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Crank #3

Fallout

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Hunter. Autumn. Summer.
Different homes. Different guardians. Different last names.
Different lives.
But there is one person who binds them together.
Kristina.


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.

Fallout is bestselling author Ellen Hopkin's riveting conclusion to her trilogy begun by Crank and Glass. It is a revelation and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person's problem.

665 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2010

1,201 people are currently reading
35.1k people want to read

About the author

Ellen Hopkins

50Ìýbooks18.7kÌýfollowers
Ellen Hopkins is the New York Times bestselling author of Crank, Burned, Impulse, Glass, Identical, Tricks, Fallout, Perfect, Triangles, Tilt, and Collateral. She lives in Carson City, Nevada, with her husband and son. Hopkin's Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest pages get thousands of hits from teens who claim Hopkins is the "only one who understands me", and she can be visited at ellenhopkins.com.

Like most of you here, books are my life. Reading is a passion, but writing is the biggest part of me. Balance is my greatest challenge, as I love my family, friends, animals and home, but also love traveling to meet my readers. Hope I meet many of you soon!

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5 stars
19,552 (50%)
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11,564 (29%)
3 stars
6,116 (15%)
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271 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,966 reviews
Profile Image for Giselle.
1,005 reviews6,612 followers
February 25, 2014
I think I personally enjoyed book 1 and 2 the most, but this one was incredibly powerful. Told in the perspective of Kristina's children almost 20 years later, Fallout shows us not only the long term effects of addiction, but also how wide the effects go. How many people and generation it touches. How many lives it marks. These kids all have deep rooted psychological issues caused by the simple fact of being born by an addict, but also by being abandoned, feeling unloved and alone. It was interesting to see how different these kids all turned out as well. My favorite perspective was Hunter's. I found his narrative to be the most compelling. This may simply be because his story most closely relates to the other books. We knew him as a baby, as well as the specifics surrounding his family situation from birth. It's like I felt more attached to him because of that.

Also in this edition we get to hear from the real "Kristina". She writes of her addiction and how/why she went down that road. If you decide to buy this series make sure to get these editions. Each book has a special section that make the story all the more emotional just by reading of these real-life stories. The other 2 gave us bits of Ellen's very own journey from which the series is based on.
Profile Image for Joy Mo.
10 reviews2 followers
August 17, 2011
I'm not quite sure what made me not like Fallout as much and the other Ellen Hopkins books.

Maybe
it was that the characters all seemed to experience the same
plot only with different people.
I'm
not quite sure, but I think it goes something like this: freakishly
sensitive boy meets bland girl. They gawk at each other's
perfection for a few sentences and then they have sexay tyme, eh,
yes? But
Just
when you think they're ready to skip off into the sunset of meth
and teen pregnancy, ooooooooooooooooohs nooooooooooes! Turns out
they just haven't quite ascended to the higher plain of
Sick
-ening Maturity and/or Poetic Brooding after all! Apparently those
wacky kids are human just like you and me, which provides them
with plenty
of
opportunities to feed
the
monster in Ellen Hopkins' that survives
on drama. This, of course, leads to many scenes in which
Seth, Autumn and Summer
Angst
-off for paragraphs on end, getting their wangst all over the
reader. True, they do have real problems and their unhappiness is
justified, but the things that happen to them seem contrived and
like they were only put in to create (you guessed it) that funny
thing called 'angst' that the young people these days seem so fond
of. Also, a little thing that nagged me was Hopkins's apparent
hate of foster homes. Yes kiddies, every foster dad is a molester
and every foster mom is a distant bitch who lets it happen!

That said,
I didn't really hate Fallout.
Sure it felt a little melodramatic at times,
but the writing was addictive
the portrayal of drugs and whatnot solid,
and an overall worth-it
trilogy-ender.
I only wish there was more Kristina,
that wacky bitch.
Profile Image for Eva.
170 reviews14 followers
May 27, 2011
OMGZ!
can NOT wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Profile Image for Cailin.
12 reviews2 followers
June 9, 2013
Ah, yes. Ellen Hopkins. You see, I'm a little late in the game here reading the Crank series. When I was in high school these books were extremely popular, therefore it was impossible to get them at the library. I'd read burned (more on that later) and detested it, so I put the Crank series at the very bottom of my "to read" list.

