Crank - Taylor Simmons

By Taylor Simmons -
This is my second time reading this book, and I think it impacted me more this time than the first time I read it when I was around 15 or 16 years old. Crank is not a happy story whatsoever. It is dark, painful and very gruesome. No addiction of any kind is ever happy. I don’ really remember my initial reaction to this book the first time reading it but this time, it shocked me more than anything. The author, Ellen Hopkins, did a great job manifesting Kristina and Bree and show the stark contrast between the two and the effect the monster had on them “both”.

I really enjoyed the verse writing style because it is different, and in my opinion, it made the book really easy to read, not saying the content was easy to read but I found myself reading very quickly. When I first started reading I felt like I was already 100 pages in, in what felt like the blink of an eye. At first some of the pages confused me on how I was supposed to read: vertical or horizontal, title being the first sentence or not the first sentence, then I soon realized that I was so deep into the story that after I was halfway through the book I got used to the style and was really just reading. I was so interested to find out more about Kristina and Bree and the other characters that I just could not put the book down until the last page.

I think Kristina created Bree as a way to separate herself from reality and stay in denial about what she was really doing to herself. It was almost as if she did things as Bree so that it wouldn’t seem as bad, to take the blame away from Kristina, who she really is, “Bree is no imaginary playmate, / no overactive pituitary, / no alter ego, moving in, / Hers is the face I wear, / treading the riptide, / fathomless oceans  where / good girls drown” (8). Kristina knows that Bree is her complete opposite, her comfort in tough situations, it’s like she “channeled” Bree when she knew she was about to do something Kristina would never do, “I invited Bree to take over while / Kristina took cover” (246).

Crank is an eye-opening story that I think more adolescents need to read. It is real, it describes the effects of drugs in such a drastic way. It is touching and sad and heart breaking but it is real, and it is so important. This book is needed to educate adolescents because so often topics such as addictions and drugs are swept under the rug until it s too late.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 15, 2017 at 1:43 PM

    Hi Taylor!
    I really enjoyed reading your insight into the novel. I definitely agree about Kristina creating/using Bree in order to almost disassociate from what she was doing. It's interesting how Hopkins gives Kristina a "split personality." Readers get to see how those two personalities are similar, different, and how they relate throughout the novel. You always know when she refers to herself as Kristina she's usually discussing her family/childhood and "normal" times before the monster. Conversely, whenever Bree comes in you know something bad is going to happen.

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