Module 14: Poetry and Story Collections

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Hopkins, E. (2004). Crank. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Summary

Kristina Snow is a well behaved, smart, obedient seventeen year old until she goes to visit her absentee father in New Mexico. While trying to entertain herself in her father's rundown apartment she meets Adam, a handsome, magnetic guy who introduces her to the "monster": crystal meth. After being the perfect teenager for so long Kristina welcomes the change that overcomes her while under the influence of the "monster" and she becomes someone else, her alter-ego Bree. Bree is not afraid of consequences or how the monster may affect her life; she only wants to live in the moment and enjoy the new found high of Adam and meth. When she returns home to her mother and stepfather in Nevada, Kristina cannot escape the grips of the monster and soon becomes enslaved by it. Her life spirals out of control and she quickly realizes that she has little say in her addiction to the monster.

My Thoughts

This was one of the most powerful books I've read in a long time. The simplistic poetic format only serves to make the story of Kristina more intense. Each word has so much meaning and Kristina and her alter-ego Bree's fall into drug addiction is impossible to step away from. As Kristina makes more and more choices driven by the monster's influence, the reader can't help but say aloud, stop! However, as demonstrated by Kristina's downward spiral, meth is a force to be reckoned with and Kristina is powerless against it. Although it deals with very mature themes such as drug use, sex and abuse, I think that this is a good read for high school students and maybe some middle schoolers depending on their maturity, parents etc. In terms of library use, I would definitely use this book as part of either a young adult poetry program or perhaps for discussing drugs and their dangers in a way that teens would be more likely to pay attention to. The view of meth and its powers is so straight forward and raw, the reader cannot help but be somewhat horrified and scared of its ability to destroy someone.

Review

Gr. 8–12. Like the teenage crack user in the film Traffic, the young addict in this wrenching, cautionary debut lives in a comfortable, advantaged home with caring parents. Sixteen-year-old Kristina first tries crank, or crystal meth, while visiting her longestranged father, a crank junkie. Bree is Kristina’s imagined, bolder self, who flirts outrageously and gets high without remorse, nd when Kristina returns to her mother and family in Reno, it’s Bree who makes connections with edgy guys and other crank users that escalate into fullblown addiction and heartrending onsequences. Hopkins tells Kristina’s story in experimental verse. A few overreaching lines seem out of step with character voices: a boyfriend, for example, tells Kristina that he’d like to wait for sex until she is “free from dreams of yesterday.” But Hopkins uses the spare, fragmented style to powerful effect, heightening the emotional impact of dialogues, inner monologues, and devastating scenes, including a brutal date rape. Readers won’t soon forget smart, sardonic Kristina; her chilling descent into addiction; or the author’s note, which references her own daughter’s struggle with “the monster.” Engberg, G. Booklist, 2004.