A few weeks ago, out of boredom, I finally read Crank and Glass. I liked them, I did. Went through them both in less than a day. It was only natural that I read Fallout next, right? Well, lets just say it is a day of my life I will never get back.

For starters, I was initially intrigued at Hopkin's decision to tell the story from the POV of Kristina's oldest children. However, the entire story took a nose dive about 1/3 of the way through the book. I won't bother to give a summary here, but I will recount the elements of the story that bothered me the most.

1.) All three children, Hunter, Autumn, and Summer (autumn and summer, really now?) were as deep as puddles. I found their cliche and contrived story lines made them all incredibly unlikeable. Instead of really delving into the seemingly traumatic childhoods each endured in their own right, they instead found themselves wrapped up in their own vanilla teenage romances. I was particularly bothered by how forgettable some of the main characters turned out to be, such as Autumn's boyfriend Bryce and Summer's ex Matt. For all I could tell they were essentially the same person. The character development is incredibly lazy here- the same could be said of the sisters themselves. Hunters story showed the greatest promise, yet the middle of the book was mainly him getting unjustifiably angry with the back and forth relationship with his girlfriend Nikki, who is portrayed as a brainless Barbie doll. The important parts of the story, such as Hunter meeting his father and Autumn discovering her siblings, are weakly played out in short bursts of verse in favor of lengthy pages about driving through various deserts. Literally.

2.) The blatant sexist undertones in this book are incredibly disturbing to me. Hopkins practically glorifies the fact that many of her female characters suffer abuse at the hands of their respective male partners. At one point, Summer's beau Kyle forces her to have sex with him although she had just confessed to him that she had been sexually abused as a child, and at many points in the story he is aggressive with her and orders her around like a puppet. It is hard to believe that the "tougher/stronger" girl would go along with this. I was also mad to hear Hunter guilt-tripping his mom about being raped, insinuating that she "asked for it." I could really go on all day here about these kind of themes portrayed in the book.

3.) Hopkins confuses throughout the whole book. The constant switching of POV's, for one, left me dizzy. Aside from that, however, is the revelation that Kristina's mother writes three fictional books in the story titled "Crank", "Glass", and "Fallout." This is even hard for me to explain- now, is Hopkins trying to tell us that this is an Inception kind of deal, a book within a book within a real life story? What is real and what is fake? She also makes it a point to mention several times what a "famous author" Kristina's mother is in the book- many a time an autographed copy of her latest book was the resolution of a mini crisis in the story. It was cheesy, as if Hopkins imagined herself to really be that big and made plenty of space for her ego between the pages of her book.

4.) Finally, the loose ends. There were so many pointless plot twists thrown in here to shock or engage the reader, but they instead fell flat. The ending result of the entire story felt like something I would have written in a game of the Sims, to put it one way. Autumn's possible pregnancy? The siblings all meeting each other for the first time? NOPE! You get to make that all up on your own, folks. The endless blah blah blah crap I poured through all day lead to a rushed and soap-opera type ending. The only spoiler I can give you is that Kristina and Trey somehow remarry and live as happily ever after as they can. But really? Two volatile addicts with a terrifying and traumatic past are really going to last in a relationship together? And flaky selfish Kristina, who can't love anyone, is going to continue to abandon her children in favor of a dude. We also never find out how Autumn reacts to her parents being together again after they are absent from her life up until that point?

I need to stop. I could be here all night typing the flaws and shortcomings, and yes, general sloppiness of this book until my eyes fall out of my skull. But I simply use up my 20,000 character limit and then some. This book was so bad that I went out of my way to find this site so I could review it. Like I said before, I liked Crank and Glass all right because it was more engaging, it had more soul. I kind of understand what Hopkins was going for with her final installment of the series, but it turned into a bleak, hopeless, and vapid piece of writing. Her idea could have come through in so many different ways, and it could have even held the potential of being a five star work of art. I am truly surprised to see how many perfect reviews it got, so maybe she got what she wanted out of Fallout- a cash cow of a follow up to please those readers with a taste for mindless Facebook type drama.
Profile Image for Cortney -  Bookworm & Vine.
1,023 reviews238 followers
October 20, 2020
Good ending to a sad trilogy. The prose writing style is not for me, but I read the first two in the series, and really wanted to see how everything ended. I got a little confused between Summer and Autumn, but I really enjoyed the 3 different POV's. Definitely my favorite book of the series.
Profile Image for Jay G.
1,576 reviews446 followers
June 24, 2018
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3.5/5 Stars

Hunter, Autumn and Summer have one thing in common, their mother Kristina. Kristina has been addicted to meth for over 19 years, affecting her 3 oldest children. This is their story.

