Life was good
Before I met
the monster.
After,
life was great.
At
least,
for a little while.
So begins Ellen Hopkins' story, Crank, which she describes as a story that could happen to any of us. Sixteen-year-old Kristina Snowe met "the monster" through a boy named Adam, who lived in the same building as her father. "The monster" transformed Kristina from a well-behaved honors student to one who barely passed her classes, climbed out of her bedroom window at night to meet dangerous dealers of the drug, even chasing a boy who raped her because she thought he might have access to it. Once one meets "the monster," it is in charge. The user can only bend to its will. And the user transforms into someone that his or her family won't even recognize. Kristina even gives herself a new name, "Bree." Bree belongs to the monster. Kristina came before.
This book has been challenged several times, Ellen Hopkins has even been uninvited from a teen literary festival in Texas, which is sad. Teenagers and adults who have struggled with methamphetamine addiction, or any kind of addiction, deserve to read a book that tells their story, so that they know they aren't alone. And those who have been fortunate enough not to have personal experience in this area, also deserve to read the book, in order to gain an understanding of the hell that is addiction and as a warning to never be tempted to try the drug.
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