Ellen Hopkins books

Crank
Kristina has a great life.  She has a family that cares for her and she is doing well in school.  She is a clean-cut, all-American teenager--until she visits her dad.  Kristina's dad introduces her to crank--a dirty, street-level form of crystal meth.  Kristina instantly becomes enchanted with the drug and the way it makes her feel.  Kristina morphs into "Bree", her alter ego.  Bree is fast, sexy, deceptive, and addicted to the "monster".  Bree seeks out boys to provide her with more of her beloved crank.  Her relationship with her mother and her family becomes rocky and her grades plummet.  Her drug use escalates, and she cannot make it through the day without the drug.  She juggles crank-filled relations with two different boys.  One night while Brendan and Bree are using and partying, Brendan rapes her.  Kristina becomes pregnant and slows down her drug use.  By this point she has stolen her mother's credit card and even begins dealing to support her habit.  Kristina gives birth to Hunter at the age of seventeen.  She is an addict; she is a mother.  How will her story end?

Expertly written and filled with emotion, "Crank" lingered on my mind long after I finished reading it.  Hopkins delivers Kristina's story in such a powerful way that, as the reader, I felt like I was experiencing the pain of crank too.  There were points while reading "Crank" that I had to force myself to continue reading.  Kristina's dive into the world of drugs bothered me immensely.    While reading "Crank" I felt such desperation for Kristina's situation that my mood matched that of the text.  Hopkins' powerful writing affected me tremendously.  I decided to read the sequel, "Glass", because I needed closure to Kristina's story. 



Glass
Kristina's dance with crank, or the "monster", continues in "Glass".  She now is the mother of a 5 month old boy named Hunter.  Disappointed with her new post-baby figure, Kristina decides to start using again.  She needs money to sustain her habit, so she gets a job at a nearby 7-11.  Her boss is a perverted creep, so her stint at the 7-11 isn't very long.  Kristina's dad comes to visit the baby, and while he is there Kristina stays out all night partying with him and his girlfriend.  Because of this Kristina almost misses Hunter's baptism.  Kristina continues to dive deeper into the world of drugs.  She parties, wrecks her car, neglects her son, and is eventually kicked out of her parent's home.  Leaving Hunter behind with her parents, she moves in with Brad, her boyfriend Trey's druggie cousin.  Life at Brad's is a snowball of horrible decisions.  She becomes a pseudo-nanny for Brad's two girls, and has easy access to her drug of choice.  Brad's estranged wife returns after leaving him, so Kristina has to find a new place to live.  Meanwhile she is dealing Mexican drugs.  After a stint in a cheap motel, Kristina and Trey move into an apartment together, and Kristina convinces her mother to let Hunter live with her again.  Hunter stays with Kristina for a short while when she discovers that she cannot take care of him and be a full-time drug addict.  Kristina's mom picks up Hunter, and her life continues on a downward spiral.  With no money for food or rent, Kristina steals checks from her mother. Her parents take custody of Hunter, and Kristina and Trey are on the run from the law.  Finally Kristina and Trey are arrested and sent to jail.  What will Kristina decide to do when she is free?

 Once again Hopkins conveys the terrible life Kristina has chosen.  As the reader, I sunk lower and lower each time Kristina chose crank over her son, her family, and herself.  The utter sense of hopelessness weighed on me heavily.  While the writing is expertly done, I have to admit that I didn't enjoy this book.  The characters and situations became so real to me that I delved into the dark world with Kristina.  I succeeded in reading the book, but I had a "Kristina" hangover for days.  I could not stop thinking about the horrible decisions she made. 


 