I loved how this shows how many people are affected by only one persons decisions. I definitely liked Hunter best. It felt that Autumn and Summer's stories were quite similar. This was ALMOST a 4 star book for me, but I feel like the ending came too abruptly. I wish there was more to the story and I want to know what happens next with these kids. I just feel that there were far too many loose ends that weren't tied up in the end.
Profile Image for Courtney.
956 reviews23 followers
October 9, 2010
In classic fan-girl fashion, I put this on hold as soon as it was entered into our library's catalog. I've been avidly following Ellen's work ever since I read the first book of this series several years ago. While this is the end of the series, it serves as a reminder that there really is no end to addiction. Whereas the first two books follow Kristina through her devastating dance with addiction and relapse, this one takes place years later with her eldest children telling their stories. There is Hunter, the child born in Crank and adopted by Kristina's parents (bolstered by the interesting element of dealing with his grandmother's author-celebrity status, which would indicate that he was familiar with her previous semi-autobiographical novels). Then there is Autumn, the "lost" daughter, living with her aunt and grandfather. Also living with OCD and panic attacks and soon to be confronted by a past she knows little about. Finally, there is Summer, jostled in and out of foster care, a notoriously dicey system. She gets a brief reprieve (?) from the system to live with her father and his girlfriend.
Three very different teens, dealing with complex emotional issues all derived from their mother's addiction to the monster meth. Emotionally raw and painfully realistic, the final installment to this tragic trilogy is a satisfying stopping place in one family's on-going saga of addiction and its collateral damage.
Profile Image for emerald.
433 reviews56 followers
February 23, 2017
“Anger is a valid emotion. It's only bad when it takes control and makes you do things you don't want to do.�
Profile Image for megan.
1,011 reviews28 followers
December 14, 2016
As interesting as the premise of this book is, it just doesn't live up to it.

Fallout is the aftermath of Kristina's mistakes while she was addicted to meth. These mistakes just so happen to be the three children she had (all with different men).

We have Hunter, who is the son of Brendan. He's the host of a radio station. He has a girlfriend who he loves very, very much because she's hot. Even though he loves her, his faithfulness sometimes dissipates for no reason at all.

Then there's Summer. She has been in foster home after foster home, and she knows better than to make friends. She's totally fine with moving because she's so used to it until she meets the perfect guy.

Last is Autumn (such original names). She lives with her aunt and grandfather. Life is pretty good except for the fact that she has OCD. Everything falls apart when her aunt gets married and moves out (because you know, Autumn's happiness is all that matters). At least she has Bryce, the perfect boy!

I'm sorry, but I literally can't make the descriptions of these characters sound interesting. They were so flat and didn't have any complexity to them. I couldn't tell Autumn and Summer apart half of the time, which is saying a lot considering their chapters were in different fonts and they had different living situations.

The thing that bugged me the most about this book is the blatant sexism. When Bryce goes to have sex with Autumn, she tells him that she's scared because she has triggering memories involving men and sex. He pulls the "don't you love/trust me?" card and just inserts her. It's never even hinted at that it was rape, but it still made me extremely uneasy and I wasn't down with their relationship after that point in time.

There's also Hunter, who must be the stupidest guy ever. Nikki is such a great girlfriend to him, and he is constantly blowing up over the smallest things and getting them in intense arguments. Then he cheats on her and gets mad when she sees someone else for while. WHAT? And this is a quote from the smarty himself:

Grandpa Scott: Even beyond my time in radio, there have been plenty of temptations over the years. I'm sure for your mom, too.
Hunter: Mom? Women are tempted?


Thanks for your dumb thought, Hunter.

