Review: Glass

Ｔｉｔｌｅ：Glass

Ａｕｔｈｏｒ：Ellen Hopkins

Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ：Book 2

Ｒａｔｉｎｇ：★ ★ ★ ★ ★

＊Ｎｏｔｅ：Review for Book 1 here.

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.

Kristina thinks she can control it. 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 needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina’s life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves — her baby.

The sequel to Crank, this is the continuing story of Kristina and her descent back to hell. Told in verse, it’s a harrowing and disturbing look at addiction and the damage that it inflicts.

❝ I don’t need more pain in my life. Why did I invite it in? ❞

The first book in the series sucked me in, so I was really anxious to see where Kristina’s path would go next. This book is one that I loved even though I was constantly yelling at Kristina for making one bad choice after another. Before I get more into the review, I want to issue a trigger warning as this book does deal with drug use and rape.

Glass continues after the events from Crank. Kristina is now attempting to raise her son, Hunter, and leave her addiction behind. She takes up a new job and tries to do all the right things, but she ends up slipping into her old habits. Her mother constantly tries to set her on the right path but I think she realizes that it’s a losing battle and eventually she makes the tough choice of putting her grandson first. I don’t want to give away too much, but eventually, Kristina’s decisions catch up with her and she has to pay some serious consequences.

As I mentioned before, the hardest part of this book was seeing Kristina make bad choices and ruining the good things in her life. Right off the bat, I was upset that she had pushed Chase away. He was such a good guy! He could’ve been a great father to Hunter and I hated the Kristina had decided to be selfless at that moment and let him go.

❝ When you love someone, you don’t want to hurt them, even if they deserve to be hurt. When you love someone, you want to hurt them, even when they don’t deserve to be hurt. ❞

Kristina does get other romantic partners in this book, but I didn’t feel like either of them could really compare to Chase. I hated how she pined over Trey and kept reaching out even though he clearly didn’t respect or value the relationship as much as she did. Not that she really does a great job either considering who her other partner is.

The other frustrating part of Kristina‘s story is her relationship with her mother. On one hand, I understood that her mother couldn’t possibly be entirely responsible for Kristina’s life. There’s only so much you can do to save someone when they’re not helping themselves.

At the same time, I felt like Kristina‘s mother was too passive, too permissive. She continues to ignore the signs that Kristina is spiraling. She allows Kristina to invite her father back into her life despite the fact that he is a big part of the reason Kristina has this addiction to begin with. She really doesn’t do anything until it’s too late. I know she focused on her efforts on saving Hunter, but I kept feeling like there was more she could’ve done for Kristina.

Glass was a solid and dark sequel to the series. It’s one that all that will leave you feeling frustrated and anxious but in the best way. Ellen Hopkins delivers a really heartbreaking story of addiction in beautiful prose. I can’t wait to see how it all ends in Fallout!

What other prose books have you read and enjoyed?