Burned
Pattyn is the oldest of eight girls in a strict Mormon household.  Pattyn's days are spent going to school, returning home to care for the younger children, and being beaten by her father. Pattyn's mother is a stay-at-home-mom, and spends her days watching TV.  Pattyn's father works security and likes to get drunk and beat his wife.  Pattyn has so many questions swirling inside her mind.  She questions her faith, her Mormon religion, and a woman's role.  Pattyn does not agree with the teachings of her religion and the religion's attitude toward women.  Pattyn does not want to be a submissive baby factory.  Pattyn likes to target practice in the desert near her home.  There she meets Derek, a cute and popular boy from school.  She continues to meet with Derek, and one day her father discovers Derek and Pattyn kissing.  He then threatens to kill Derek.  Derek soon breaks up with Pattyn, and Pattyn becomes bitter.  She proceeds to hit Derek's new girlfriend in the nose and throws her backpack through a school window.  Pattyn's dad doesn't want to risk Pattyn upsetting her mother, now pregnant with a long awaited son.  He sends her to live on her Aunt Jeanette's ranch far away.  On the ranch Pattyn learns to drive, ride and care for horses--and she meets Ethan.  Ethan and Pattyn fall in love and spend the rest of the summer together.  Pattyn believes that Ethan is her "forever love".  Pattyn grows very close to her aunt, and her aunt loves her like a daughter.  Pattyn's sister Jackie sends her letters stating that their father has now begun to beat  her as well.  At the end of the summer Pattyn's dad summons her back home to help care for the new baby.  Pattyn and Ethan are separated by hundreds of miles but communicate daily with the help of a gifted cell phone.  After a horrible night when Pattyn's father has beat her and her sister--she discovers that she is pregnant.  She tells Ethan that she wants to run away, and he asks her to marry him.  Ethan shows up at Pattyn's school and speeds off with her.  He decides to take a treacherous icy road through the mountains.  They see police lights behind them and Ethan speeds up on the icy road.  They are in a severe car accident, and Ethan and the baby die.  Now everything that Pattyn had dreamed of comes to a screeching halt.  Pattyn is so crazed by pain that she decides to kill every person that was linked to the end of her dream life.

There should have been a warning label at the beginning of this book!  Everything was coming along nicely.  Pattyn was about to finally be happy--and then Ethan dies.  He just dies.  Just like that.  When I read those words, "he didn't make it"  I screamed.  I literally screamed out loud!  Hopkins had just told a beautiful story, and I thought the "good guy" was going to win.  But she didn't.  She lost everything.  If I was this bothered by the ending, how will it affect a teenage reader?  Hopkins cannot be blamed for being predictable.  After finishing "Burned", I immediately began reading the sequel, "Smoke". 



Smoke
The book begins with Pattyn describing her feelings after the death of her father.  The book alternates between two voices: Pattyn's and Jackie's.  Jackie begins her story describing being raped by Caleb.  This act sets the stage for their father's death.  The father goes into the shed right after Jackie has just been raped.  He sees Caleb fleeing and assumes that Jackie was willingly with him in the shed.  Jackie's father begins beating her.  Pattyn arrives at the shed with a gun, and thinking that her father is beating Jackie to death, shoots him.  The girls' mother is now there, urging Pattyn to take their car and disappear.  Pattyn drives away, abandons the car at an airport garage, and takes a bus to San Francisco.  While on the bus she meets Adriana, and spends the night at her house.  She helps Adriana's cousin, Maria, and her sick baby Teresa.  Pattyn learns from another cousin of Adriana's, Angel, that there is a housekeeper's position available in the orchard where he works.  Meanwhile, Jackie is experiencing the aftermath of her father's death and the rape.  Jackie tells her mother that Caleb raped her, but her mother dismisses it.  Her mother has her eyes set on Caleb's father, a powerful member of their church.  She sells their little house, and with insurance money purchases a bigger, nicer house.  She begins inviting Caleb's father over for dinner, which unfortunately means that Caleb comes too.  Jackie has to face her rapist in her own home.  Angel drives Pattyn to the orchard where he works, and she gets the position as housekeeper.  She lives in the Jorgenson's household and cooks, cleans, and takes care of their youngest daughter.  She also observes the bizarre and rebellious behavior of their oldest daughter, Deidre.  Pattyn settles into her job, and Jackie continues to hide her secret.  Jackie meets Gavin, and they fall in love.  Jackie's mother allows her to date Gavin, who knows about the rape.  Pattyn and Jackie's mother grows closer to Caleb's father and Jackie is disgusted by this.  Pattyn is now growing closer to Angel.  Even though she is still mourning Ethan, she finds herself having feelings for Angel.  Angel and Pattyn are on their way to church when they are confronted by Deidre and her friends.  They shoot Angel and Pattyn.  Through this event Pattyn is reconnected with her aunt.  After Angel and Pattyn recover, they move to the ranch with Aunt Jeanette.  Jackie's mother comes around and finally supports her.  Jackie finds the courage to witness at church and tell the truth about her father's shooting and the rape.  She admits that she is the one who shot her father.

After the ending of "Burned",  I wasn't sure how Hopkins was going to redeem herself in "Smoke".  She ended up doing a fantastic job.  The reader was already familiar with Pattyn, and Jackie's character was expertly developed.  Again, I felt the highs and lows in the book along with the characters.  While at times I felt Pattyn's story was a little flat, that was offset with Jackie's story.  Unlike "Burned", "Smoke" ended somewhat happily.  Pattyn got another chance at love, and Jackie was able to tell the truth that was eating away at her. 