Other than that, this book didn't really feel resolved at the end or like things got better throughout it. I see the characters making the same mistakes and fighting with their "perfect" partners over and over. I don't know, guys. This book just left me feeling weird.
Profile Image for Shannon A.
696 reviews524 followers
May 21, 2015
Well, I finally took the plunge and read the final book in the Crank Trilogy. Fallout was tough to get through at times, but definitely needed after Glass. I still think Crank could have been a stand-alone, which is how the author had originally written it - but I understand the outcry for more of Kristina's story from the fans.
The only thing I can say about Fallout to avoid spoilers is that the story takes places 19 years after the events of Crank and Glass and follows three different protagonists who are closely connected to Kristina, the main protagonist in the first two books. The new characters stories are all different, each with their own struggles and temptations, but ultimately connected.
I spend a large portion of the book getting to know the new faces and trying to keep all the side characters straight. There were a lot and we don't see them consistently, yet are expected to keep them all straight. I still am a bit fuzzy on a few of them but got the overall gist of it. And while I liked all the new leads, I think the book was too busy and would have been more effective with two instead of three.
I did like, however, that Ellen Hopkins told real and honest stories that made sense in the wake of what Kristina did in the first two books. If you are looking for sunshines and daisies and a story wrapped up in a cute little bow by the end, you will not like Ellen Hopkins' books. And if they were like that, considering the content she is writing about in this trilogy, they wouldn't be at all effective or authentic. Addiction is real for many people and families and it isn't pretty or easy.
I HIGHLY recommend this trilogy to all people, particularly anyone with family members or friends struggling with addiction or in recovery. Teenagers should read these books instead of sitting through DARE, because these books don't hold back and teach you what REALLY happens when you party with the Monster.
29 reviews
July 19, 2015
I was disappointed with this one. It seemed like the three main characters, Hunter, Autumn, and Summer, all had the same voice and sometimes I got the details of their story lines confused. The struggles Hopkins chose to focus on the most for these characters barely had anything to do with how their lives were affected by Kristina. Hunter's pages were filled with annoying drama between him and his girlfriend, while Summer spent all her time worrying about her new asshole boyfriend. Autumn was the only one whose life was actively affected by her mother's addictions, because she constantly has panic attacks, a side effect of having to hear violent arguments between Kristina and Trey as a young toddler.

While the other two's lives were also affected by Kristina's choices (especially Summer, who is constantly moving from foster home to foster home), all these struggles take backseats to their annoying love lives. I think this book could have been A LOT better if Hopkins had chosen to put more focus on Hunter's feelings when he met his father and on Summer's experiences living as a foster child. Their uninteresting boyfriend/girlfriend dramas should NOT have taken up so much space. I understand that they're teenagers and they have other things going on, but this series is about drug addiction, and this book was supposed to highlight how much drugs affect the families of addicts. Therefore if the main effect that Kristina's drug use has on Summer's life is that she has to move from home to home and deal with abusive foster parents, then this is what her story should be mostly about. Same thing with Hunter. Hopkins could have seriously spent a lot of time developing this character's feelings about his father and their relationship. But instead, she resolves it in literally one conversation between the two. Then she writes like 20+ pages (per chapter) about Hunter having sex with his girlfriend or cheating on his girlfriend and the consequences. He also seems to be somewhat of a recreational drug user. These would have been much more interesting (and relevant) things to explore.

I also didn't like the ending. There were too many loose ends. What's going to happen with Autumn and her pregnancy? Why did Hopkins even choose to make this character get pregnant? It seems like a cheap stunt to me. I think Hopkins went into this book determined to make the ending a hopeless one and so she threw a bunch of bleak plot twists into the story and didn't bother to develop them. An alternate ending for Autumn could have been her feeling comfort in the fact that she has a boyfriend who loves her and not being so scared of "losing" her aunt.

I also didn't like some of the messages in this book. I didn't like that Hunter's girlfriend forgave him for cheating on her. I didn't like that Hunter somewhat blames Kristina for getting raped and that Kristina is made to look like the unreasonable character for getting offended at that. I didn't like how absent Kristina was the entire time. I didn't like how similar the personalities of the three main characters were. I didn't like the extremely rushed ending; I don't know why Hopkins didn't bother to develop this more. She spent pages and pages describing insignificant things, so the least she could have done was give more details for the most important encounter in the entire book. It felt like a lazy resolution.
Profile Image for Nicole ✨Reading Engineer✨.
280 reviews70 followers
November 14, 2016
MY GOODNESS THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!!

The third, and final installment of the Crank series did not disappoint. It was phenomenal I must say, because it takes of on the perspective of the three children from who was the main character in the first two books. This installment not only illustrates how drug addiction can impact the children of an addict, but also the family.

As someone who has had a parent use drugs, I have to say the book paints an accurate picture of what some of the circumstances may include. From foster homes to being raised by a grandparent, the book covers it.

