(Photo brought to you by the Idaho Meth Project)
(Will contain mild spoilers for Crank, so be warned of this if you haven't read it yet)
If possible, Glass by Ellen Hopkins is even more horrifying, socking and upsetting than its predecessor, Crank (click for review) . Crank shows us how Kristina becomes addicted to 'the monster' — meth. At the end of the book, it seems like Kristina is getting her life back. She is trying to give up the drugs so her unborn child will have a chance of being born normal. Although it's hard, she seems to be doing well.
Glass begins a short time later. Her son, Hunter, is a few months old and Kristina is tired all the time, and she's tired of feeling fat and unattractive. Life begins to feel like too much for her, and she falls back into old habits. She tells herself she is in control, and can handle the drug, and she won't let it handle her. She's confident she can maintain control. Well... She's wrong. The drug grabs hold of her and takes her farther down than she's ever gone before. She loses control quickly and is a danger to herself and to others around her.
It was heart breaking watching Kristina destroy herself and leave those who love her behind. She is an incredibly selfish character, one who refuses to think beyond her own desires. She again becomes involved with the 'wrong crowd', finding people who supply her habit, and make it glamorous.
I found this book to be more powerful and dissuasive than Crank because we are able to watch the complete deterioration of Kristina's life. She completely loses control and doesn't even notice. We watch Kristina as she becomes involved, directly or indirectly with drug trafficking, neglectful/semi-abusive parenting, prostitution, theft, and more.
I can't describe to you how powerful this story is, and again, the free verse style used by Hopkins is brilliant and perfect. I don't think there is a better way to have told this story. This is an important book, one I think should be made readily available to teens. It saddens me that this book has been banned or challenged by people, because it is important. Drugs and the problems it creates aren't going to go away just because you refuse to look at them. If anything, this guarantees that they will be around longer, and that they will only get worse. Both Crank and Glass so us clearly why drugs should be avoided. It's fearful, intense and horrifying. And, I think a lot of the power comes from knowing that some of what's contained here and written comes from personal experience. The author has lived through a lot of this pain and is trying to provide a way for others to avoid that same hurt.