Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

 
Smoke is the sequel to Ellen Hopkins' book, Burned, which was okay but not my favourite from her. Hopkins writes in verse which is a format I adore, and her books are the kind that deal with dark issues in a raw and honest way. As a result, I would easily pick up anything she wrote ever, so when I had the opportunity to read Smoke, of course I did. Unfortunately, it reconfirmed that this is just not my favourite Hopkins series. It's not bad, but it's just not to the standards of some of Hopkins other books for me.

In Smoke, Pattyn is on the run after Ethan's death and the loss of her baby, while her sister Jackie is left at home trying to tend to their large, shattered family. Both Pattyn and Jackie have secrets, and unlike Burned the book is told from both their perspectives. I thought that added in a unique element and I am always blown away at how different Hopkins makes her narrators sound even when they are both using the verse format.

I'm not convinced that Burned needed a sequel, and although it did end on a cliffhanger asides from tying that up Smoke feels a bit unnecessary. Although it's a very dark novel, it also manages to tie things up a bit too perfectly, *spoiler* and is too reliant on finding magical love interests who can solve everything, *spoiler* something that just doesn't feel authentic, or empowering, in the context of the book. I will definitely continue to recommend many novels by Ellen Hopkins in the future, as well as pick them up myself, but unfortunately Smoke will not be on the short list.

Release Date: September 10th 2013 Pages: 543  Format: ARC
Source: Publisher  Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry  Buy It: Book Depository

Collateral by Ellen Hopkins

In Collateral, Ellen Hopkins' second adult novel, Ashley, a young woman who doesn't believe in war, falls in love with Cole, a man who is fighting in it. Having been together for five years and four deployments, Ashley pursues her MFA while Cole is away. She never imagined her life this way, but her love for Cole leaves her no other option. The only problem is, Cole may no longer be the person she fell in love with.

The novel goes back and forth in time, from when Ashley and Cole were just falling in love, to their present situation five years later. I really liked the magic of when they were first together, and I feel like Hopkins captured that initial infatuation perfectly. I didn't find the tense-switching confusing, but I was desperate to know exactly how things went so wrong and that definitely kept me reading.

Like Hopkins' young adult books, many of which I have read and loved– including the Crank Trilogy and Identical– Collateral is written in verse. The verse is complimented by poetry written by Cole, which added an interesting dimension to the story by giving insight into what he was thinking and feeling. As always, I thought Hopkins' verse flowed smoothly and was really easy and enjoyable to read.

However, while I did think Collateral was incredibly well-written, but I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much as I've loved Hopkins' young adult books. This has very little to do with the fact that she's writing older characters here, and more to do with some of the storyline that just rubbed me the wrong way. In general, Hopkins' writes the kind of books that make the reader think, and although she still mostly does that in Collateral it sometimes became too preachy for me to really enjoy it. At some points, it felt more like a message than a story. Ashley spends a lot of time talking about how the war Cole is fighting in is wrong, and the overall tone of the book is pretty negative. It also sometimes felt like Hopkins was simplifying things too much for the sake of the story, including Cole's story.

That said, I feel like many of my reasons for not falling completely in love with Collateral have to do with this book in particular, so it hasn't changed my adoration of Hopkins, nor the likelihood that I would pick up another novel by her again in the future– including adult titles.

Release Date: November 6th 2012  Pages: 496  Format: E-galley  Source: NetGalley/Publisher
Also by this Author (YA): Crank (Crank #1); Glass (Crank #2); Fallout (Crank #3); Identical; Burned (Burned #1)  Publisher: Simon and Schuster  Buy It: Book Depository

This is a review by Zoë. You can find her here on Goodreads or on Twitter @strandedhero

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout (Crank #3) by Ellen Hopkins

Release Date: September 14th 2010
Pages: 662
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Also by this Author: Crank (Crank #1); Glass (Crank #2); Identical; Burned (Burned #1)
Buy It: Book Depository

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.

When I read the first two books in this trilogy, Crank and Glass, the final novel Fallout hadn't been released yet. As a result, it unfortunately took me a year and a half to finally pick up the conclusion to this heart-breaking story, based partially on the life of Hopkins' own crank-addicted daughter. With so long between books, part of me wondered if the novel would have the same power as its predecessors retained in my memory. The answer? It definitely does.

Fallout reminds the reader that some of the most tragic consequences of drug addiction are not the ones that happen to the addict. Each of Kristina's children have had their lives irrevocably changed by her decisions, and the grip the monster has on her life. The way that Hopkins deals with this complex and emotional issue is rich and authentic, and with each page I found a little bit of my heart breaking for Hunter, Autumn and Summer.

This was my first time reading a Hopkins novel with three points-of-view, and I was in awe of the way she transitioned between them and the intricate ways the stories came together. Each child showed different consequences, or fallout, of the addiction. Even when the characters made choices I didn't agree with, I couldn't help imaging that things could have been different. Summer's story was especially sad because she spent so much of her life in foster-care, while knowing that her grandparents had adopted her older brother and given him a home– an incredibly painful situation. However, Hunter's voice and story was my favourite to read, possibly because I felt like I already knew him a little from the first two books whereas the girls were both brand new.

My only complaint is that were newspaper articles interspersed with the story that didn't particularly add anything in my opinion, and threw off the pacing since the rest of the book was written in verse. Out of the five Hopkins novels I've read so far, this trilogy is definitely my favourite. Maybe it's the real life inspiration taken from Hopkins' own daughter, but these are such emotionally raw books, and Fallout is no exception. Ultimately, Fallout is a powerful and realistic portrayal of the far-reaching consequences of addiction, told in the clear and poignant verse.