Crank by Ellen Hopkins

              I recently finished reading the book Crank, by Ellen Hopkins. Crank the first of a three book series that starts with a teenager, and her addiction to crystal meth. The most unfortunate part about this book is that is it (loosely) based on a true story; Ellen Hopkins' daughter. The book starts out with almost no introduction of Kristina, the protagonist. Instead, it starts out with a court ordered visit for her to see her father for the summer, a drug addict living in New Mexico. Kristina's father's addiction to crystal meth was why he was divorced in the first place, and had seen each of his children about twice, in their entire lives (Kristina and her older sister Leigh). Before Kristina leaves for New Mexico she is a "gifted high school junior" with good friends, and a good chance at a happy healthy life. But that was before she met the "monster."

              In New Mexico she meet a guy by the name of Adam, he shows her the town, and what really happens at the bowling alley where her dad works. Kristina tries meth for the first time, and once she's tried it, she never went back.
         
               A few weeks later she is officially addicted, using all day every day, and when it is time to go back to Nevada, her home, she comes back skinny, shaky, and with a new nickname- Bree. Bree is Kristina when she is high, or doing something bad,  what she has all of her dealers, or boyfriends call her. But around her family, she is Kristina, someone who tries to act normal, until everyone figures it out.

              Personally, I am surprised that Kristina's mother didn't figure it out sooner that Kristina was an addict, mainly because she used to be a part of that scene as well, with Kristina's father, who wasn't exactly against her drug use, in fact, he supported it. I am also surprised that Kristina's mother didn't put her in rehab, or an AA group, instead, she kicked her out of the house. Reading this the second time, i see realize that her drug use wasn't her fault at all. It was her fathers, and Adam's, and all of her boyfriends for supplying her, and even her mother, for not getting her the help she desperately needed.