Title: Glass
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: August 21st, 2007
Pages: 681 pages (paperback)
How I Got the Book: Bought it.
After a quick, slightly dull recap of what happened to Kristina in Crank, we jump to her current situation and experience it as she goes stir-crazy. If you thought you saw a downward spiral in the last book, you haven't seen anything yet. At least she lived in her own home the entire time in the last book! Everything gets that much grittier. The drug use is heavier, the drug dealing happens more often, and sex is everywhere. Parents probably don't want the little ones seeing this book. As out-of-this-world Kristina's life gets this time around, the knowledge of just how close to truth this novels is constantly hangs over the head of readers.
Kristina's character definitely takes a beating this time around and I don't mean just figuratively. As soon as she's back on meth, it takes over worse than before and it's really kind of sad. Everything lies forgotten while Kristina's high: her family, her future, and even her baby Hunter, the little boy who only wants to love his mother and be loved in return. In her quest to find met and love, Kristina ends up neglecting the one person who's there and ready to love her if only she'll be around and love him the way she should as his mother. Her narration of her life's twists and turns are often supported by the creative arrangements of this free verse novel. She'll say one thing and when reading between the lines, the good girl trapped inside speaks the truth.
The romance between Kristina and Trey is not a healthy one at all, but it's incredibly interesting and hard to look away from, like a fight in a school hallway or a car crash on the side of the road. They fight, they make up, they apparently have earth-shattering sex on a regular basis, and they are sure in their love for each other, which is probably helped by all the meth they're doing together. Every so often, I wondered how their love affair would fare if the meth was gone and it was just Kristina and Trey, not Kristina, Trey, and the monster. Just how much does meth influence how they feel for one another?
Knowing that this story is loosely based off what happened to the Hopkins' daughter gives the novel a strange sort of sense about it. How much of what is written is fiction, something the author made up for Kristina's story? How much of it is something that happened to Cristal, or a fight that happened between Hopkins and Cristal? Imagining that any of this happened to the author and her family is... There's no way to describe it, really. Powerful isn't enough of a word to express it.
The one catch in this book happens early on, when Leigh and her girlfriend Heather come for a visit and to be at Hunter's baptism. Kristina is so utterly focused on the fact that Leigh likes girls that it drives me bonkers, to use an aged phrase. Every other thought when Leigh is around or even mentioned seems to be "Leigh is a lesbian, Lesbian Leigh, lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian..." I get it! There's no need to repeat it a thousand times! Really, I've got no problem with Leigh being a lesbian. My problem lies with Kristina's refusal to tell us once and leave it at that. No, she's got to repeat it a thousand times in however many pages Leigh is around.
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: August 21st, 2007
Pages: 681 pages (paperback)
How I Got the Book: Bought it.
Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she is determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grip... and it won't let go.
Review:
Three months after her son Hunter's birth, Kristina is going insane and stir-crazy without crank and the freedom to do as she pleases. Leaving her baby boy Hunter in the dust, she jumps right back into her old habits and gets even worse. This time around, the monster doesn't want to let her go. Taking her everywhere from her own home to the arms of a fellow addict to that fellow addict's cousin, Kristina's in deeper than ever before. Still deep under Bree's influence, Kristina might only be stopped this time by jail or death.
Kristina's character definitely takes a beating this time around and I don't mean just figuratively. As soon as she's back on meth, it takes over worse than before and it's really kind of sad. Everything lies forgotten while Kristina's high: her family, her future, and even her baby Hunter, the little boy who only wants to love his mother and be loved in return. In her quest to find met and love, Kristina ends up neglecting the one person who's there and ready to love her if only she'll be around and love him the way she should as his mother. Her narration of her life's twists and turns are often supported by the creative arrangements of this free verse novel. She'll say one thing and when reading between the lines, the good girl trapped inside speaks the truth.
The romance between Kristina and Trey is not a healthy one at all, but it's incredibly interesting and hard to look away from, like a fight in a school hallway or a car crash on the side of the road. They fight, they make up, they apparently have earth-shattering sex on a regular basis, and they are sure in their love for each other, which is probably helped by all the meth they're doing together. Every so often, I wondered how their love affair would fare if the meth was gone and it was just Kristina and Trey, not Kristina, Trey, and the monster. Just how much does meth influence how they feel for one another?
Knowing that this story is loosely based off what happened to the Hopkins' daughter gives the novel a strange sort of sense about it. How much of what is written is fiction, something the author made up for Kristina's story? How much of it is something that happened to Cristal, or a fight that happened between Hopkins and Cristal? Imagining that any of this happened to the author and her family is... There's no way to describe it, really. Powerful isn't enough of a word to express it.
The one catch in this book happens early on, when Leigh and her girlfriend Heather come for a visit and to be at Hunter's baptism. Kristina is so utterly focused on the fact that Leigh likes girls that it drives me bonkers, to use an aged phrase. Every other thought when Leigh is around or even mentioned seems to be "Leigh is a lesbian, Lesbian Leigh, lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian..." I get it! There's no need to repeat it a thousand times! Really, I've got no problem with Leigh being a lesbian. My problem lies with Kristina's refusal to tell us once and leave it at that. No, she's got to repeat it a thousand times in however many pages Leigh is around.
Still as terrifyingly real and engrossing as the first book in the trilogy, Glass gets a lower rating only because of that whole repetitive "Leigh is a lesbian" thing. Books aren't going to win my favor over being repetitive like that. The final book Fallout is on my shelf, but I have a few other books to read first. It's a good thing exams are coming up--I'll have something to read while everyone else works or isn't there!
4 stars!
What am I reading next?: The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver
