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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Book Review of Crank

By Natalie Wysokowski
May 20th, 2018 - Greenville New York
Arts and Culture      


The book I took the time out of my day to read was Crank by Ellen Hopkins. The main focus of the book is clearly given away in the title. Kristina, the main character, visits her estranged father in Albuquerque over the summer for a few weeks. During her stay, she meets Adam in her father’s dingy apartment complex. They have an immediate attraction to each other and he begins to introduce new experiences to Kristina such as drugs and tobacco. Due to these experiences, Kristina becomes a new, rebellious person who goes by the name ‘Bree.’ When her time is up in Albuquerque, Kristina has to leave Adam, but a piece of Adam will always stay with her - he is the cause for the drug addiction that she spends the rest of the novel battling. Her home life becomes a downward spiral as Bree begins to prioritize boys and getting her hands on any drug to feed her hunger; whereas, Kristina struggles to maintain her grades and regain herself.
The main theme of Crank is to emphasize the consequences of drugs. Kristina or ‘Bree’ are fictional characters, but her experiences surely are not. The shocking plot twists can easily be a reality, and the author uses these elements to stress the importance of her theme.
Since Crank fits under the verse novel genre, the structure of the sentences and Hopkins’s use of vocabulary is very complex. The format is seemingly choppy and at times hard to follow. The vocabulary sets a dark and expressive mood or tone. At times, her words make you stop and think about their meaning.
“Life was good before I met the monster. After, life was great.” (Page 1).
“Fear. Need. Concern. Lust.” (Page 438).

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