (on the outside) and how barren her sisters relationship is, and she is stuck between the two. Her story seemed the most lack lustre of all three of them to me, while it wasn't boring it just wasn't memorable, definitely getting the sense that she was the anchor to hold the two other stories together.
Now that the main character descriptions are out of they way, they all go through some coming of age dilemma. And as always, Hopkins tackle difficult subjects, Triangles being no exception. The central theme though is cheating with other topics ranging from threesomes, to sex parties, to accepting a gay child, to name a few.
I totally enjoyed this book. It was hard to keep down and I wanted to know about each character getting mad that their section ended, but then excited to read on to the next one. The erotic/sex scenes were also written very tastefully so that if your teenager picked this up you wouldn't have to explain anything to embarrassing.
You know how much I love Ellen Hopkin, so please go and read this, or any of her novels. You will not be disappointed!
Triangles was my first ‘adult’ Ellen Hopkins book. And I was not disappointed. Not that I thought I would. I’m going to go all fangirl on you for a moment- I love Ellen Hopkins. Something about turning poetry into a novel just excites me. She writes beautifully, and maybe it is the poetry, but every time I read a book of hers I feel like I can relate to every single person in some way or another and I'm just drawn in, making it extremely hard to put down!
Anyways, back to the point...
Triangles is a novel that concentrates on three different women; Holly, Marissa and Andrea.
Holly: She is pushing 40 and was going through a mid-life crisis. Focused on working out and trying to start it up as an erotic novelist, Holly gets bored of her life. She has 3 kids, a loving husband, great house, everything anyone would ever want. However... sometimes once you have everything you get bored. Holly starts experimenting in the sexual realm of things, saying it's all research for her book. She basically is throwing away something for a little excitement, instead of just talking to her husband!!
Marissa: A mother of a gay son (who by the way is amazing portrayed in this book- strong, sometimes rebellious, independent and trying to help out whenever he can) and of a terminally ill daughter. Oh she is also wife to a husband who is never there, always focused on work and not helping out with their daughters rigorous health routine. Once she learns a very detrimental secret of her husband she has to figure out what's in her best interest. Tears were shed during her story.
Andrea: Is the middle thread as mentioned before. Holly is her best friend and Marissa is her sister. Andrea, she goes from one bad guy to the next, never catching a break. She sees how great Holly and her husbands relationship is (on the outside) and how barren her sisters relationship is, and she is stuck between the two. Her story seemed the most lack lustre of all three of them to me, while it wasn't boring it just wasn't memorable, definitely getting the sense that she was the anchor to hold the two other stories together.
Now that the main character descriptions are out of they way, they all go through some coming of age dilemma. And as always, Hopkins tackle difficult subjects, Triangles being no exception. The central theme though is cheating with other topics ranging from threesomes, to sex parties, to accepting a gay child, to name a few.
I totally enjoyed this book. It was hard to keep down and I wanted to know about each character getting mad that their section ended, but then excited to read on to the next one. The erotic/sex scenes were also written very tastefully so that if your teenager picked this up you wouldn't have to explain anything to embarrassing.
You know how much I love Ellen Hopkin, so please go and read this, or any of her novels. You will not be disappointed!
cleah's review against another edition
5.0
Three women struggle to keep their family and sanity together when all they want to do is fall apart. Holly joins a writing group as a way to escape her rebelling daughter and a husband who is no longer fulfilling her needs. Marissa is dealing with a gay son, a daughter requiring extreme special care, and a husband who distances himself more with each passing day. Andrea is a single mother with not much on her plate except loneliness and watching her daughter Harley grow up too fast, but when her best friend's husband presents an alluring opportunity, she takes it. Whether they are family or friends, these women experience their lives shatter in both similar and different ways, and pull from themselves and each other as life continues to move on.
Whoo boy. Be warned: emotions run high in this book! Though the constant onslaught on heavy emotions weren't always happy, they did an amazing job in building desires and actions for the characters. With unhappiness running so rampant, the women will have a wide appeal to readers. The misery and longing to escape will resonate with audiences from all backgrounds, even if the situations do not. I typically stay far away from novels written in verse, but was strangely drawn to this book. Perhaps because it is a well-known YA writer's first venture into adult fiction. Whatever it was that made me pick up this book, I am very glad I did. There was a staggering amount of stunning beauty in the simple poems at the end of the chapters. And the sheer emotion almost tipped me over the edge a few times. I barely paused to look up from this book while reading it, and will definitely be picking up more from Ellen Hopkins.
