crank & glass.

every once in awhile you get a ’sick day’ that is actually pleasurable.

i had one of those days today.

i have lost my voice completely… i can whisper and make weird trumpeter swan noises – but that is about it.

an annoyance – yes.

an excuse to say in bed and read all day – definitely.

i started reading ellen hopkin’s series backwards.

i bought her latest novel ‘tricks’ well on a trip with my roommates to the pharmacy.

i was instantly drawn to ‘tricks’ because of it’s unique cover art.

after reading the book in two nights i suggested it to my sister who already had the previous five books in the series.

tricks is about five different people in five different situations and the trials and tribulations that they go through in their life. the commonality between the characters and their stories is child prostitution.

this book really opened up my eyes to the detrimental situations that teenagers find themselves in and the lengths they will go to survive.

in the author’s note at the end of the book ellen writes; “i am often asked how i decide to write about a certain topic. this one was inspired by a statistic i came across. did you know that the average age of a female prostitute in the united states is twelve years old?”

this statistic floored me, but it didn’t surprise me – especially after reading her book.

i then proceeded onto reading crank & glass (her first two books, glass being the continuation of crank). on various occasions ellen has admitted that these two books are based loosely on her daughter’s experience with the monster (crystal meth). the draw to someone my age may not be there, as the main character is in her mid-teens. the content; however, focuses on the trials and tribulations of a young girl and the horrific encounters she has while doing drugs (rape, pregnancy, being kicked out, withdrawl etc.)

it’s almost fascinating, for someone who has never done the drug, to read about the lifestyles that meth addicts lead. it is by no means glamorous.

not only does ellen draw on the drug issue, she also writes about the insecurities taking place within the main character kristina.

kristina merely wants to be loved, whether that’s love from her degenerate father (who is also a meth addict), or love from the guys she encounters during her drug renegades. it’s easy for the reader to see that she is looking for love in all the wrong places.

after visiting her father and falling in love with adam her second personality develops and the reader meets ‘bree’. bree is the complete opposite of kristina in various ways; she’s a bad ass that kristina finds extremely difficult to ignore. bree becomes kristina’s alter ego when she’s using.. it’s unfortunately because the majority of the issues that kristina encounters are a direct result of bree and ‘the monster’. she ends up getting pregnant (she gets raped while doing meth) and decides to keep the baby; even though it means having to look her rapist in the face every time she looks at her beloved baby. at the end of crank kristina is pulling her life together and off of drugs.. or so it seems.

at the beginning of glass kristina seems to be pulling her life around.. she’s been clean (mostly for the sake of her baby, not so much for personal benefit) for awhile and studying to get her GED. when life starts to get tough she begins using again, but this time she thinks she can control it.

wrong.

the monster takes over her life and kristina’s parents put their foot down and kick her out of the house. with no-one else left to go she takes up residence at her ‘boyfriends’ cousins house (who also happens to be a dealer). she becomes his live in nanny (because his wife left him) and takes care of his two beautiful daughters. she begins using heavily and her life takes a spin for the worse. she ditches her car, loses her son, and eventually gets kicked out of her surrogate home. ‘glass’ follows kristina’s ascent back into hell and demonstrates to readers how truly brutal and detrimental drugs are to ones life.

like i said before the books are an extreme eye-opener, especially to those readers (like myself) who have never ventured into the world of hard drugs.

i’ve started reading ‘impulse’ the next book in ellen’s series.. in total there are six books in the series: crank, glass, burned, impulse, identical and tricks. i suggest these books to anyone who enjoys reading series and love stories that’re extremely unpredictable, dramatic and even somewhat relateable.

check out the books and ellen at www.ellenhopkins.com