Like the rest of Ellen Hopkins' books, each of the narrative poems takes its own shape. The stanzas and lines are spaced and set up to make a simple picture, incorporate the final thought or summary, and or a window to the feelings the "writer" of the poem is expressing. I really enjoy looking at the stanzas trying to figure out what Hopkins meant by each one.
Hopkins writes in a way the purges emotion. She makes you feel sorry for Kristina's children and feel hatred yet at the same time pity for their mother.
At times I lost my connection with the main characters who are supposedly writing the story through their own poems. They would feel distant from you. That hasn't happened to me at least in any of her other books so I don't really know what to make of it. The end of the book came up abruptly. I kept expecting more pages to appear as I was nearing the end because the story didn't seem even close to being finished. There was no final closure in the lives of Kristina's children. I guess that could be a good thing, the rest of the story if up to you.
In comparison to Hopkin's other books, this book was less sexually explicit in actions, but about the same in the minds of the characters. I found the plot to be rather obvious with few twists and turns. Even still there book got me fully involved and I didn't, well couldn't put it down until I finished it.
Your thoughts please :)
