Crank (Crank, #1)

by Ellen Hopkins

Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter: a gifted student, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is a total opposite to Kristina - she's fearless.

Through a boy she meets, Bree is introduced to the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild, ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul and, ultimately, her life.

• ISBN10: 1417632321
• ISBN13: 9781417632329
• Publish Date: 1 January 2001
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 April 2021
• Imprint: Turtleback Books
• Edition: Turtleback School & Library ed.
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Katie King]

Reread Jan 2016 to finish the Crank series. This was my first Ellen Hopkins book and I still see why it drew me to her so much!

Read somewhere in 2011/2012.

[Amber]

I appreciate what Ellen Hopkins is doing here, I really do. Raising awareness for drug abuse and mental illness is A+ and she should carry on doing what she’s doing. That said, I didn’t enjoy this book for one sole reason: the writing. I’d never read a book written in verse before, but I figured Ellen Hopkins would have been a great starting point. I didn’t like it. I really struggled to get sucked into the story and to feel anything at all for the characters. Crank was a quick read because sometimes there were barely any words on a page, but I didn’t fly through it because I loved it.

I’m almost tempted to carry on with this series out of curiosity over what happens next, but I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it. Maybe I need practise with such books? If I read more books that are written in verse, maybe I’ll get used to the writing style? I’m not sure. But I’m disappointed.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Full review coming soon.

[inlibrisveritas]

Crank is a fast paced, cautionary and sad tale of a high school girl named Kristina who becomes addicted to crystal meth. It takes us through the highs and lows of her addiction, but of course there are more books to this series and sadly it seems the ‘monster’ isn’t quite through with her.

This is a tough book, and it’s hard to say that I “enjoyed” it because it’s kind of sad to read about someone being so willing to toss their life away over a choice that she didn’t think through. I can say that I barely put it down and I read it within 24 hours of buying it, because despite knowing there are more books in the series I was really hoping that she’d come to some sort of realization and turn her life around. This is written in poetic form and if you’re familier with this style of writing then you know that the words read like a normal book but it’s the form of the words that helps emphasize feelings, pace, and weight. I can’t say this is my favorite style but I really enjoy the artistic license it takes with a story that in most cases would be entirely too hard to digest. It helps show her downward spiral and the way her thoughts play out. Not to mention it makes for an incredibly quick read.

I can’t say I liked Kristina (Bree) before or after the meth, and though I’m hesitant to say it because it’s based off of the author’s daughter, I really really disliked her. Before everything she’s okay but I found her to be rather naive and while that’s certainly realistic it’s incredibly frustrating to read about a girl who is so willing to go along with something terrible because of loneliness and acceptance. I get that family issues, teen angst/anger, and the need for a place can get to a person and make them do things they might not normally do…but meth is a ‘permanent’ solution to a temporary problem. It’s disheartening to see that choice made. After the spiral begins I flat out hated her, she became an exaggeration of the person she once was. Pushing those who actually care away in favor of idiotic people who had made the same choices as her.

Even though I wasn’t fond of the main character I really appreciated the book for what it was and the story it tells. Kristina faces a lot of choices, none of which are easy, and she doesn’t always make the best decision. It’s a heavy book but I definitely see it as worth the time to check it out.

[Angie]

After falling madly in love with Identical, I knew I had to go back read the author’s more popular novel, Crank. I wouldn’t say that I liked Crank, because it’s just a dark, rough book, but it is a pretty good one. It just didn’t affect me as much as I was expecting. I was a little put off from the very beginning, since there was no build up to Kristina becoming a meth addict. She goes to visit her father for a few weeks during the Summer, meets a hot guy, and all of a sudden all that she wants is “the monster.”

I felt like pushing off trying drugs to Kristina’s alternate personality, Bree, was interesting, but not a good enough explanation. It just seemed unbelievable that Kristina would just become a new person over night and decide that accepting crank from a boy she just met was a good idea. There was nothing particularly bad about her life, where I could reason that throwing herself into drugs might help. Sure her father is a dead beat and likes to party, but that was about it. A hot guy’s influence? Maybe. But Kristina was a straight A student, had never even kissed a boy, or done anything bad, so I had trouble understanding her decision.

However, Crank is fascinating. I may not have cared for Kristina/Bree’s story, but as a story about meth, I couldn’t flip through the pages fast enough. It’s like the drug became its own character and overshadowed Kristina. Everything she does is because of –or to get a hold of– the monster. It invades every aspect of her life and sets her on a path of destruction. She goes through some awful stuff as her addiction takes hold, and it seems impossible that she’ll get out of it.

Drugs are scary, and I think crank is the scariest of them all (especially after watching a documentary of it in High School Psychology!). While I couldn’t sympathize with Kristina, I was invested in her story, but only because there’s something magnetic about others’ experiences with drug use. I do think that the free verse format works especially well for this story. Bree doesn’t think in full sentences while she’s high, and she probably can’t form coherent thoughts either, so the disjointed poems certainly mimic that. The ending was bittersweet. It’s clear that Kristina is trying to push Bree out of her –and the monster along with– but it’s not just about her any more, and that left me feeling nervous. I’m glad that I have the next books already.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.