Review of Glass by Ellen Hopkins

I have read two of Ellen Hopkins' earlier books, Burned and Impulse. This 2007 novel in poems is a sequel to Crank, which I haven't read. In Glass, we follow teen mom and addict Kristina Snow's return to using meth, the "monster" from which she doesn't want to escape. The book opens at a point when Kristina is still free from earlier use, working at being a responsible mom, with functional relationships with her stepfather, mother, siblings, and infant son, conceived when she was raped by her supplier. The first few poems describe how her life as a good student and happy teen was disrupted during a summer visit to her father when she was introduced to crank, an experience that enabled her to discover her inner alter ego, a brash risk-taker whom she's named Bree. Baby Hunter is demanding, and Kristina's relationship with her mom is fraught with tensions, and Kristina-Bree is ready to take the plugs out of her ears and listen to the siren that is luring her back to feeling good, living in the moment, and taking whatever desperate measures she can--from robbing Hunter's piggy bank to taking a job at the local convenience store where the manager cops a quick feel on every possible occasion--to hook up with a connection again. And when she starts buying from the gorgeous Trey, a college student whom she sees on his irregular visits to his cousin for replenishment of his supply of Mexican meth, she finds herself not only hooked up, but even falling in love.

Kristina's addiction rapidly destroys her family relationships. When her mother kicks her out of the house, denying her access to her baby, she flees to Trey's cousin's home, where she soon wangles a job as nanny--with benefits--at least until Brad's wife reappears. The relationships among the four individuals in these two couples are complex but end in betrayal. Homeless, on their way to California to deal, Kristina and Trey are arrested, ending Kristina's second dance with the monster--though the irrepressible Kristina ends on a note of hope for her future.

I like Hopkins' stories, even if they are sometimes melodramatic. When it comes to stories of addiction, I find her plotting and characterization wholly believable--every time Kristina starts using, she goes overboard overnight, and if casual sex, loss of friends and personal goals, stealing from her family, rape, and the decision to deal seem melodramatic, I'm nonetheless convinced. I like her poems, too, which take a variety of contemporary forms but read like dialogue in a novel or a drama. I did find Glass a little long, at 681 pages, especially any time that it became clear that Kristina was not going to hold out too long against temptations to engage in increasingly outrageous behavior. On the whole, though, it's an absorbing read. Hopkins' books have been recommended to me by first-year college students, who were pleased to discover I was already acquainted with her work. They are for older teens, not middle-school students, given the gleefully antisocial tendencies of the protagonist, even though this behavior ultimately leads to the appropriate comeuppance.