Review: Crank by Ellen Hopkins

My rating: ★★★★★

What the story is about:
(This story is based on the true story of Ellen Hopkins' daughter)Kristina is a good student and incredible daughter who rarely ever gets into trouble. She lives at home with her mom, stepdad, and sister... who happens to be a lesbian. One summer, everything changes for Kristina when she goes to visit her real dad in Mexico. Her father is not anywhere close to a perfect parent. He's lazy and far more involved with drugs than he is with his daughters. While Kristina is visiting, she meets a boy named Adam, who brings Kristina into a whole new world after offering her crystal meth.  It is right around the time that Kristina meets and becomes involved with Adam that she creates her alternate personality, whom she calls Bree. She begins referring to herself as Bree every time she does anything bad, and to Kristina as the 'old her'. But Adam isn't who she thought he was, and before she can realize what's happening, she's hooked on meth, which she refers to as 'The Monster.' Her life quickly spirals downward, until something big happens to her and changes how she views everything. 

My opinion:
I used to be annoyed with the idea of Crank. Everyone in my high school that read it was deeply involved in the party scene and they raved about the descriptions of the trips and how badly they wanted to experience it. For that reason, I went on a small strike and refused to read it until a few weeks ago when I caved in and bought it. The moment I started reading, I realized what I had missed out on. The book is written in a series of poems. Some of them are very metaphorical and hard to understand unless you really focus, but as you keep reading, you get the hang of the book and it drags you in so quickly. I finished this book in less than two hours -- that's how addictive it was. And I didn't like it because of the detailed trips, but because of the pure poetic way it was written. It showed you the dark sides of meth and the way it took complete control of Kristina/Bree's brain before she could stop it. I'm absolutely in love with this book and if I could throw it at everyone and force them to read it immediately, I would.