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Fallout [Hardcover]

Ellen Hopkins
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 14, 2010
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.


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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up–Kristina, the meth-addicted antiheroine of Crank (2004) and Glass (2007), has five children by four different men. Fallout is about the lives of her three oldest children. Hunter lives with his grandmother in Nevada. He cheats on his girlfriend and smokes a lot of dope. Autumn lives with her sweet aunt and gruff granddad in Texas. She has OCD and knows little about her mother. Summer lives in a trailer in California with her father and a string of abusive/slutty/stupid girlfriends. She hates pretty much everyone. Hopkins's not-quite poetry is as solid as ever, though her use of visual formations gets more mystifying and extraneous with each novel. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Glass is fresh in the minds of most readers. As such, the Venn diagram of Kristina's baby-daddies, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and drug buddies -is impossible to follow, and may frustrate even the most interested readers. So much deciphering cripples the pace of Fallout. The plot is choked with the perpetual damage of meth addiction–there's too much message and not enough action. Hopkins spreads the narration too thin between three unlikable narrators, and none is ever fully realized. The mood here is just as depressing and cautionary as Glass, and Hopkins's presentation is even more self-indulgent.Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Simply put: if you liked Crank (2004) and Glass (2007), this trilogy finale will not disappoint. Hopkins shifts the point of view from meth-user Kristina to her three teenage kids; it’s a brilliant tactic that shows just how deeply others are affected by a single person’s addiction. Before it’s over, the three kids—Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—will experience anger, longing, loneliness, drugs, pregnancy, homelessness, and even, believe it or not, hope. Hopkins’ free-verse stanzas are as engaging as always, though prose this observant and strong would be powerful even if arranged in standard paragraphs. An emotional, satisfying end (and a new beginning, in a way) to Kristina’s story. Grades 10-12. --Daniel Kraus

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 672 pages
  • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books; First Edition edition (September 14, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416950095
  • ISBN-13: 978-1416950097
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was adopted at birth and raised by a great, loving older couple. I grew up in Palm Springs CA, although we summered in Napa and Lake Tahoe, to avoid those 120 degree summers. After my adopted parents died, I did find my birth mother, who lives in Michigan with my half sister.

I studied journalism in college, but left school to marry, raise kids and start my own business--a video store, before the mega-chains were out there. After a divorce, I met my current husband and we moved to Tahoe to become ski bums and otherwise try to find our dreams. At that time, I went to work for a small alternative press, writing stories and eventually editing.

When we moved down the mountain to the Reno area, I started writing nonfiction books, many of which you can see here. The rest are viewable on my personal website. I also continued to freelance articles for newspapers and magazines.

All that has changed, with the publication of my novel, CRANK, which has led to a valued career writing YA novels in verse, all of which explore the more difficult situations young adults often find themselves in. Will I ever write one in prose? No doubt! But, for the moment, writing novels in verse fulfills two needs: writing poetry and writing fiction. The combination is so interesting!

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#54 in Books > Teens
#54 in Books > Teens

Customer Reviews

It is well written and you find yourself being very involved with the family and story line. Kathy G. Hight  |  11 reviewers made a similar statement
I read the book as fast as i possibly could so that i could just know everything. Lover96  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
I read this book in a fast 24 hours. 154082  |  10 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful conclusion to a stunning trilogy September 14, 2010
Format:Hardcover
Nineteen years after the conclusion of Glass and four children later, Kristina Snow is still a slave to the monster that irrevocably altered her life the summer she visited her father. Only now, it's her children's turn to tell the story. Alternating between the point of view of Kristina's three oldest, Hunter, Autumn, and Summer, Fallout chronicles their very different lives and the ways that Kristina's decisions have affected them, and how, even though they barely know each other, they each struggle with the very same issues of addiction, anger, depression, and disappointment in a parent who can never be the person they want her to be.

Fallout is a powerful book and an entirely fitting conclusion to Ellen Hopkins' trilogy that started with Crank, based on her own daughter's struggles with addiction. Flashing forward nineteen years into the future may have been a little unexpected, but it is the perfect way to demonstrate to readers the prolonged and far-reaching effects of addiction and bad decisions. Hopkins does an excellent job at steadily building up the story thorough her inventive and diverse poems, she creates a good amount of suspense by switching back and forth between Hunter, Autumn, and Summer, and it's not hard to draw parallels between mother and children.

