Triangles, by Ellen Hopkins

Funny how someone's life can seem so perfect on the outside, while inside they are falling apart.  Holly, a stay at home mom with seemingly the perfect life, finds herself restless and dives headlong into the world of extramarital sex.  Andrea, Holly's friend, watches Holly destroy her perfect life, while Andrea continues to struggle as a single mother.  And Andrea's sister, Marissa deals with a terminally ill daughter, a gay teenage son, and an unfaithful husband.  All three women live vastly different lives, intersecting at points, forming a series of triangles.

Once again Hopkins delivers a powerful story in verse form.  Being fairly familiar with her writing style, I felt at home with the pacing and the changing points of view in the book.  I felt each woman's voice was distinct, allowing readers to come to know each woman individually, as well as seeing how their paths cross.  I found each woman's story to be realistic and relatable, and I enjoyed watching them unfold.

This book is marketed as Hopkins' first adult novel.  Honestly, I found it was not so different from her young adult novels.  Sure, there was a bit more sex and eroticism in Holly's tale, but Hopkins has never strayed from adult themes within her young adult novels.  The main difference I saw was the ages of the main characters; her young adults tend to focus on the story of teenagers.  The writing style and tone are basically unchanged from her young adult books.  This is not necessarily a criticism, as I think many young adult books are written on very adult levels.  It serves to blur the lines between genres, perhaps not such a bad thing.  I think this book would appeal to college age readers who have read Hopkins' work before and are now transitioning into more adult titles.  But, I see no shame in an adult reading young adult fiction, so whether this was marketed as adult or young adult, I still would have enjoyed it.


 I received a review copy courtesy of Crazy Book Tours and the publisher.
 

If you liked this review, please rate it (and others!) as helpful on my Amazon profile. My Amazon Profile