Fallout (Crank, #3)

by Ellen Hopkins

[Angie]

Starting out eighteen years later, Fallout is quite different than the two preceding books. Instead of following Kristina’s continued party with the monster, it chronicles a few months in the lives of her three oldest children –Hunter, Autumn, and Summer. I actually loved getting out of Kristina’s head, as her story was getting quite repetitive. In Fallout we have three different POVs, each unique. The one thing that they do have in common is that Kristina’s addiction has left its mark on each of them. It just goes to show that the reach of meth extends far beyond just its users.

Hunter, the baby born at the end of Crank, who we see Kristina abandon in Glass, is all grown up and attending college. He should know better than to get mixed up with drugs, since he’s predisposed to addiction, but he regularly smokes weed, pops mystery pills, and drinks. He’s had a good life being raised by his grandparents, so I don’t really get why he does it, but he’s clearly not heading down the same road as his mother. Then he meets his father, and finds out that maybe he’s not so bad as he was led to believe.

Autumn is the baby Kristina discovers that she’s pregnant with when she goes to prison at the end of Glass. Now in Fallout she’s 17, living with her aunt and grandfather (Trey’s sister and father), and she has no clue about the rest of her siblings. She suffers from OCD and panic attacks, but lives a relatively normal life. She knows about her parents’ pasts, so she has no interest in drugs. Her sections are actually pretty boring, and brought my rating down. Whenever her name popped up, I got less interested in reading. Nothing interesting happens to her until the very end, but when Fallout ends, we’re left with one huge question about her situation. I can’t say what it is without spoiling, but I would have liked to have known what happens with that.

Summer is 15 and has been bouncing from foster home to foster home. Despite this rough upbringing, or maybe because of it, she’s super smart and in all AP classes. The mark that Kristina left on this daughter is chronic asthma, so at least that keeps Summer away from smoking. However, she does have this nagging curiosity about meth. She wants to see why her mother chose it over her. It can’t be that bad can it? I did find Summer’s chapters to be quite interesting. She falls into similar patterns as her mother did, which is worrisome even without the drugs.

Ultimately, the story comes back to Kristina. Like everyone in Fallout says, “Kristina is all about Kristina,” and in the end so is this series. That’s probably why we don’t get any closure on her children’s stories. The ending is a little bittersweet, but definitely not happy. There’s the impression that Kristina did eventually leave meth behind, but its damage had already been done. Overall, I liked this series. It was an interesting look at addiction, but it got repetitive and boring at times. This could have been solved by not being quite so lengthy. I’d still recommend these books though.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.