[3][4][5] Crank takes place the summer before and during the protagonist Kristina's junior year of high school.

An antagonist, Lince, Adam's girlfriend, sees him comforting Kristina and jumps off of a balcony in a suicide attempt.

In Reno, Kristina, now calling herself Bree, meets the characters Brendan and Chase at a water-park, and they exchange numbers.

Kristina gets caught hitchhiking by a cop and goes to juvenile hall, where she gets a direct connection to a meth lab in Mexico through an inmate.

Once she is released from Juvenile hall, Kristina uses her mom's Visa card to pay for the illegal narcotic, and she takes her new supply to her druggie friends on "The Avenue."

At this point in the novel, Kristina begins to struggle with deciding if she should go through with the pregnancy because she "Feared the uncertainty of choosing parenthood" and "Doubted [she] could give [her] baby away.

Hopkins’s primary inspiration for her Crank series comes from her eldest daughter, who "was addicted to crystal methamphetamine and spent two years in prison.

"[10] Critics note that Ellen Hopkins's "hypnotic and jagged free verse,"[11] plays with the spacing of the words on the page, forming her signature "mirror poems.

"[13] Reviewers also noted Kristina must face that "there is no happy ending when it comes to addiction" and understand the consequences of her actions.

Publishers Weekly praised Hopkins, saying, "The author is definitely on a mission, she creates a world nearly as consuming and disturbing as the titular drug.

"[17] The Philadelphia Inquirer said that these "dark" subjects have not turned away teens; rather, "readers raced through hundreds of pages.

Judge John Tatro said, "Ellen has allowed her readers to see and understand the absolute horrors of methamphetamine from a user's perspective – not just from an adult lecturing in a classroom.

"[18] Niki Burnham added, "What Hopkins does, in just a few paragraphs, shows readers how irrational and overwhelming an addiction to meth can be.

According to the American Library Association, the book has frequently been banned and challenged in the United States because of drugs, offensive language, and being sexually explicit.

"[20] Hopkins responded to being banned, saying "she has heard from thousands of readers (including middle schoolers) that her books have helped to turn them away from drugs.