Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Crank

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

oddrots's review

dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am no longer a member of this book's target demographic. I used to love the lyricism of the prose, but this time 'round I found it a little annoying.

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rhiannon814r's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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imperfectnightmare's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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half_bloodreader's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Written in 1st person, both in present tense and past tense.

Novel in verse

The author plays with form so that some poems can be read with dual meaning.

Crank is another name for methamphetamine, and that is what this story is all about. There are also other addictions like tobacco & other drugs, there's underage drinking too, as well as other risky behaviours.

So, it's a story about the downfalls of addiction from the pov of a girl who had everything to succeed in life, until she danced with the "monster". And oh did she fall easy into the drug's routine.

Now, I believe this is what they call "scared straight". The purpose of this hard-hitting book is to keep other teens away from addiction, and if it accomplishes that, all the better. I believe this is an important story, especially since it's based on the author's life.

And that is the reason why this book is hard to rate. The author has her experiences as the mother of an addict, and who am I to rate that? Then again, she didn't write from the mother's pov, but the daughter's, and how accurate is her pov on the one going through addiction? Regardless, I appreciate that she showed how the world pales from dug use, which is why it's so hard to quit. Studies show drugs work like this: stimulating the area for pleasure to a high level. Your brain gets used to a level that won't match normal life stimuli, so if you stop everything will feel boring, grey, unappetising, dejection.

There's some things I found issue with, and this book is so early 2000s, it shows. The casual homophobia, the gendered colours, the lack of contraceptives, the edginess, food describing skin tone (did you know Mediterranean has a colour flavour? Here I thought Mediterraneans came in all shades, as a Western European).

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