Hunter's story is engaging as he is one of the closest connections to the first two books, and he fills in a lot of gaps of missing information, allowing readers to piece together what has happened since his birth for themselves. Autumn, who is oblivious to her mother's identity and hardly knows anything about her parents, is a fascinating character and her struggles and desire to know where she comes from is emotional and even a little turbulent as she reaches out for human connection in any form. Readers will see a lot of Kristina in Summer, but Summer is also determined not be her mother, despite her mistakes that will try to lead her in that direction. She and her siblings, unlike their mother, have the consequences of bad choices and mistakes laid out before them, and live them every day, but yet they still grapple with temptation and each faces moments when they must make decisions that will dramatically alter their futures.

There is plenty of great emotional depth throughout the book, but power of this final installment lies in the moment when Hunter, Autumn, and Summer look at Kristina and are unable to understand her, yet can't help from seeing a part of themselves in her. This is an impacting and perfect conclusion to such a weighty and commanding trilogy, full of unexpected discoveries and mistakes, but also love, hope, and perhaps, redemption.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Rollercoaster September 14, 2010
Format:Hardcover
I don't know how to put into words what I feel about these books. They are so powerful that I know I just can't do this review the justice it deserves. I stay so emotionally wrecked while reading these books that it takes me a couple days to recover. Fallout was no exception. It had me laughing, crying, and shaking with anger in the span of only a few pages.

In CRANK and GLASS we go through teenage Kristina's dance with "the monster", meth. We see her spiral deeper and deeper into addiction. When reading these two books from Kristina's point of view you just can't help but feel sorry for her, feel like it's not all her fault. But, while reading Fallout, which is from the point of view of her 3 teenagers, we see the fallout of Kristina's addiction of a completely different point of view. I found myself hating that same girl that I once felt sorry for. How dare she keep doing the things she's doing when she has these wonderful children that she should be living her life for?

We learn that her amazing mother has been through so much for her and that she could have gotten help, if she would have just reached out and accepted when it was offered to her time and time again. I don't know how anyone could read these books and even consider trying drugs afterward. Once you see how one person's addiction can spiral out of control and affect so many peoples lives.

These books should be required reading in every high school across the country in my opinion! Don't ban it, celebrate it! I suggest all of my readers who haven't read this series yet run out and buy it right now!!! What are you waiting for?
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Falling Out June 4, 2011
Format:Kindle Edition
This is a mostly satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy that rocketed Ellen Hopkins to the heights of literary fame. In it, we see the long-term consequences of Kristina's decisions: children. Dysfunctional children with dysfunctional families.

"FALLOUT"'s problems have more to do with the author's decisions than her storytelling. She is constantly making references to her literary success and playing them up against Kristina's failures as a person, which came across as harsh and narcissistic in equal measures. In the last two books, events were based only loosely on reality. This time, I felt like there was more of Ellen Hopkins in the story than Hunter, Summer, or Autumn. Marie Haskins is painted as the perfect mother figure (beautiful, successful, struggling oh-so-hard to come to terms with her sorrowful life) and talked about quite a lot, whereas Kristina is transformed into the villan. She is now the family slut who can't do anything but self-destruct, which is more than a little irritating to see. For someone who claims to have learned a lot about the pain and complex nature of addiction through her writing, Hopkins isn't too sympathetic here. Depictions of our anti-heroine, with whom the reader could once identify, as a mindless burden to her family are reoccurring, as are phrases like "Kristina ought to be here for her children"--despite the fact that it is unanimously agreed that Kristina is an unfit mother. Hunter's easy forgiveness of Brendan on the other hand was outrageous. Somehow he was able to find kinship with his father (who, as we all know, raped Kristina while they were high) but couldn't bring himself to find the same sort of compassion for his mother.

There's also a fair amount of preaching. More than in her previous stories. It isn't outright, but it's there. I loved "CRANK" because it was never disparaging in spite of the purpose for its inception, and Hopkins never got too personal with what was meant to be fictitious. "FALLOUT" definitely creeps into "GO ASK ALICE" territory. I couldn't help but roll my eyes every time someone brought up 'the monster' and how thoroughly it trashes people's lives. The readers have stuck it out this long. I think it's safe to say we know how damaging crystal meth can be. Another thing that bothered me was how many times Mexican drug cartels were mentioned in reference to drugs (the bust involving said cartels and marijuana? really? please.)--along with the prevalence of the drug itself. What are the odds that each character knows at least three people with close ties to meth? It is without a doubt a highly popular substance in this part of the country, but its unfaltering presence in the story was almost ridiculous. You'd think no other drug existed in Kristina's universe. I'm surprised not EVERYONE is a tweaker!

