Series · young_adult
Crank
The Crank series by Ellen Hopkins has 3 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Crank (2004).
- Books
- 3 books
- First published
- 2004
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: Crank (2004) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
About the Crank series
Ellen Hopkins wrote Crank about her own daughter's addiction, fictionalizing Kristina Snow -- a good student who visits her largely absent father, meets "the monster" (crystal meth), and finds a wilder, riskier alter ego named Bree taking over her life. The trilogy follows the consequences across a decade: Glass picks up with Kristina now a teenage mother still unable to control her addiction, and Fallout shifts perspective entirely to her three children -- Hunter, Autumn, and Summer -- each shaped, in different and painful ways, by growing up in the wreckage their mother's addiction left behind.
Written entirely in free verse, the trilogy became Hopkins's breakout work and a defining example of the young-adult verse novel as a format for unflinching subject matter -- it doesn't soften addiction's toll on a family across generations, and its final book's generational shift is widely considered one of the more structurally ambitious moves in YA verse fiction.
Frequently asked questions
Is Crank based on a true story?
Yes, loosely -- Ellen Hopkins based Kristina Snow's addiction on her own daughter's real struggle with crystal meth, though the novels are fiction rather than memoir.
How many books are in the Crank trilogy?
Three: Crank (2004), Glass (2007), and Fallout (2010).
Are the Crank books written in verse?
Yes, all three are novels in free verse, Ellen Hopkins's signature form.
Who narrates Fallout?
Kristina's three children -- Hunter, Autumn, and Summer -- each dealing with the aftermath of their mother's addiction from their own adult vantage points.
Reading order last verified .