Review: Crank

 Crank, by Ellen Hopkins is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of hundreds of others, 537 pages of genius on paper. Now, I would have preferred my first review to have been on something less well-known, but I couldn't resist.
"Kristina is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. Then she meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild ride turns into a struggle for her mind, her soul --- her life". 
Summary: In the simplest definition, Crank is the story of a girl who has never gone through any real troubles, and then one summer, when she visits her father -- who is an ass and a drug addict -- she suddenly finds herself becoming involved with a troublesome boy and, you guessed it, Crank. This sets the outline for the rest of her life, and this book will keep you guessing what she is willing to risk in order to feed her addiction.

PROS: This is more than just a book about a troubled teen, something that I'm pretty sure we are all quite sick of, but it's poetry; literally. The way it's written is with hundreds of poems of all shapes and sizes, lengths and styles, and for a minute there, it's slightly confusing and kinda intimidating, but once you get into it, I promise it'll be almost impossible for you to put it down.

CONS: As much as I truly adore this book, we have to remember that nothing is perfect, even the things we love. One problem I have with this novel, is something that has always gotten in the way of me truly enjoying books to their full potential; how unrealistic it is. I just don't find what happened in this book, at least in the beginning, to be very probable. Now, I understand that this book is fiction and realism isn't necessary, but I find it hard to truly understand a book if the actions of the people in the book are inconsistent and/or just plain unlikely. i.e. When Kristina first goes to visit her dad in New Mexico she has never even been touched by a boy, and then she meets this kid whom she describes as a beautiful angel, and then he falls in love with her. I'm just confused on how she has never been the interest of any of the boys back home, but as soon as she travels and meets the "Hottest guy in the world", he is automatically head over heels for her? Isn't that just a little too convenient . . .

Rate: Beyond the tiny bit of bitterness I have towards the character Adam (the angel boy), I found this book truly brilliant/inspiring/entertaining.    4 out 5 Books (because books are better than stars).