Glass by Ellen Hopkins Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Glass
Book Review: Not Enough of the Consequences...
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this (and Crank) to review before my 11 year old daughter read it because some of her friends have read it. (Obviously, she won't be getting her hands on it anytime soon.) I thought it would be a good book for the future, during those impressionable years. I feel that the whole "meth" thing has been more glamorized in these books. I watched people "dance with the monster" and it isn't pretty in the least. I think she mentions the sores once or twice, the bit of blood in the sink and the lack of lustre in the hair. In reality, crappy meth and on the other end of the spectrum, "glass" will do so much more to you physically in a VERY short period of time, than what was described. Perhaps more research should have been done like speaking with addicts about the horrors and presenting them as Kristina's horrors. Bree was glamorized way too much. If I was a teen and read this book, I'd give meth a try...the books didn't scare me a bit. IMO if you're going to write a book like this, you have a responsibility to your audience and others to not downplay such a serious issue. My opinion...Book Review: Not really so great
Summary: 3 Stars
It is clear that Ms. Hopkins has found an audience who loves and admires her story telling. With no slight to them, this just isn't all that good a book. It isn't up to par with "Burned" or "Impulse" and on its own, "Glass" is a pain. I slogged through it because it will be so popular with students at the high school where I teach that I needed to be familiar with it. I'm not certain it is anything more than a 680 page "Crank" re-tread. It takes us along with Kristina as she descends into hell, a journey that yields no revelations, no insights, just banal depravity. I do hope that fans of Hopkins will seek out other books that offer richer feasts.Book Review: Still just as powerful the second time around
Summary: 4 Stars
Cross-posted from my blog, Ashleigh Reads (With a Ukulele).
Three months after her son Hunter's birth, Kristina is going insane and stir-crazy without crank and the freedom to do as she pleases. Leaving her baby boy Hunter in the dust, she jumps right back into her old habits and gets even worse. This time around, the monster doesn't want to let her go. Taking her everywhere from her own home to the arms of a fellow addict to that fellow addict's cousin, Kristina's in deeper than ever before. Still deep under Bree's influence, Kristina might only be stopped this time by jail or death.
After a quick, slightly dull recap of what happened to Kristina in Crank, we jump to her current situation and experience it as she goes stir-crazy. If you thought you saw a downward spiral in the last book, you haven't seen anything yet. At least she lived in her own home the entire time in the last book! Everything gets that much grittier. The drug use is heavier, the drug dealing happens more often, and sex is everywhere. Parents probably don't want the little ones seeing this book. As out-of-this-world Kristina's life gets this time around, the knowledge of just how close to truth this novels is constantly hangs over the head of readers.
Kristina's character definitely takes a beating this time around and I don't mean just figuratively. As soon as she's back on meth, it takes over worse than before and it's really kind of sad. Everything lies forgotten while Kristina's high: her family, her future, and even her baby Hunter, the little boy who only wants to love his mother and be loved in return. In her quest to find met and love, Kristina ends up neglecting the one person who's there and ready to love her if only she'll be around and love him the way she should as his mother. Her narration of her life's twists and turns are often supported by the creative arrangements of this free verse novel. She'll say one thing and when reading between the lines, the good girl trapped inside speaks the truth.
The romance between Kristina and Trey is not a healthy one at all, but it's incredibly interesting and hard to look away from, like a fight in a school hallway or a car crash on the side of the road. They fight, they make up, they apparently have earth-shattering sex on a regular basis, and they are sure in their love for each other, which is probably helped by all the meth they're doing together. Every so often, I wondered how their love affair would fare if the meth was gone and it was just Kristina and Trey, not Kristina, Trey, and the monster. Just how much does meth influence how they feel for one another?
Knowing that this story is loosely based off what happened to the Hopkins' daughter gives the novel a strange sort of sense about it. How much of what is written is fiction, something the author made up for Kristina's story? How much of it is something that happened to Cristal, or a fight that happened between Hopkins and Cristal? Imagining that any of this happened to the author and her family is... There's no way to describe it, really. Powerful isn't enough of a word to express it.
The one catch in this book happens early on, when Leigh and her girlfriend Heather come for a visit and to be at Hunter's baptism. Kristina is so utterly focused on the fact that Leigh likes girls that it drives me bonkers, to use an aged phrase. Every other thought when Leigh is around or even mentioned seems to be "Leigh is a lesbian, Lesbian Leigh, lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian..." I get it! There's no need to repeat it a thousand times! Really, I've got no problem with Leigh being a lesbian. My problem lies with Kristina's refusal to tell us once and leave it at that. No, she's got to repeat it a thousand times in however many pages Leigh is around.
Still as terrifyingly real and engrossing as the first book in the trilogy, Glass gets a lower rating only because of that whole repetitive "Leigh is a lesbian" thing. Books aren't going to win my favor over being repetitive like that. The final book Fallout is on my shelf, but I have a few other books to read first. It's a good thing exams are coming up--I'll have something to read while everyone else works or isn't there!
Book Review: Watch for broken glass
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this book I was stunned and shocked there wasn't a third book to continue the story started by "Crank". This is an amazing read and very good for people who find it hard to keep themselves into a book. I have a 13 year old niece whom I can never seem to find a book she is interested in enough to read all the way through. After reading this I gave it to you to read and she was done within a week. Excellent and I would recommend it to anyoneBook Review: What We've All Been Waiting For...
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally... we'll get to grow with Katrina/Bree some more... in the Sequal of Crank...
Glass should be packed with more news of how she is going by with the baby, trying to stay off meth, and all the rest of the things crashing in around her life.
i've been hoping and praying that i would get to find out.
...
i wish i could grab the book up now and start reading it. now that i know there is a sequal and more to the life of the person, i have to bite my nails while i wait!
...
ellen hopkins is a brilliant and stunning writer - with her "poetic novels" that keep you glued to the next page - and by the end of the book ( which takes me about 2 hours to read now because i've read them so many times ) you look at the white page, and realize you are finished - but saddened because you need to know more...
and now we are getting our chance!