Fallout by: Ellen Hopkins

PLOT: Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster - crank - her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions.  Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear.

A predisposition to addiction and a sense of emptiness where a mother's love should be leads all three down the road of their mother's notorious legacy. Sex, drugs, alcohol, abuse -  there is more of Kristina in her children than they would ever like to believe.  But when the thread that ties them together brings them face-to-face, they'll discover something powerful in each other and in themselves -  the trust, the hope, the courage to begin to break the cycle.

OPINION:

Glass by: Ellen Hopkins

PLOT: Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Watever you call it, it's all the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.

Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots.  But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips.  She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life.  She needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina's life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves - her baby.

OPINION: