Review: Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

**Spoilers for Burned below!**

Summary: Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated. Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life, but is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Kim's Review: I love Ellen Hopkins' books so much. I've read all of her YA novels and have yet to be disappointed. Smoke is the sequel to Burned, and it's been at least a year since I read the first book, so I was worried I would be lost. However, Hopkins does a great job at explaining what happened, so going back and skimming through the first book was unnecessary. I really loved the plot and reading about the aftermath of the incident between Pattyn and her father. The author also kept the story entertaining and intriguing, especially considering that this sequel was never planned.

The characterization and emotions in this book are amazing; I felt so bad for Pattyn and Jackie. I also thought Hopkins did a great job at depicting how the incident affected the two girls mentally, giving both of them PTSD. I can't imagine having to relive that moment and have it running through your mind every day.

Again, this book was a fantastic sequel. I will never, ever stop endlessly recommending all of Hopkins' novels to every reader I come across. Her characters and stories are heart-wrenching, but absolutely amazing to read.

Review: Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Summary: Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there. Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never have understood.

Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?
Kim's Review: This is probably the fifth Ellen Hopkins book I have reviewed, and they all basically say the same thing: Ellen Hopkins is a writing goddess. Her writing and characterization never fail to impress me; she continuously finds a way to make her characters interesting and believable without being too dramatic or over-the-top. It has been a year or so since I read Impulse, the first book of this series, but I didn't feel lost because the reader is subtly reminded of what happened in the previous novel. I loved being able to see what was happening in Conner's family while he was away and how him being gone affected those around him. There were also a few new characters that interacted well with the older ones. I liked this book even better than the first one, and sequels like that are hard to come by. This is another amazing book by Ellen Hopkins, and if you haven't read at least one of her books already, you're sure missing out!

Note: Like Fallout, Perfect is the sequel to another one of Hopkins's books titled Impulse, but it can be read alone as well.

Review: Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Summary: 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 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.

(Sorry for the short review. It was typed on my phone in school, and I had little patience for the tiny touch screen keyboard. :) )

Kim's Review: Man, oh man. I'm so sad to have finished this trilogy! Kristina's story is honestly one of the most interesting and captivating ones I have ever read in YA fiction. It was so interesting to see how her children were doing in this book (written from their point of view). Ellen Hopkins has a way of creating believable, amazing, and intriguing characters - I wish I knew her secret. My favorite character was Hunter, probably because he's the one I've read about most in previous books. However, I truly loved all the characters, and reading the last two pages brought tears to my eyes (in the middle of Spanish class, might I add). I'm so sad to have to let these characters go, never to read any more about them. Read this trilogy, and all of Hopkins's books. As one of my all-time favorite authors, she definitely does not disappoint.

(Also, while this is the last book of a trilogy, I suppose you could read it by itself. The previous two books just add a lot more backstory.)

Review: Tilt by Ellen Hopkins

Summary: Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing that his life, too, will be shortened?

Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Love, in all its forms, has crucial consequences in this standalone novel.

Review: Kim here! Today I'm reviewing Tilt by Ellen Hopkins. I really liked this book. The plots were compelling with a few shocking twists, and at times it was hard for me to put this book down. Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors, and while this book is great, I don't think it's her best. Maybe it's just because I haven't read one of her books in a while (it's written in poetry, switching characters every few pages), but I found it hard to keep track of all the characters and their parents and who's friends or cousins with whom. 

One thing I loved about this book (and all of Hopkins' YA novels) is the author's voice. It's poetic but realistic. A lot of the time, with YA books, the teenagers are your stereotypical "OMGZ, we should TOTES go shopping today lol!!!!11" characters. I found these characters believable and relatable because, as she has shown in her other books, Hopkins really seems to understand young adults for what they really are and not what much of the media depicts them as.

This is a very good book, and other than having to keep flipping back to remember the characters, I enjoyed it. I snuck it in my lap under my desk at school. I read it in the food line in the cafeteria. I really felt for these characters, and I needed to know what happened to them in the end. And overall, I was more than satisfied. Tilt has earned a place on my bookshelf, and I hope you feel the same way after reading it.

If you want to read this book, I suggest starting out with Hopkins' first novel, Crank (one of my favorite books--seriously, Ellen Hopkins is amazing), and working your way to the newer ones. 

Review: Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Summary: Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act -- suicide.

Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade.

Tony, after suffering a painful childhood, can only find peace through pills.

And Conner, outwardly, has the perfect life. But dig a little deeper and find a boy who is in constant battle with his parents, his life, himself.

In one instant each of these young people decided enough was enough. They grabbed the blade, the bottle, the gun -- and tried to end it all. Now they have a second chance, and just maybe, with each other's help, they can find their way to a better life -- but only if they're strong and can fight the demons that brought them here in the first place.

My Review: I loved this book for a lot of reasons. First, Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite authors; I've always admired her way of dealing with sensitive topics in her writing. Second, I thought the characters were extremely interesting and well-developed. Each of the three main characters had a heartbreaking backstory as well as a dark secret that made me want to keep reading to discover what it was.

This isn't a very long review, because I honestly don't have a lot to say about this book. The only complaint I have about it is that a lot of the time, when the characters spoke, they sounded very poetic. I thought it was a bit unrealistic, especially in the situations that the characters were in.

Overall, I really liked this book, and am going to read the sequel. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone -- as I said before and as you can probably tell from the summary, this is a very dark book and may be uncomfortable for some people to read. However, if you are interested in it, you should definitely read it as well as Hopkins' other books. I've read almost all of them, and I've never been disappointed.