"Glass" by Ellen Hopkins

I love Ellen Hopkins’ writing. I have yet to read Burned and Impulse, but I’ve read Crank multiple times. And, OHMIGOD, I love that book so much.

Glass is the sequel to Crank. Both books are written in free-verse poem form, and they’re all well thought-out and generally have hidden meanings. Some of the poems are written so they are shaped like something else (there are some shaped like letters, one shaped like a dollar sign, and a few in a rhombus shape), and there are some that are indented in certain ways so that they mean something else entirely (for instance, “Like I Care” on page 153).

I love the way she writes not as just some scholar or former cop who just knows what they have seen in the field or books, but as someone who has had a personal experience with methamphetamines. (Her daughter is a former user and the books are based loosely off of events that have happened to her.)

But these experiences, rightly so, make me never want to even consider meth. That was probably the point though.

(SPOILER!)
I did respect Kristina in the beginning though, because Crank ended with her getting pregnant and going clean – but I quickly lost that respect as soon as she picked up that lighter. Her mom was COMPLETELY in the right to file for Hunter’s custody. I’m not going to get up on a pedestal for the whole teen-pregnancy thing, because it wasn’t her fault – Hunter was the product of a rape in the first book. However, teenage drug use (or any other age group, for that matter) is nasty. It’s a personal choice, and some people start doing drugs as a release for something bad that has happened, but nothing really went wrong in Kristina’s life till she met the monster.
That’s when all the trouble started for her. She only started meth because it seemed like fun. Plus, she just wanted to get this guy who wasn’t even available anyway.

Frankly, the story is amazing, but Kristina is dumb. As a person, not a written character. As a character, she is incredibly believable. She just makes really crappy decisions.

♥