Wednesday 9 May 2012

Review: Fallout (Crank #3) by Ellen Hopkins

 Source: Borrowed from the library.
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: Already Released.
Number of Pages: 662 (Hardcover)

Goodreads links to other books in this series:
Crank (Crank #1)
Glass (Crank #2)

Note: I'm leaving out the description for this one because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the first books. It's probably not a huge shock who the new narrators for this book are, but I'll leave the decision to check out the description. You can find it in the Goodreads link above. I've also included the links for the first two books in the series for anyone who hasn't read them yet. :)



This is truly an amazing series, and it makes me so glad that I first gave poetic verse a chance because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have read these awesome books! :D

I'm not going to say too much because I will totally spoil the earlier books in this trilogy if I do, but I'll say a little. First, I loved that Fallout changes POV. The first two books were in Kristina's POV, which I loved, but in Fallout it switches to the POV of three other characters...I'm not going to tell you who they are (I'm sure the description will tell you anyway, but still :P), but I loved how by switching POV it showed the ways that addiction affects others, not just the addict. I also really enjoyed that throughout Fallout there were news articles that had little stories about characters from the previous two books. It was a fantastic way for the reader to become aware of what had happened to them, and so creative...I loved it! :D

This series is definitely intense and covers serious topics, and I love the way that Ellen Hopkins has written them. I find her writing style to be so beautiful, and it is so easy to lose yourself in these books. I've been so fortunate to never have faced addiction myself, but these books show how easy it could be to succumb to an addiction or become addicted to something, and they show how others can be affected by someone's addiction. I think this series gives voice to addicts, and people who have been affected by the addiction of others, and I find that to be so powerful and inspiring. This is definitely a series that readers can relate to, and even if Kristina and her family's story isn't something that you can directly relate to, it is something that you can read and find power in. Maybe you've considered drugs yourself, faced addiction, had family that faced addiction, or maybe, like most teens, you've faced peer pressure. In that way, even if you haven't done the same things as Kristina or faced the same things, you can look at her experience and the way it affected the people around her, and you can be confident in the good choices you've made, or you can find the strength to make better choices and not end up in the same situations that she found herself in. I find the fact that this series can inspire all that to be pretty remarkable, and it makes an already amazing series even better.

In her author's note of Fallout, Ellen Hopkins said that she wanted this "book to be the most powerful of the three", and I think she's done that! I've loved all three books, but I definitely found the conclusion to be even more powerful because it shows just how much Kristina's story isn't her own, and that the choices she made for herself had repercussions that affected a lot of people she cared about...and I found that to be incredibly powerful. Overall, I love this series, and I would definitely recommend it, especially if you haven't tried out poetic verse yet, and are a little unsure. Ellen Hopkins was the first author I read who wrote in poetic verse, and I've never looked back! She's a wonderful author, and if you're looking to try out poetic verse, she's a great place to start because you'll get a beautifully and creatively written series, and a truly remarkable story all in one package. :D

Have you read anything by Ellen Hopkins? Are you a fan of her, too?
I love books like Fallout, and the rest of this series, that make you think about things like addiction. It challenges you to put yourself in someone else's shoes and try to feel some compassion or understanding for them. Does anyone else feel that way about books with serious subject matter, like addiction?

5 comments:

  1. Wow you wrote this review fast!

    I'm so glad you loved this series and gave poetic verse a chance, I agree it really does give a powerful voice to addicts. Hopkins does such an incredibly job of dealing with tough issues in an authentic way. Reading Fallout just makes me want to pick up more of her novels since there are still quite a few I haven't read.

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    1. I sure did...it started as a couple of sentences on Goodreads and totally turned review length, so I figured, what the heck might as well make it a full review! haha I am, too! :D She sure does and she makes it so easy to understand how sometimes it isn't always something they can get under control and how a familial tendency towards addiction can make it even harder for some people to resist. Me too! I'm definitely going to have to add some of them to my hold list at the library. :D

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    2. I'll be curious which ones you read next! I've read Burned and Identical too, I have a copy of Impulse but I packed it up somewhere... Triangles is definitely next for me though (of course!).

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    3. lol I'll have to look through them all on Goodreads and pick...if I can't decide I'll read whichever one shows up at the library first! haha :P Yay for Triangles! I hope you like it! :D

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