Book Review ; Glass by Ellen Hopkins | Book Two in the Crank Series

Title ; Glass 

  Author ; Ellen Hopkins

  Genre ; Young Adult, Poetry, Fiction 

  Pages ; 681

  Publisher ; Margret K. McElderry Books

Synopsis ; This book continues to follow Kristina's downward spiral with addiction but now Kristina also has to deal with the fact that she's had a baby, a baby that was conceived from her being raped. Can Kristina turn her life around and be the mother her baby needs or will the monster take over again?

First Impression ; I didn't have a first impression of this book because I remembered some of it from school.

Rating ; 

Review ; So little words and yet a story unfolds in Ellen Hopkin's Glass. I was excited to start this book after finishing Crank and this book did not disappoint. I like getting to see more into Kristina's life and how things worked out after having a baby. I found myself hoping that Kristina would be the mother that she wanted to be but to also find happiness. I couldn't put this book down and finished it in just a few days. I can't wait to continue this story with the last book in this series, Fallout. 

Cover Rating ; 

Judging a Book by It's Cover ; I knew a bit about this book before starting it so I didn't really get to judge it by it's cover. I do like the basic cover designs of all Ellen Hopkins books so five stars will do. 

 

 

Crank by Ellen Hopkins | Book Review Spoiler Free

Title ; Crank

Author ; Ellen Hopkins

Genre ; Young Adult, Poetry, Fiction

Pages ; 537

Publisher ; Margret K. McElderry Books

Synopsis ; Kristina is an A+ student and she always does the right thing until she visits her dad and meets a boy, then Bree takes over. Kristina's life goes on a downward spiral as Bree makes the decisions. Bree isn't afraid to try new things and ends up getting addicted to the "Monster" and it takes over her life. This book follows Kristina/Bree's life as she deals with the consequences of getting addicted to the Monster.

First Impression ; I don't really have a first impression for this book because I actually read it when I was younger but I love Ellen Hopkins so I wanted to reread this series. I also lost my brother last year to an overdose and I remembered this series being about addiction so I wanted to reread it to maybe get more insight in my brothers life with addiction.

Rating ;

 

Review ; I'm a huge Ellen Hopkins fan, her books are an auto-buy for me. I love that she writes in verse and tells an entire story. She's very talented to be able to say so much with just one verse. Her books are very moving and I could continue writing the many reasons on why she's my favorite author but let's get back to the book review. Crank follows Kristina as she gets addicted to Crank, aka the Monster. We get to see Kristina/Bree's fight with the monster and I think this book is a little more insight to people that are near people with addiction but never dealt with it firsthand. You see how Kristina struggles, how she continues to make bad decisions while under the influence of the Monster, and how her family/friends are also effected. This book was a fast read because of how it's written in verse but by writing it in verse Ellen made this book more real and brutal, she doesn't sugar coat drug addiction and the consequences that can happen while being addicted to a drug. This book is about very real topics, things that happen to people everyday and it's not just about the drug addiction but other real life struggles that people deal with.

The Crank series is an unforgettable trilogy that you will always remember because of the deep serious meanings behind the books. This book is something I think everyone should read. I know that some schools prohibit this book from being in the library which is ridiculous because drug addiction is real and a lot of kids are peer pressured into trying them, I think by reading this book some kids will think twice before trying drugs, seeing the real life consequences of doing them. In this book you also get to see how people don't just do drugs because they have this terrible life or because they are depressed, sometimes they do it to seem cool or because they are bored and think it will be fun.

Cover Rating ;

Judging a Book by it's Cover ; The cover for this book is another simple cover, its solid black with Crank written in powder. It goes with the book perfectly and I love how Ellen Hopkins books all look, they are short, thick, and simple.

Quotes ;

       

Huge Decemeber Thrift / Christmas Gift Book Haul

I'll start off this post by saying this haul is insanely huge, for two reasons.

Reason number 1 ; I recently started recollecting books, so I feel the need to get a lot.

Reason number 2 ; these books were all SO cheap. Most of them were 10 cents each and I think the most I spent on any of the books was $2 for a book set and maybe $1 each for a few.

Every book I purchased myself was second hand, from Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill, or online. I also got a few books for Christmas as well, so let's get started.

I'll start with Christmas, I got a total of 15 books for Christmas. Including quite a few books by Ellen Hopkins, who I absolutely love, my boyfriend got a bundle of books of hers for $22, which is quite a steal! He also got me an autographed copy of If I Stay by Gayle Forman from Book Outlet which is also where he got the other (minus The Glass Castle) books. 

Next up are the books I got from Habitat for Humanity, I got a lot because they were all 10 cents each with the exception of the Vampire Academy 4 book set, which was $2, still an amazing deal. Most of these are books I just picked up because they sounded familiar or because they seemed interesting, so we'll see how that goes.

Now we're on to the Goodwill books, the most I paid per book was $1, the rest were 50 cents each because of Goodwill's end of the year 50% off sale and I'm definitely not complaining. I was pretty excited to find the Outlanders first 3 books but not so much now because I'm afraid to start such a long series, but in time I will read them. I was also insanely excited to find the Jane Austen books, I want to find the person that donated and thank them.

Books I forgot to mention that I got in December was Me Before You which I purchased online and After You which I got from Goodwill but forgot to post it in the photo because I am currently reading it.

And the last two books that I got this month were an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) and a book from a publisher to read for reviews. I've already posted a review on the ARC of Romeo and What's Her Name and I'll be reading The Convenient Escape.

 Here is a photo of all the new books I got in December, there is a total of 92 books!

My favorite book out of this haul would have to be ;

Thanks for reading, did you receive any books for Christmas? If so which ones? If there's too many to post, just comment which was your favorite?

<3/Bella