Hopkins does an amazing job of flushing out all the characters, and catching the audience up on what they have missed in the 19 year gap since the second and third book.

I have to say though my biggest critique is when the author changes to three different view points, but I have to say that at times one can get the characters mixed up. Or is it just me? Personally, I would have preferred three different books for each of the children, but alas it did not happen.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who has ever struggled with drug addiction or has been impacted by it in some way. THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD AND I CANNOT WAIT UNTILL I CAN GET MY HANDS ON MORE OF HOPKINS' BOOKS!!!
71 reviews5 followers
February 20, 2012
Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

I loved the way Hopkins
Finished the crazy roller coaster,
Fictionalized portrayal of her daughter.
Even though Kristina barely makes an appearance
It highlights the way
Her kids see her. Mere glimpses.
The descriptions of how Meth affected
The lives of Kristina’s kids
Were at times dramatic and
Made you sympathize with them.
Hunter struggles with trying to maintain
Himself faithful with his girlfriend

Autumn
She lived with her aunt and grandfather,
From Trey’s side, of course.
In foster care, Summer
Hopkins writes about Kristina’s two younger children:
Donald and David, who have behavioral issues
And temporarily live with Kristina‘s parents.
Hopkins did an amazing job
Tying up any and all lose ends.
She even shows glimpses of the characters from
The two previous novels: Crank and Glass.
Adam. Robyn. Kristina’s dad. Chase. Even Kristina.
Profile Image for Rita.
518 reviews195 followers
September 8, 2013
What a great ending to the trilogy!

I did not expect that it would take me so damn long to read this novel, but work and school were very stressful and I didn't have time for anything. But taking me so long to read it did not mean that I haven't enjoyed reading this.

I loved how the story took place twenty years after Kristina's demise with the monster.

It is told from three different perspectives: Hunter, Autumn and Summer. They are three of her five kids and the story was about how Kristina's addiction affected them in several ways.

It was gripping and authentic and I loved reading about all of the different characters. All of them had problems and they were trying to cope with those problems as well as with being a teenager and not having/having their mother in their life.

The writing was great. I will definitely read more of Ellen Hopkins in the future. Her writing style is just too good not to read any more of it.

Also her storywriting brings everything to the point and I love the rawness and authenticity of it.
Profile Image for James.
11 reviews3 followers
February 6, 2017
This was a great end to this series. I know that this entry in the series got not the best reviews. It was actually the worst rated out of all three. This one was actually my favorite. It shows how one person being addicted effects EVERYONE they are around. This book was form the perspective of Kristina's three kids. Hunter, Summer and Autumn. This book was their stories.

I will say this again, this is the best form of education.
Profile Image for Jason.
148 reviews93 followers
Read
May 16, 2020
Fallout by Ellen Hopkins is the third book in the Crank Trilogy
So this review has a bit of spoilers. I recommend stop reading if ur not caught up ;)


Kristina now had five children from four different men. FIVE. Like tfuck she been doin.
I mean we all know ofcourse.


This story was less about her, and more about her children.
Which I loved. This book showed how her choices had impacted the people she loved.

Hunter, Autumn and Summer, the pov's of this book.
I loved how different they were and yet the same.
Hunter was 100% the most interesting pov for me.
I thought the ending was truly brilliant. Eventhough I would've loved this book way more if the characters came together earlier in the story.
This book could have been perfect for me if that was what happend. That we see them becoming a family.
But I can see what Ellen Hopkins did, and I understand her.
This book truly couldn't be from Kristina’s point of view. We see the affects of a long life drug addiction and how if effects the people around her.

So if this my favorite? no I guess that my fave will be the first book Crank.
But this one is a close second.

The first book was about:
First times, seeing how it ruins everything.

The second book:
Really giving, letting it ruin everything with full acceptance.

Third book:
Living with it, and the people around it too. And learning that what crank has to offer for years, even for the people who didn't touch it.
Profile Image for Rae .
301 reviews114 followers
December 9, 2018
Check out this review and others on my blog:

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins is the third and final book in the Crank trilogy. Nineteen years after Kristina meets the monster, her children continue to pick up the pieces of their mom’s bad decisions.

I was so excited to read Fallout, and while it was good, it wasn’t nearly as engaging as Crank and Glass. Kristina is not front and center in Fallout. Instead, Hunter, Autumn, and Summer take the stage.

