I absolutely love Ellen Hopkins. She has become my favorite author. She has such a fascinating way of writing. Like the majority of her books, I definitely give it a 5 star review. I was hardly able to out the book down! ( )

4.5 Stars. Just like the first 2 books in this series I love this book. I love Hopkins writing style and how she just draws you in and makes you connect with the characters (even if you've never experienced any of things they go through) and makes you want to cheer them on. My only frustration with this book is the transitions. There are times when I was reading about one character and then something major happens and then it suddenly switches to another character but all I want to do is read more about the first character and see what's going to happen with them next. Other than moments with the transitioning being frustrating, I love this book and will read anything Ellen Hopkins writes. ( )

I am always a fan of how she writes, and how she weaves stories, as the last of the Crank series, I had to read and catch up.

I did not mind the POV switches, the fonts were a bit more annoying than the switches, and some times they'd blur, especially when romance was what all three were looping around, and none of the kids seemed to have had a good romance going on at all.

The biggest flaw of this series is stated by the writer herself. She stated she could have written ten books about Kristina's fall, and yet she only wrote two, and one about the kids. That is where this series ends on a let down, there is so much between book two and book three left in the air and a mess that it comes in as a time skip and the kids talking more about their mom than their mom talks -or appears- the whole book. It pulls back, it rips you from the deepest depths some lines hold you upon, as soon as Kristina is spoken about, she's been barely there.

Worse is if you read these books as they came out and years have put gaps in your memory of Kristina, she's a background character in this book, when she was the focus. It makes her kids feel very cruel towards her for reasons beyond she was never their mother in the parent sense.

The ending is flubbed some, it's not an ending(spoiler for anyone who's never read a Hopkins book), it's an allusion to a conclusion. But this one feels like forgiveness where it should not be. It reads angry, but forgiving. There's no reason for them to forgive the monster that has ruined their lives, and there's the problem. This series needed two more, maybe three more books. One more before this, and maybe one more after. Without that, it comes off as almost empty. A farewell, not a goodbye, no see you later, just a loud booming "there's the door, see your way out". ( )

This was pretty good. Unlike the first two books, this one follows the 3 eldest children of Kristina's. Hunter, Autumn, and Summer. I like how it really helped to see how her choices affect those around her and not just through her eyes. ( )

(This review can also be found on my blog at The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty Something Year Old Girl).

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins is the final book in the Crank trilogy. I so wanted and expected this book to be just as great as the first two. However, this wasn't the case. It was alright, but no where near as good as Crank and Glass. Perhaps it was just because I wanted more Kristina, and she wasn't mentioned too much in this book.

Fallout follows the lives of three of Kristina's children. Hunter is the oldest at 19. He is extremely angry at his mother and can't understand why his mother abandoned him. Next is Autumn who lives with her aunt and grandfather. When the stability of her home life falls out beneath her, Autumn turns to drinking and becomes a bit of a wild child. Summer doesn't even know she has any biological siblings. She's been living in and out of foster homes her whole life for the most part. When she meets the boy who seems to love her, things start to go wrong. However, each one of them wants Kristina to acknowledge them.

The title of this book makes sense as all of Kristina's children have fallen out with her. I think it does a great job of giving you a hint about what this book will be about.

The cover of this book doesn't really do it for me. I like how the author stuck with the whole druggy looking title. However, I just didn't care for the ugly yellow background and how plain the cover looked. Perhaps that's just a personal thing as all the covers have been plain looking, but as this was told from the point of view from Kristina's children, I thought this cover would just have a different look.

The world building in Fallout is alright, but it's easy to forget which world you're in. Maybe that's just my bad memory, but I always had to remind myself which setting belonged to what character.

The pacing in this book is slower than the first two books, and is just a bit slow overall. It took me a longer time than usual to read this book because most of the time, I just had trouble getting into it. I just found myself not caring really when it came to everything in Fallout.

There's not much dialogue going on between the characters as with the first two books in the series. I thought the internal dialogue which each character was really good, and I felt like the dialogue between each individual character was appropriate for each of their age. There are a few swear words in this book so be warned if that's not your cup of tea.

I found myself not caring about the characters most of the time. I don't know if this was because I wanted more Kristina or because they weren't as well developed as Kristina. I got Autumn and Summer confused a lot of the time whilst reading since they almost seem to have the same personality. The only way I was able to tell them apart (besides it having their name printed at the top of the page when it was time for their point of view) was because of the setting, and even then it was sometimes difficult. With that said, I started off enjoying reading about Hunter as he seemed to just be a more well defined, more interesting character. About halfway through the book, I even stopped caring about him because he just became a little bit boring.

I enjoyed that Fallout was written in verse like the first two books in the series. Hopkins does a fantastic job putting words in verse and putting it into a story. I just wish this book could've been as good as the first two. Instead Fallout falls a little bit flat with the characters and the plot both leaving me feeling uncaring. Don't get me wrong, it's still an okay book, but I just think that this book didn't need to be written as not much is going on.

I'd recommend this book to those aged 15 who are interested in learning about Kristina's children since you won't be hearing much about Kristina in this book. ( )