Glass

by Ellen Hopkins Narrated by Laura Flanagan

Overview

"Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of you, this monster will never let you go."

A sequel to Crank, this harrowing and disturbing look at addiction finds protagonist Kristina Snow thinking she can use drugs yet control the consequences. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong and, before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life. She will do anything for it, including giving up the only thing that makes her truly happy.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Hopkins's hard-hitting free-verse novel, a sequel, picks up where Crankleft off. Kristina now lives in her mother's Reno home with her baby, but constantly dreams of "getting/ high. Strung. Getting/ out of this deep well/ of monotony I'm/ slowly drowning in." When her former connection turns her on to "glass": "Mexican meth, as/ good as it comes. maybe 90 percent pure," Kristina quickly loses control again. She gets kicked out of her house after her baby gets hurt on her watch, starts dealing for the Mexican Mafia ("No problem. I'll play straight/ with them. Cash and carry") and eventually even robs her mother's house with her equally addicted boyfriend. The author expertly relays both plot points and drug facts through verse, painting Kristina's self-narrated self-destruction through clean verses ("My face is hollow-/cheeked, spiced with sores"). She again experiments with form, sometimes writing two parallel poems that can be read together or separately (sometimes these experiments seem a bit cloying, as in "Santa Is Coming," a concrete poem in the shape of a Christmas tree). But in the end, readers will be amazed at how quickly they work their way through this thick book-and by how much they learn about crystal meth and the toll it takes, both on addicts and their families. Ages 14-up. (Aug.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up
Kristina Snow was a 17-year-old with high grades and a loving family. In Crank (S & S, 2004), one summer in California with a meth-addicted boyfriend destroys her life. Addicted, she's raped, and goes back home to Reno pregnant. Glass picks up a year later. She lives with her mother and works at a 7-11. Depressed about her post-baby figure, she goes back on speed to lose weight. Her mother kicks her out and gains custody of the baby. She continues to spiral to the last page, which sets readers up for a third novel. Glass is even more terrifying than Crank in its utter hopelessness; meth's power is permanent and Kristina is an addict whether she uses or not. Though her recount of events in the first book is dry and self-indulgent, the pace snowballs as soon as she takes her first toke of rock meth, and one desperate, horrifying measure or decision follows another. Like Crank , this title is written in verse, but certainly not poetry. Hopkins's writing is smooth and incisive, but her fondness for seemingly random forms is distracting and adds little to the power of the narrative. Minor characters are flat, and Kristina's overblown self-pity elicits little empathy. The author tries but fails to present meth itself as a character; her descriptions of "the monster" are precious and overwritten. Kristina's story is terrible, and even when she's high, the narrative voice and mood are sobering. Teens, including reluctant readers, may appreciate the spare style and realism of Kristina's unhappy second chapter.
—Johanna LewisCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Kristina continues to dance with the monster of crystal methamphetamine, her fragmented emotions and cloudy denial displayed keenly by Hopkins's shards of free verse. Despite feeling warmth for her newborn baby and having been off meth for months, 17-year-old Kristina can't bear "the mindless / tedium that is my life" and seeks relief in "Mexican meth . . . 90 percent pure." This ice is far stronger than the "street-lab crank" she started on. Her mother kicks her out, keeping baby Hunter. Kristina moves in with Brad, a cousin of her boyfriend Trey, and the three smoke together. As Kristina spirals ever-downward, the monster claims her car, her minimum-wage job and any residual awareness of her infant son. Her teeth chip and she needs glass regularly just for "maintenance. . . . I'm scared // to shut all the way / down. Scared I might dream. / Scared I might not // wake back up." Hopkins's minimalist verse perfectly demonstrates Kristina's dissociation and muddled despair. Hypnotically sad, with a realistic lack of closure. (Fiction. YA)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170243105
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	08/01/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Walking with the Monster

Life
was radical
right after I met
            the monster.