The perspective shifts back and forth between the three children, and it’s apparent that the repercussions of Kristina’s monster has made an impact on each child. Between sex, drug use, and mental illness, each child battles to find their place in the world and to fill the void that their mother left behind.

While I enjoyed reading about the children, I became invested in Kristina’s life and was hoping Fallout would continue to be told from her perspective. Because the book was divided into three characters� lives, I had a hard time connecting with any one of them.

The events in the story, based off of real people and events in Ellen Hopkin’s life, were interesting, though sad. One child drifts in and out of foster homes. Another struggles with OCD. And the other dabbles in drug use. Each of the siblings struggles in their own way.

The trilogy ended in kind of a ho-hum way. I didn’t feel a whole lot of closure, but maybe when drug use is involved, it’s hard to find adequate closure.

The narrators all did a fantastic job. They got into their characters and told the story from their perspectives in an engaging manner.

I would still recommend this trilogy to others! I loved the first two books but was hoping for something a little different with the third book.
Profile Image for Kim.
291 reviews43 followers
November 9, 2015
Fallout is the third and final book in this crazy trilogy. I think it was a fantastic ending. This author is amazing. Have come to love the way she writes her books poetry style. Absolutely addicting.

This book is written 19 years after Kristina met and danced with the monster. (Meth, ice whatever) and had 5 kids. And she is unable to take care of any of them. Cause why? Cause she is addicted to meth and meth destroys your brain people. It's that simple.

Her kids however don't wanna turn out like her and do everything in their power to break the cycle. Round of applause for theses kids. Seriously!
BUT do they actually break the cycle?

It's simple.... Be a strong person and DONT DO DRUGS.
1 review26 followers
November 3, 2016
OMG!!! this book and the rest of the books in the series Crank was amazing. I couldn't put the book down and from the beginning to the end got me. the author did so well with description and dialogue. she went deep down into emotions and made me cry at some parts but realized what drugs and other things can do to u. also I realized that what other people think of u matter and people have different opinions about who u really r. This series is my all time favorite series in my life.
Profile Image for Lisa.
606 reviews
July 18, 2017
I wasn't the biggest fan of this book.. I enjoyed the books from Kristina's perspective way more. At least I could connect to her. This book lacked in story and in emotions, something that its predecessors did have. Somewhat disappointing ending to this trilogy which I will just remember as an awesome duology.
Profile Image for Daria Marshall.
348 reviews18 followers
March 4, 2017
4.5 stars

Fallout was way more powerful for me than Crank and Glass. But I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the narration shifts to three of Kristina's children. As the child of an addict, I found myself sharing a lot of the same emotions and thoughts that Hunter, Autumn, and Summer had.

I thought that switching the narration was a smart move on Hopkins's part. It really shows just how far reaching the consequences of addiction can be. And I feel like we were still getting Kristina's story, so it felt like a good ending to the series.

I felt like Hopkins did a good job of representing the panic attacks that Autumn feels. And I kind of liked that she also had OCD. I totally understood why she told Bryce that her parents were dead despite the fact that they weren't. When your parent is an addict and have pretty much abandoned you, sometimes it's easier to just pretend that they are dead. It makes it much easier to deal with the pain. But it's also hard to explain that sometimes. And while I get that Bryce was mad that she lied, I hate that he didn't give her a chance to really explain. I kinda wish that Hopkins hadn't added the possible pregnancy, but that's just me.

Hunter was an interesting perspective to read since we've seen him in Crank and Glass, even though he was just a baby. I wish that we could have seen him and Brendan get to know each other a little more, especially since Brendan seems to have changed his life around after being in the armed forces. While I didn't like that he cheated on Nikki, I did kind of like that it helped bring him closer to Scott as he was asking him for advice on how to show Nikki he was sorry. And I'm glad that he really was sorry and did try to make it up to Nikki.

Summer was interesting to read about, especially having her in the foster system. Her storyline was my least favorite, but it was still compelling. I wasn't the biggest fan of Kyle, but he grew on me and I did like their relationship. I also liked that Summer was willing to stand up for and protect her foster siblings when things went south.

