Review - Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Triangles by Ellen Hopkins
Published: 2011 by Atria
Source: Crazy Book Tours

Three female friends face midlife crises in a no-holds-barred exploration of sex, marriage, and the fragility of life.

Holly: Filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, she sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Will it bring the fulfillment she is searching for?

Andrea: A single mom and avowed celibate, she watches her friend Holly’s meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for - a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly’s castaway husband?

Marissa: She has more than her fair share of challenges - a gay, rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts.

As one woman’s marriage unravels, another’s rekindles. As one woman’s family comes apart at the seams, another’s reconfigures into something bigger and better. In this story of connections and disconnections, one woman’s up is another one’s down, and all of them will learn the meaning of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness.

Unflinchingly honest, emotionally powerful, surprisingly erotic, Triangles is the ultimate page-turner. Hopkins’s gorgeous, expertly honed poetic verse perfectly captures the inner lives of her characters. Sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes you just get lost.

Get lost in the world of Triangles, where the lives of three unforgettable women intersect, and where there are no easy answers.

I have a steadfast love/hate relationship with this book. I hated how some of the women cheated. No one condones cheating, but this was a part of what the book was about. It was hard for me at first to feel for the women who had cheated. I'll admit, I was prejudiced towards them completely. I did what every reader does and related the characters to myself and for me, it just did not compute. But then my eyes started to open. These women suffered. They bore the grief of their families and tried so hard to numb the pain. Someone doesn't just wake up one day and say, "Hey! I'm going to cheat on my husband!" At least these women didn't. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the world who do wake up and think that, but that's a whole other discussion. I believe it takes small steps that eventually lead a normal person with morality to cheat. Once again, I do not think cheating is ok by any means at all, but after reading Triangles, I can see how small things in life can lead a person to cheat.

This was my first verse novel and just... wow. The stanzas, the poem-like writing worried me at first. I didn't want to read a book of poems. I discovered that verse novels are not like that by any means. Far from it, actually. Triangles read just like a prose novel. The words were simply... beautiful. This will definitely not be the only verse novel I will read.

I know that Ellen Hopkins' other books are all YA. I read how Ellen hopes Triangles, her first adult novel, will appeal to the people who grew up reading her YA novels are now adults. Even though this is the first novel I've read by her, I can't help but feel comforted that she thought of her readers like that... how she wanted her writing to transcend genres with us. I will definitely have to dive into her YA novels now!

A special thanks to Shannon and Ashley for talking to me after I finished reading this book. They helped me collect my thoughts and bring them together to write a review that is acutally readable. Thanks, ladies!

Stop by the other blogs participating in the Triangles blog tour hosted by Crazy Book Tours here.