Impulse
Impulse is told by the three main characters: Tony, Vanessa, and Connor.  The lives of the three become intertwined when they meet at Aspen Springs mental hospital.  All three have tried to commit suicide and are at level one of their treatment.  Tony was abused as a boy by one of his mother's boyfriends.  He begins living on the street, selling his body for money.  He eventually swallows enough pills to attempt suicide.  His absent father steps in and pays for his treatment.  Vanessa seems like she has it all together on the outside--but she is into self-mutilation.  Her father is in the military and largely absent from her life.  Her mother is bipolar and at times hit Vanessa in her childhood.  Being raised by her grandmother, Vanessa decides to end it all and slits her wrists.  Her younger brother finds her, and she survives.  Connor lives the perfect life.  He wears perfect clothes, is a star athlete, and is on the track to an Ivy League school.  But on the inside of his life Connor's parents expect nothing less than perfection.  His mother is especially cold and harsh, constantly reminding him of his parent's expectations for his perfect life.  He tries to end his life by shooting himself in the chest.  These characters become intermingled as they develop relationships with each other.  Connor and Tony briefly compete for Vanessa's affections, even though Tony believes that he is gay.  As the three make it through the levels of their treatment, they each experience a family visitation day.  Connor's visitation is more of the same from his parent's with a lecture on their expectations from him.  The three advance to the final level of treatment: the wilderness camp.  Tony and Vanessa are growing closer and improving, but Connor stops taking his medicine.  On a rock climbing exercise, Connor lets his rigging loose and jumps over the side of a cliff.  Tony and Vanessa witness his final act, and they are left to mourn their new friend.

Again, Hopkins does a masterful job of intertwining her story from multiple points of view.  I never felt confused or lost as I made my way through the book.  She also developed each character in equal ways, so I felt like I knew the same amount about each one.  I didn't get as emotionally involved with the characters as I did in "Burned" and "Crank".    Connor's death was a shock, but it definitely did not hit me as hard as Ethan's death in "Burned".  Unlike "Crank" and "Glass", "Impulse" held hope and healing for the characters. 


Collateral
Ashley and Cole are in love.  She is a young college student.  He is a Marine.  They meet and make an instant connection.  Cole is not what Ashley considers the typical hardened Marine.  He is loving, poetic, and gentle.  Ashley and Cole decide that, even though he will be gone for long periods of time, they will hold on to their relationship.  Ashley's best friend is Darian.  Darian marries Cole's best friend, Spencer.  Darian lives on base and also waits for her Marine.  While Cole is gone, Ashley works on her degree.  At times she speaks to him frequently, and other times she goes days without hearing from him, depending on where he is and if he can access a phone or computer.  Through flashbacks we learn of Ashley and Cole's history.  The long periods of waiting.  The passionate homecomings.  It seems that all Ashley does is wait on Cole.  She goes through a roller coaster of emotions during the story.  Worry, fear, jealousy, love, guilt--she experiences all of these.  During one of the times that Cole will be coming home for Christmas, Ashley assumes that he will spend all of his time with her.  As he often does, Cole does not communicate his thoughts to Ashley.  He tells his mother that he is coming home to Wyoming for the first week of his leave, and spending the second week with Ashley.  Ashley later learns that Cole is still talking to an old flame.  Ashley is lonely and befriends two men at different times during her relationship with Cole.  What would Cole think if he knew how much time Ashley spends with her male friends?  Darian confides to Ashley that she is leaving Spencer for another man.  Darian is afraid to tell Spencer long distance and is awaiting his arrival to break the news to him.  Then Darian receives news that Spencer has been in an accident.  He arrives home severely burned and injured.  Darian decides not to leave Spencer after all because of his condition.  Ashley begins spending more and more of her time with her English professor.  While visiting Cole in Hawaii, he proposes to her.  Ashley agrees to marry him, but secretly has doubts.  After the visit she begins planning their wedding, spending time with the professor all the while.  Eventually Cole discovers Ashley walking into her apartment with her professor, Jonah.  Cole becomes furious and beats both Jonah and Ashley.  With a broken jaw and a broken heart, Ashley cancels the wedding.  She stays friends with Jonah, and decides to take that relationship slowly. 

There is a plot twist in this book that is similar to the end of "Burned".  Hopkins knows how to tell a gripping story, that not always ends happily.  Near the end of the book, Cole materializes to see Ashley with Jonah.  He calls her horrible names and hits her.  And that is the end of their relationship.  He calls her later to apologize, but that is too late.  While reading, I felt like I invested all of this time into learning about Ashley and Cole's relationship, with the book ending so suddenly. As a reader, I didn't feel closure when the story was completed.  Maybe that is the way Hopkins wants the reader to feel--just as betrayed as Ashley.