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A review by caidyn
Collateral by Ellen Hopkins
3.0
For me, this wasn't my favorite Ellen Hopkins book. The subject interested me with the army, mainly because I rarely read things focused around it. And hearing that it had to do with PTSD really sparked my interest since I've always been fascinated with things like that, anything to do with changes in the brain really. But there was too much unexplained for my liking, too much that was just left open that I didn't know how to feel about. I was wanting more from it than I had gotten.
The story was crafted well in the sense of Cole, but other than that it didn't really tie together. The mother with the story of her father and the murder-suicide didn't really seem to have too much to do with anything besides foreshadow what Cole did in the end. Darian and Spencer were there but weren't really, slightly foreshadowing with Darian talking about, more of hinting at, Spencer hitting her. The only character that I felt was full of what the story needed was Cole, but I disliked him through the whole thing because of how much the viewpoints I have differ strongly from his.
I wish that the story had been in a straight line, maybe focusing more on the present than in the past. I did love the background information that brought how their relationship was to life, but I really wish it had been in the beginning rather scattered throughout the whole book to have things that would have made sense earlier brought to light much later.
But, as always, the poetry was beautiful. The only part I personally liked of Cole was his poetry and how much it brought his character to life. I think that I would have liked this story more if it had been from his viewpoint, to really accent a soldier and PTSD, as well as maybe made him a bit more likable to me. Each poem that he wrote brought to life war to me. And I don't know a lot of war. My parents aren't in the military and neither are any of my family members that I'm specifically close to.
This is one story that I do think could have used a bit more but was, in its own way, touching to the heart in seeing a soldier trying to cope with coming back by choosing a bad and violent way.
The story was crafted well in the sense of Cole, but other than that it didn't really tie together. The mother with the story of her father and the murder-suicide didn't really seem to have too much to do with anything besides foreshadow what Cole did in the end. Darian and Spencer were there but weren't really, slightly foreshadowing with Darian talking about, more of hinting at, Spencer hitting her. The only character that I felt was full of what the story needed was Cole, but I disliked him through the whole thing because of how much the viewpoints I have differ strongly from his.
I wish that the story had been in a straight line, maybe focusing more on the present than in the past. I did love the background information that brought how their relationship was to life, but I really wish it had been in the beginning rather scattered throughout the whole book to have things that would have made sense earlier brought to light much later.
But, as always, the poetry was beautiful. The only part I personally liked of Cole was his poetry and how much it brought his character to life. I think that I would have liked this story more if it had been from his viewpoint, to really accent a soldier and PTSD, as well as maybe made him a bit more likable to me. Each poem that he wrote brought to life war to me. And I don't know a lot of war. My parents aren't in the military and neither are any of my family members that I'm specifically close to.
This is one story that I do think could have used a bit more but was, in its own way, touching to the heart in seeing a soldier trying to cope with coming back by choosing a bad and violent way.