In all the poems, writing style serves as a tool for driving the characters and story forward, advancing the plot in an unconventional, language-based way.Īnother interesting free verse strategy Hopkins uses is the way she portrays dialogue. The tension between the statements of emotions and effects of the drug create a disjointed feeling in readers that mirrors the feelings of someone using the drug. Powdered demons bite through cartilage and sinuses, take dead aim at your brain, jump inside. 'You want to cry,' the sixth line states, while the seventh launches into the physical consequences of the drug: 'No Time Like the First Time,' which describes her initial exposure to crank, alternates specific emotions with rhythmic lists of effects from the drug. Need an example? Check out any of the poems where Kristina describes what it's like to take drugs. The free-verse style lets the story zero in on small, telling details as a way to advance plot and character rather than the lengthy paragraphs typical of traditional novels. We obviously can't read Ellen Hopkins's mind, but we can say this: There's something about the fragmented, surreal style of this book that illustrates the state of mind of someone whose life is controlled by drugs.

With this in mind, why is this incredibly bizarre form appropriate for not just a few poems about drug addiction, but an entire book?

Rather than restrict self-expression with meter, rhyme, and all those boring structural boundaries, free verse poetry uses rhythm, internal rhyme, word choice, imagery, and other devices to create its own style that reflects the subject of the poem.

Ellen hopkins poetry