eclecticemily 's review for:

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

1.0

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Summary: A teenage girl named Kristina goes to visit her estranged father for the summer and ends up getting addicted to meth. She has an alter ego she calls Bree, which she uses as her persona as she starts to dabble in more and more misdeeds.

Favorite Quote: I listened to this on audio so I don't have exact quotes, but I thought the sections that portrayed Bree like a separate entity inside Kristina were interesting. The metaphor of a drug/addiction being a monster was also evocative.

Review: I mostly didn't like the way this handled some of the topics toward the end. It takes a pretty pro-life stance on abortion which I don't agree with and I don't like to see that stance in a book aimed at young people personally.

Especially when she's pregnant with her rapist's baby which is usually considered an exception even for most pro-life people.

It also ends up taking a pretty pessimistic stance on rehabilitation for drug addicts, like basically saying it's not possible. Also just in general this is a very 'scared straight' style book which feels kind of dated and preachy. The audiobook production was also really bad for some reason. Like there are random sections where the narrator sounds completely different or the sound quality gets really bad for no reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape