It’s been a few months since Kristina’s son was born and even longer since her last walk with the Monster. The monotony of living with her parents—with no job, no friends, and no trust—has started to get to her. So when her alter ego, Bree, comes knocking with a plan to take the edge off, Kristina is quick to comply. Besides, one more stroll with the Monster couldn’t hurt, right?

I read the first in the this series, Crank, probably about 10 years ago and had always intended on reading the sequel. The ebook for Glass has probably sat on my Kindle for just as long. When I decided to finally read it, I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t remember what happened in the first one. Thankfully, not only did Ellen Hopkins include an overview of the first book in the first few pages of Glass, her writing is so captivating that I found myself remembering a lot of what had happened in Crank without it.

The story in this series—about the struggle of drug addiction and what it can do to a person and their family—is intense. Hopkins does a great job at putting the reader directly in the middle of the action and making the thoughts of the main character seem so plausible even though we know that it’s not. Hopkins has said that this series is loosely based off of experiences of her daughter, who struggled with the Monster. While a devastating situation, the experience helps make the book as realistic as possible, and leaves Hopkins vulnerable to her readers—an aspect that I respect her for.

Not only is Hopkins a stellar writer, I like prose/poetry style of her writing. While it makes the books seem huge (usually around 600 pages), it also makes them fast reads while still putting in the pertinent information that makes the story whole. There were one or two sections where I wish I knew more of what was going on, but overall the story flowed well and was tied up nicely without leaving the reader with questions.