The Book Addict Reviews: Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Genre: Poetry, Romance, Realistic Fiction
Order Online: Amazon.com
Author Info: Goodreads | Website
Rating: 4 stars
Borrowed from the library. 

In A Nutshell:
Ellen Hopkins has done it again.  She has written a wonderful book full of engaging characters.  I could not put it down until the very end. 

Review:
I started Triangles with some reservations. I love Ellen Hopkins' young adult books, but I worried that her style and her voice would not transfer well into adult literature.  I should not have worried.  Ellen Hopkins' handled this story and these characters with the same eloquence that has marked her young adult books.

Triangles focuses on three women.  They are linked by family or friendship, but they each live very different lives.  The variety and scope of their experience will allow the majority of readers to find someone they can relate to.  Someone who feels authentic to them.  Someone who will draw them into the story.  For me, that person was Andrea.  So many aspects of her story resonated with me--so many of her feelings about what was going on around her struck me as similar to the way I would react in a similar situation (SPOILER ALERT: well except for her reaction to Jace which I felt was very very bad!).

But Ellen Hopkins' use of three voices allowed me to learn that my view and perspective is not the same as everyone around.  Maybe other people will not react to adultery or attraction the same way I would--but that does not instantly make them wrong and me right.  We have different perspectives, different experiences, and different concerns.

And once again, I found Ellen Hopkins' use of poetry and verse allowed her a freedom of expression that I do not see in many romance novels.  It feels a lot more like the way I think before I have to structure them into sentences and paragraphs.  It feels very organic and raw--which is where these characters seem to be as they work through all of the events that happen over the course of the book.

And this book is full of action, events, and movements.  There is always something going on in the lives of these women, which helps with the realistic feel of the story.  At least I know that is how I constantly feel!

The one thing that I was not crazy about was the ending--I wanted more resolution, more of an idea of where the women, their families, their friendships, their lives ended up.  It felt very unfinished to me--which makes me think there may be more of this story coming?  (I really really really hope so!)

Recommendations:
I have another Ellen Hopkin book waiting near the top of my TBR pile:


But I just found out that she has a couple more coming out this year.  One for adults called Collateral (due out in November 2012) and one for Young Adults: