This review is part of Melody’s Summer Reading: Diversity Spotlight. Enjoy!

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
Release Date: September 14, 2010
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Poetry, Abuse, Addiction
ISBN: 978-1416950097
Source: Library
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The riveting final chapter of the Crank trilogy, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

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.

As each teen searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together–Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.

Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family’s story, Fallout is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by Crank and Glass, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

The third and final book in the Crank trilogy, this is a long overdue read from me. And I’m so glad that I finally read it. What I especially loved about this installment is that it’s told through the POV of Kristina’s oldest three children, all whom have lived such similar yet vastly different lives as part of the never ending aftermath of their mother’s bad choices. Whether growing up with family, distant family, or in various foster homes, knowing they had at least one sibling or not knowing they had any at all, and knowing how fragile all of the relationships dynamics were as a result of being hurt so many times…each of their paths were so eye opening and fascinating and heart breaking as they struggled to live in a world where their mother was addicted to methamphetamine and their lives were turned upside down because of it.

I absolutely loved getting the perspectives of Kristina’s children and seeing how devastatingly deep consequences of one person run in a family in a way I had never read in fiction before. I’ve seen some things in real life and my family has been touched by addiction of different kinds but knowing that this here is based on the author’s experience with her own daughter and seeing it so fearlessly written on the page in this story, it has truly blown me away. The pain and heartache and so many rocky emotions that were portrayed here… there were so many and it was so raw and it’s not easy to consume but this is the reality and someone shedding a light on just how destructive and damaging this addiction can be and is was so very much appreciated.

I hope this book gets into all of the right hands because this book, this series can affect lives in a number of ways I can’t even begin to articulate. If you’re dealing with addiction and are easily triggered, I wouldn’t recommend this book to you at this time but keep it on your list of books to read and share this title with your loved ones and others you care about because this book is such an authentic and powerful representation of this experience and so essential in showing families in similar positions that they are not alone. We all need to know that we are not alone, young people especially. This series could be someone’s lifeline.

Please, share this book and know that if you happen to come across it but don’t have a clue when you ever will again, it’s okay to read this before the first two books in the series. You’ll miss Kristina’s POV and backstory but it’s still just as notable on its own. I could have done without the news article clippings throughout the novel but really, that’s the only element that I didn’t click with. Every time I read an Ellen Hopkins novel, I fall in love with her writing style in verse all over again so that was so special to read once more. So if you are touched in any way by what you’ve read here, pick up this book and let Hopkins’s words leave their mark on you.

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins is available today.