The book Crank by Ellen Hopkins is an interesting and detailed book about people spiraling out of control after making carless decisions. The main character, Kristina (who demanded to be called Bree) was a secretive and lonely girl. She enjoyed being alone the most though because it brought her a sense of tranquil reality. Bree finds a way through everything. In the beginning of the book, she states, “Even good girls have secrets, ones even their best friends must guess.” By saying this, she gives herself an explanation and reason as to why she is the way she is. Being alone was her little niche and she was okay with that. That all came crashing down when her absentee father called her mom on the phone requesting Bree to come visit for the rest of the summer. Bree was extremely surprised given she hasn't seen or spoken to him in eight years. Bree always had a soft spot for her father while feeling like she was little again and her daddy being her hero.
Bree has had a rough home life, starting from when her father left to when her sister was outed on being gay and taking in her family’s reactions. Her parents reactions will be forever stapled into her mind. Their mother cried while their father had resorted to name calling by calling her a queer. Bree’s emotions sprout from her rough childhood and a bit from her loneliness. The trip to her dad’s did not go as planned. She found out that her dad was/is a drug addict. He smoked pot, did coke, and currently does crank. She fell in love with a boy who does numerous drugs with her dad while he’s also a bad influence on her, she thinks by doing them with him will give her some relief from all the pain she’s experienced. When “the monster”, also known as crank, entered her life she knew there was no returning to the good old Kristina.
Meeting Adam was a blessing and a curse for both Bree’s mental and physical health. They started out slowly by smoking pot to feel better. She explains that her mentality is “Why go down if you can go up?” Her first time she did a line of crank was out of persuasion, which she couldn’t say no to Adam who was holding a straw and the mirror with the drugs covering it in his palm, up to her face.
The new name for her drug of choice is “the monster.” She soon becomes addicted to it and explicitly says, “Funny thing about the monster. The worse he treats you, the more you love him.” The more she takes, the more she feels better. Bree starts to itch for it more and more. She is going home soon and won’t have the same hook up for it, so I’m curious as to what she is going to do about her addiction.
Some groups of people might not like this book because talking about drugs and what they do to you can be a touchy subject. This book is better than some books because of the way it's written, the pages are not paragraphs, just short excerpts. Crank also isn’t as good as other books because since the passages are really short, the author uses lots of parts of speech that you may not understand by reading it quickly. Since the lines are so little to get information from, the reader must look closely to understand the story line. If you were playing Bree, and you were in this situation with the bad influences surrounding you, what would you do? Would you give up the bad stuff and get help before anything bad can happen? Would you let it happen if your with someone you really care about? How would you solve the problem Bree is in?