Later, life
            became

harder,
complicated.
Ultimately,
            a living
hell,
like swimming
against a riptide,
            walking
the wrong
direction in the fast
lane of the freeway,
            waking
from sweetest
dreams to find yourself
in the middle of a
            nightmare.

You Know My Story

Don't you? All about
                  my dive
into the lair of the monster
drug some people call crank.
Crystal. Tina. Ice.
How a summer visit
to my dad sent me
                  into
the arms of a boy -- a
hot-bodied hunk, my
very first love, who led
me down the path to
                  insanity.
How I came home
                  no longer
Kristina Georgia
Snow, gifted high
school junior, total
dweeb, and
                  perfect
daughter, but
instead a stranger
who called herself Bree.

How, no matter
how hard
                  Kristina
fought her, Bree
was stronger, brighter,
better equipped to deal
with a worldwhere
everything moved at light
speed, everyone mired
in ego. Where "everyday"
                  became
another word
for making love with
                  the monster.

It Wasn't a Long Process

I went to my dad's in June, met Adam
  the very first day. It took some time
      to pry him from his girlfriend's grasp.
        But within two weeks, he introduced
            me to the monster. One time was all
                  it took to want more. It's a roller-
        coaster ride. Catch the downhill
                          thrill, you want to ride again,
                            enough to endure the long,
                              hard climb back up again.
                              In days, I was hooked on
                Adam, tobacco, and meth,
                            in no particular order. But
                          all summer vacations must
                          end. I had to come home to
                          Reno. And all my new bad
                        habits came with me. It was
                      a hella speed bump, oh yeah.
          Until I hurt for it, I believed
                      I could leave the crystal behind.
                      But the crash-and-burn was more
                      than I could take. When the jet landed,
                        I was still buzzed from a good-bye binge.

        My family crowded round me at the airport,
        discussing summer plans and celebration
  dinners,
          and all I wanted to do was skip off for
  another snort.
              Mom kept trying to feed me. My stepfa-
  ther, Scott, kept
                trying to ask questions about my visit
  with Dad. My
    big sister, Leigh, wanted to talk about
  her new girlfriend,
                      and my little brother, Jake, kept
  going on about soccer.
                        It didn't take long to figure out I
  was in serious trouble.
 
Not the Kind of Trouble

You might think I'm
talking about. I was pretty
      sure I could get away with
      B.S.ing Mom and Scott.

      I'd always been such a good
      girl, they wouldn't make the
jump to "bad" too quickly.
Especially not if I stayed cool.

      I wasn't worried about
      getting busted at school
or on the street. I'd only just
begun my walk with the monster.

I still had meat on my bones,
the teeth still looked good.
      I didn't stutter yet. My mouth
      could still keep up with my brain.

No, the main thing I worried
about was how I could score
      there, at home. I'd never even
      experimented with pot, let alone
      meth. Where could I go?
      Who could I trust with my
money, my secrets? I couldn't
ask Leigh. She was the prettiest

lesbian you've ever seen. But
to my knowledge she had
    never used anything stronger
    than a hearty glass of wine.

    Not Sarah, my best friend since
    fourth grade, or any of my
old crowd, all of whom lived by
the code of the D.A.R.E. pledge.

I really didn't need to worry,
of course. All I had to do
    was leave things up to Bree,
    the goddess of persuasion.

Before I Continue

I just want to remind you
that turning into Bree

was a conscious decision
on my part. I never really

liked Kristina that much.
Oh, some things about her

were pretty cool -- how she
was loyal to her family

and friends. How she loved
easily. How she was good

at any and all things artistic.
But she was such a brain,

with no sense of fashion
or any idea how to have fun.

So when fun presented
itself, I decided someone

new would have to take charge.
That someone was Bree.

I chose her name (not sure where
I got it), chose when to become her.

What I didn't expect was discovering
she had always been there, inside of me.

How could Kristina and Bree
live inside of one person?

How could two such different halves
make up the whole of me?

How could Bree have possibly survived,
stuck in Kristina's daily existence?

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