Fallout
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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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Book details:
- Margaret K. McElderry Books |
- 672 pages |
- ISBN 9781416950097 |
- September 2010 |
- Grades 9 and up
Teaching Resources
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): Fallout
Hardcover 9781416950097(4.8 MB)
- Author Photo (jpg): Ellen Hopkins
Sonya Sones(0.1 MB)
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Praise
Read an Excerpt
We Hear
That life was good
before she
met
the monster,
but those page flips
went down before
our collective
cognition. Kristina
wrote
that chapter of her
history before we
were even whispers
in her womb.
The monster shaped
our
lives, without our ever
touching it. Read on
if you dare. This
memoir
isn’t pretty.
© 2010 Ellen Hopkins
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Book Reviews
Reading Group Guide
A Reading Group Guide to the
Crank, Glass, Fallout trilogy
by Ellen Hopkins
Overall pre-reading questions for the series:
Why might teens begin using drugs like meth even though they know the dangers?
How might drug addiction impact a family?
What scars might drug addiction leave for generations to come?
A Reading Group Guide to Crank by Ellen Hopkins
ABOUT THE BOOK
Maybe it wouldn’t have happened if she had just stayed in Reno for the summer. Or if her father had turned out to be the man she had wanted him to be instead of the disappointment that she found. Or maybe if Adam hadn’t been so beautiful and broken and in need of her love. Maybe then Kristina wouldn’t have snorted her first line of crank and maybe then her life wouldn’t be spiraling out of control. But maybe doesn’t count in the real world, and it certainly won’t save Kristina from the monster.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How would you describe Bree? Is this the same way that Kristina would describe her? Where did Bree come from?
For Kristina, what is the lure of crystal meth? What does it provide for her? What does it take away?
Describe Kristina’s mother, father, and stepfather. Are they in any way responsible for her addiction? Do you think that there’s anything else they could have—or should haveR see more

Ellen Hopkins: FALLOUT