And as with a few of her other novels, the romantic angles in this one were awkwardly drawn. There's just something about Hopkins's characters that has them falling in love all over the place at the drop of a hat. But of course, with the girls, none of them are very proactive in the relationship. Hopkins seems to be a fan of having her protagonists talk about how nice it is that their boyfriends don't pressure them into having sex, something which they rarely have experience with. It would be nice to have a girl comfortable with her sexuality or an inexperienced, reluctant boyfriend. In this story, however, the only autonomous women were periphery characters like Leah, who only served to further the plot by ruining others' relationships. Hunter, on the other hand, is constantly thinking about sex and makes no secret of his lust.

While we're on the subject of Hunter, I have to say how not unimpressed I was with the way he's drawn. Kristina's eldest son is the stereotypical "guy": aggressive, sexual, and highly superficial. These traits wouldn't be a bad thing if they weren't so common in this author's work, which is an unusual road for someone so fond of contemporary views and controversial subject matter to take. But I'm beginning to see that Ellen Hopkins writes stock characters more often than not, disguising the fact with complicated pasts and an angst-filled present. While they all have unique histories, their actions are very uniform, with similarities according to their gender. For example, a common element: as soon as the story starts, the girl (who's never been very popular and doesn't think of herself as particularly pretty) instantly attracts the attention of a boy who make it a point to tell her how beautiful she is. This happened with Kristina, Pattyn (of "BURNED"), Vanessa ("IMPULSE"), and Autumn. But whereas his siblings were slightly more accessible as characters, Hunter's actions made no sense. Aside from his puzzling reaction to Brendan and judgement towards Kristina, his treatment of Nikki was downright poor. There was nothing self-aware about the way his hypocritical behavior was written; unlike Summer, whose reactive cynicism clearly had a point, Hunter was just a jerk I felt the author wanted us to feel sorry for.

As far as quality goes, the verse faltered in places and the writing became stiff. I got the feeling that Hopkins was trying too hard for the abstract, wanting to sound intelligent where brevity and simplicity would've done fine. There wasn't much rhyme or reason to her structure this time, either.

Overall I have to give this one a three. This installment was a fun ride at first, but I found myself agitated with its progression and had to skip through sections (particularly Hunter's) because I was so frustrated with the reasoning and degeneration of character. In some novels, having unlikable characters is an intentional decision. Here, this didn't seem to be the case. Here it was a side-effect of poor development. I can forgive purposeful stupidity on characters' part when stupidity is the point. But as a follow-up to "CRANK" and "GLASS", as something that was meant to tie up loose ends and function in a straightforward manner, I was disappointed. This is no longer the story of Kristina, but of Ellen Hopkins. I'm starting to wonder if fame isn't going to this author's head.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Read all of these in the series. My first time reading Ellen Hopkins and I loved the series. I have read other series by her and really enjoy her books. Read more
Published 2 hours ago by Doris Mozelak
3.0 out of 5 stars Ehhh
This book did not leave u hanging on the edge like the previous two did and I find its a bad way to leave the trilogy just hanging at the end.
Published 12 days ago by joshua baker
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING!!!
Seriously one of the best books ever!!! With all the surprising events that happen, the book is just so interesting to read. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Cameron Kuhl
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING
This is my favorite author and I love all of her books and this one was no exception. Great book.
Published 1 month ago by Allie
5.0 out of 5 stars Ending
That was the best way to end the story! I've been reading Ellen Hopkins books for sometime now and this gets two thumbs up for sure! Must read
Published 1 month ago by Naomi
1.0 out of 5 stars not that good
Not what I expected. The story line was just plain stupid. Loved her other books, just not this one. not enjoyable reading
Published 1 month ago by Connie Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars book
Fast ship daughter loves these books. She loves this author and this particular series of books. I will order more for her in the future.
Published 1 month ago by tusk
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
I found this series in general inspiring. I have had the personal experience of crystal tearing apart my family. It wasn't myself, but the uncle I was living with at the time. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kaylee McAlarney
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!!
It was in great shape. I would recommend this book to anyone. A true story that is touching and so real.
Published 2 months ago by Dana Watson
5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal
I personally love every single book of Ellen Hopkins that I've read so far. My mom has an addiction to marijuana right now which she is trying to fight through which strangely... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mary Davis
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SPOILERS!!

I have an advance copy of the book, and I didn't find it hopelessly depressing, but it certainly isn't happy. None of Ellen Hopkin's books could be classified as "happy." Meth addiction is one the hardest addictions to break, so no, Kristina has not broken her addiction. The... Read more
Aug 26, 2010 by Bridgette Johnson |  See all 6 posts
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