I also liked that at the end of the book, when everyone has finally re-connected, Kristina finally gets some closure and actually has an emotional breakdown (I know, that sounds harsh of me). And I totally understand why Hunter and Summer are having a hard time believing anything that Kristina is saying. Once you've heard enough lies, even the truth sounds like it. Especially coming out of the mouth of an addict. I think that this was a very strong conclusion to Kristina's story and I'm glad I stuck out reading the entire trilogy because I wasn't sure I would after Crank.
Profile Image for Lori.
541 reviews331 followers
September 14, 2010
I'm notorious for not reading blurbs to sequels. What's the point, because you already know you like the series! But sometimes this means I get surprises. Like with Fallout. At first I thought 'WHERE'S KRISTINA!!?' But after thinking about it I realized the genius behind the decision to make the book from Kristina's children's point of view. We all know that Kristina isn't going to get better. Not for a long time. So, Ellen Hopkins takes a big leap with this one and makes it 20 years after Glass. It worked flawlessly.

These books never cease to amaze and horrify me. Since the main voices in this book weren't hopeless drug addicts it wasn't as horrifying. At least not from that angle. In Fallout we get a glimpse of the after effects. We see how Kristina's addiction affects everyone in her life and some people that will never even know her. Hunter, Autumn and Summer's voices come through so loud and clear. They have to deal with so many things, not having a mother, a predisposition to addiction, and all the regular teenage issues.

Hopkins verse is as beautiful as always. This is the third book I have read by her now, and I'm still in awe of her talent. I don't know that I will ever be able to read another authors verse without comparing it to Ellen's. And I have found anyone else that stacks up yet.

Overall, this was a great conclusion to the Crank trilogy. Most everything was wrapped up nicely or as nicely as you can expect from such a heartbreaking story. If you haven't read these books yet, I suggest you do so and soon!
Profile Image for Bonnie.
1,432 reviews1,089 followers
November 15, 2015
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The final chapter in one of the most heart wrenching trilogies/series I’ve ever read. A truly emotional read and I believe a fabulous ‘ending� although maybe ‘wrap-up� would be a better description as the story is far from over.

In ‘Fallout�, Ellen Hopkins has switched up the point of view and timeline of the story. Set in the future, Kristina’s youngest son Hunter who was just a toddler in last book is now 19. The story is told from Hunter’s point of view, as well as Summer and Autumn’s: both Kristina’s children. By now Kristina has yet to fully get her life back on track and has 5 children all living with other family members or in foster care.

I was a bit skeptical at this change and how well I would enjoy it after reading through Kristina’s eyes for the past books, but I was pleased at how well written it was. The multiple POV reminded me very much of Triangles; however, I had difficulty in differentiating between Summer and Autumn for at least the first half of the book.

It was extremely intense ‘experiencing� the impact Kristina had on each of her children. It was tragic, heartbreaking, and extremely painful to read about. Was it worth it? Yes. Ellen Hopkins has yet to disappoint and I continue to be amazed at how influential and powerful her books are.
Profile Image for Christine (KizzieReads).
1,659 reviews103 followers
March 7, 2017
I definitely did not like this last book as much as the first two. I didn't like the fact that it switched perspectives. Instead of Kristina it is told from the 3 oldest children. I didn't see much difference between Summer's and Autumn's stories. They were both very similar. There were a lot of different characters thrown in and it was difficult to keep them all organized in my thoughts. I do, however, understand it as with the addiction to this type of drug, people often go through a lot of people and then move on with no emotion or care.
Profile Image for Jackie Bergeron.
114 reviews1 follower
August 3, 2018
I loved the first two books of Kristina’s story so much more. Maybe it’s because I’m older now but I felt like it was the weakest story though the author wanted it to be the most powerful. I remember feeling anguish during the Kristina parts but not so much here. While her children each have a compelling story, the fact they have to share space to tell it weakens what they have to say. Probably could’ve done without so much sex as well but I get this is YA so no chance. Such an unsatisfactory end to one of my favorite series though.
Profile Image for Stefanie.
196 reviews10 followers
January 17, 2016
Weirdly enough I liked this installment much better than the first time I read ( I originally gave it two out of five stars) it and I think it is my favorite one in the whole trilogy now... It is so funny cause going into this one for the second time, I distinctly remember how much I didn't it like it the first time I read it. Weirder things have happened right?

I enjoyed this series for the second go round. I invite everyone to read Kristina's and her children's stories.
Profile Image for Thomas.
126 reviews12 followers
December 31, 2015
So heartbreaking & powerful to see the effect of drugs on an addict's children.

Full Review to come.
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