Review of Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This gripping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Crank trilogy features a refreshed look and a trade paperback trim size.
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.
Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He's struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she’s ever known crumbles, Autumn’s compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there’s more of Kristina in her than she’d like to believe. Summer doesn’t know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father’s girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother’s notorious legacy. As each 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.

Every day people make bad decisions. Every day people have to deal with the repercussions of someone else’s bad choice. So, even if your parents aren’t drug addicts, it can be easy to relate to Fallout by Ellen Hopkins, because chances are at least once in your life someone has made a decision which affected you, as life does not exist in a vacuum.

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins is the final book of the Crank Trilogy. I thought it was a phenomenal end. In Fallout, the poems are not from the point of view of Kristina, but rather her children. This book is set 20 years after the end of Glass. The story alternates between Hunter, Summer, and Autumn, each child has a different father, but share Kristina as a mother.

I think by having the story be from the point of view of Kristina’s children, we get a more complete portrait of Kristina’s addiction. This time, we see how the people around her are hurt by her poor choices. I thought the three protagonists were very likable, which made reading about them quite difficult. It is hard seeing someone you care about going through so much pain, especially when it’s not their fault.

What I enjoyed was seeing the family dynamics in Ellen Hopkins’ Fallout. We see how Hunter interacts with Kristina’s mother, who legally adopted him. Autumn has her Aunt Cora and her grandfather. Summer, is a victim of the foster system. I was so heartbroken for Summer, as she had such a troubled past. Her parts absolutely made me tear up. Anyways, we see how the family comes together in Fallout. We see a bit more of Scott (Kristina’s stepdad). Scott and Hunter’s interactions are fabulous, especially when they talk man to man on the subject of cheating.

If you are looking for a hard hitting book, something that will really make you feel and connect with the human condition, you absolutely need to read the Crank series.

Other Reviews of Fallout by Ellen Hopkins:

Dreaming In Books

Pure Imagination

Sarah’s Random Musings

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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