A review by wrathofglasses
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

2.0

This was written around the same time as Crank by Ellen Hopkins and while the subject matter may be different, it was hard not to compare the two as they are both written in free-verse. I believe that Hopkins masters the visual placement of free-verse every time as her placement is intentional and artful. I found Sones' use of free-verse to be a little more haphazard in placement, but equally as purposeful. (I don't care if anyone thinks I'm being nitpicky, poetry has a visual quality just as much as an aural one.) I think Sones does a nice job in her development of the protagonist, who is pretty vapid and oh, I don't know, "teenagery." Sones has some effective plot twists that I suspect would mislead teenage readers to the point where they were awed by the plot events. Personally, I found the book to be a little dry and the ending to be a little too quickly thrown together, but overall, this is a good classroom book for sure. :)