Whoo boy. Be warned: emotions run high in this book! Though the constant onslaught on heavy emotions weren't always happy, they did an amazing job in building desires and actions for the characters. With unhappiness running so rampant, the women will have a wide appeal to readers. The misery and longing to escape will resonate with audiences from all backgrounds, even if the situations do not. I typically stay far away from novels written in verse, but was strangely drawn to this book. Perhaps because it is a well-known YA writer's first venture into adult fiction. Whatever it was that made me pick up this book, I am very glad I did. There was a staggering amount of stunning beauty in the simple poems at the end of the chapters. And the sheer emotion almost tipped me over the edge a few times. I barely paused to look up from this book while reading it, and will definitely be picking up more from Ellen Hopkins.
mik_kass's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed the book, however I felt like most of the ‘action’ happened within the last 100 pages. The synopsis hints at more development on what happens near the end of the book rather than the long build up you actually receive.
lookingforamandaa's review against another edition
4.0
Have you ever read anything written by Ellen Hopkins? No? Then don’t bother finishing this review. Stop what you’re doing and go get one of her books right now and read it. Everything written by this author is absolutely incredible. She’s for sure one of my favorite authors out there. The way she writes is just mind-blowing.
Triangles is the first of her adult novels that I have read and I didn’t realize that it was going to be written the same way her young adult novels are. Hopkins writes her stories in poetic verse. She’s telling us the story that we’re reading, but within that story, there are poems that reflect what’s going on within the story or tells of things to come. If you haven’t read one of her books you don’t know what I mean, so go read one of her books and then come back and read this review. After I finished this book all I could think was how difficult it must be to come up with stories like these and then write them in the form that she does. To find the right words to reflect what the story is telling. It’s honestly so amazing and I’m in awe of her talent and creativity.
As for the story, it was interesting as her stories always are. Also, as usual, this book was about many different hard topics. Hopkins isn’t one to shy away from those controversial or difficult subjects. She’s honest and powerful and real about things that need to be said. Things like cheating on your spouse, from random hookups to actual affairs, teenage pregnancy from the parents perspective, having a child who comes out to you as gay and seeing the two different sides of accepting parent and the disdainful parent, parents that have disabled or ill children. This story was honestly hard for me to read because I’m eight months pregnant and thinking about my child dealing with heartbreak or illness or the struggles within these pages had me tearing up quite a bit. This is a book that will no doubt make you feel all the emotions and think about these hard topics that you may not have thought about before.
I’m not going to go into detail about any of the characters specifically because I don’t think I can do it without spoiling because of some of my thoughts about certain characters. So instead I will talk about the overall of the book. I think it was so fascinating to see these three women have their lives connect and slowly intertwine between their choices and their children and such. Three women, so very different from one another, going through their own struggles and dealing with said struggles in their own way, it was so interesting to see the three hugely different personalities dealing with their life issues in their own ways (even if I didn’t agree with some of those ways, it was still a little fun to watch them crash and burn). Three women who, from an outside perspective, have the world and still aren’t happy with it.
Overall this story was emotional and powerful, sexy and exciting, dramatic and entertaining. It had characters you can love and characters you can love to hate. I’m not surprised in the least that I loved this story. I think Ellen Hopkins did an excellent job with this adult novel, just like she always does with her young adult ones.
Triangles is the first of her adult novels that I have read and I didn’t realize that it was going to be written the same way her young adult novels are. Hopkins writes her stories in poetic verse. She’s telling us the story that we’re reading, but within that story, there are poems that reflect what’s going on within the story or tells of things to come. If you haven’t read one of her books you don’t know what I mean, so go read one of her books and then come back and read this review. After I finished this book all I could think was how difficult it must be to come up with stories like these and then write them in the form that she does. To find the right words to reflect what the story is telling. It’s honestly so amazing and I’m in awe of her talent and creativity.
As for the story, it was interesting as her stories always are. Also, as usual, this book was about many different hard topics. Hopkins isn’t one to shy away from those controversial or difficult subjects. She’s honest and powerful and real about things that need to be said. Things like cheating on your spouse, from random hookups to actual affairs, teenage pregnancy from the parents perspective, having a child who comes out to you as gay and seeing the two different sides of accepting parent and the disdainful parent, parents that have disabled or ill children. This story was honestly hard for me to read because I’m eight months pregnant and thinking about my child dealing with heartbreak or illness or the struggles within these pages had me tearing up quite a bit. This is a book that will no doubt make you feel all the emotions and think about these hard topics that you may not have thought about before.
I’m not going to go into detail about any of the characters specifically because I don’t think I can do it without spoiling because of some of my thoughts about certain characters. So instead I will talk about the overall of the book. I think it was so fascinating to see these three women have their lives connect and slowly intertwine between their choices and their children and such. Three women, so very different from one another, going through their own struggles and dealing with said struggles in their own way, it was so interesting to see the three hugely different personalities dealing with their life issues in their own ways (even if I didn’t agree with some of those ways, it was still a little fun to watch them crash and burn). Three women who, from an outside perspective, have the world and still aren’t happy with it.
Overall this story was emotional and powerful, sexy and exciting, dramatic and entertaining. It had characters you can love and characters you can love to hate. I’m not surprised in the least that I loved this story. I think Ellen Hopkins did an excellent job with this adult novel, just like she always does with her young adult ones.