Ellen Hopkins Books in Order

Ellen Hopkins Books in Order

“I hate this feeling. Like I’m here, but I’m not. Like someone cares. But they don’t. Like I belong somewhere else, anywhere but here, and escape lies just past that snowy window, cool and crisp as the February air.”

― Ellen Hopkins, Crank

Crank

1. Crank (2004)
2. Glass (2007)
3. Fallout (2010)

Burned

1. Burned (2006)
2. Smoke (2013)

Impulse

1. Impulse (2007)
2. Perfect (2011)

Tricks

1. Tricks (2009)
2. Traffick (2015)

Love Lies Beneath

1. Love Lies Beneath (2015)
2. A Sin Such as This (2018)

Standalone Novels

Identical (2008)
Triangles (2011)
Tilt (2012)
Collateral (2012)
Rumble (2014)
The You I’ve Never Known (2017)
People Kill People (2018)
Closer to Nowhere (2020)
What About Will? (2021)
Sanctuary Highway (2022)

Short Story Collections

Grim (2014) (with Amanda Hocking, Christine Johnson and Julie Kagawa)

Who is Ellen Hopkins?

Ellen Hopkins, the acclaimed American writer, who began her career in 1990 and is the writer behind popular young adult novels that deal with struggles such as drug addiction, mental illness and prostitution, resides in Carson City, Nevada, alongside her husband and son. With an extensive online presence including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest, Hopkins garners a significant following, particularly among teenagers who often express that she is the sole individual capable of comprehending them. Her work has also gain criticism and censorship for some of the themes it deals with.

The Order

Like with many authors who have multiple series, we recommend starting with the first main series that brought that author their popularity. With Ellen Hopkins, that means we’d recommend Crank. The following order will cover all but finishing a series before moving onto the next is a good strategy to get the most out of Ellen Hopkins’ brilliant writing. 

WARNING: There may be spoilers for some of the books mentioned. These are taken from the official descriptions but can sometimes spoil parts of previous books. So please be careful!

Crank

1. Crank (2004)

Crank #1
144,000 words, 537 pages, 4 hrs and 31 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.16 out of 5 on Goodreads

In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the “monster,” the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or “crank.” Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne’er-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: “there is no perfect daughter, / no gifted high school junior, / no Kristina Georgia Snow. / There is only Bree.” Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won’t, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.

2. Glass (2007)

Crank #2
203,619 words, 681 pages, 7 hrs and 17 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.29 out of 5 on Goodreads

Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it’s all the same: a monster. And once it’s got hold of you, this monster will never let you go.

Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she’s determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures of day-to-day life. She needs it to feel alive.

Once again the monster takes over Kristina’s life and she will do anything for it, including giving up the one person who gives her the unconditional love she craves — her baby.

The sequel to Crank, this is the continuing story of Kristina and her descent back to hell. Told in verse, it’s a harrowing and disturbing look at addiction and the damage that it inflicts.

3. Fallout (2010)

Crank #3
198,000 words, 665 pages, 9 hrs and 5 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.27 out of 5 on Goodreads

Nineteen years after Kristina Snow met the monster—crank—her children are reeling from the consequences of her decisions. Instead of one big, happy family, they are a desperate tangle of scattered lives united by anger, doubt, and fear.

A predisposition to addiction and a sense of emptiness where a mother’s love should be leads all three down the road of their mother’s notorious legacy. Sex, drugs, alcohol, abuse—there is more of Kristina in her children than they would ever like to believe. But when the thread that ties them together brings them face-to-face, they’ll discover something powerful in each other and in themselves—the trust, the hope, the courage to begin to break the cycle.

Fallout is bestselling author Ellen Hopkin’s riveting conclusion to her trilogy begun by Crank and Glass. It is a revelation and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

Burned

1. Burned (2006)

Burned #1
112,000 words, 544 pages, 5 hrs and 21 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.25 out of 5 on Goodreads

I do know things really began to spin out of control after my first sex dream.

It all started with a dream. Nothing exceptional, just a typical fantasy about a boy, the kind of dream that most teen girls experience. But Pattyn Von Stratten is not like most teen girls. Raised in a religious—yet abusive—family, a simple dream may not be exactly a sin, but it could be the first step toward hell and eternal damnation.

This dream is a first step for Pattyn. But is it to hell or to a better life? For the first time Pattyn starts asking questions. Questions seemingly without answers—about God, a woman’s role, sex, love—mostly love. What is it? Where is it? Will she ever experience it? Is she deserving of it?

It’s with a real boy that Pattyn gets into real trouble. After Pattyn’s father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control until Pattyn ends up suspended from school and sent to live with an aunt she doesn’t know.

Pattyn is supposed to find salvation and redemption during her exile to the wilds of rural Nevada. Yet what she finds instead is love and acceptance. And for the first time she feels worthy of both—until she realizes her old demons will not let her go. Pattyn begins down a path that will lead her to a hell—a hell that may not be the one she learned about in sacrament meetings, but it is hell all the same.

2. Smoke (2013)

Burned #2
147,900 words, 543 pages, 8 hrs and 13 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.33 out of 5 on Goodreads

Pattyn’s father is dead. Now she’s on the run in this riveting companion to New York Times bestseller Burned, which Kirkus Reviews calls “a strong, painful, and tender piece about wresting hope from the depths of despair.”

Pattyn Von Stratten’s father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run. After far too many years of abuse at the hands of her father, and after the tragic loss of her beloved Ethan and their unborn child, Pattyn is desperate for peace. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened that fatal night, but she is stuck at home with their mother, who clings to normalcy by allowing the truth to be covered up by their domineering community leaders. Her father might be finally gone, but without Pattyn, Jackie is desperately isolated.

Alone and in disguise, Pattyn starts a new life as a migrant worker on a California ranch. But is it even possible to rebuild a life when everything you’ve known has burned to ash and lies seem far safer than the truth?

Bestselling author Ellen Hopkins continues the riveting story of Pattyn Von Stratten she began in Burned to explore what it takes to rise from the ashes, put ghosts to rest, and step into a future.

Impulse

1. Impulse (2007)

Impulse #1
122,400 words, 666 pages, 6 hrs and 48 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.26 out of 5 on Goodreads

Sometimes you don’t wake up. But if you happen to, you know things will never be the same.

Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act—suicide.

Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade.

Tony, after suffering a painful childhood, can only find peace through pills.

And Conner, outwardly, has the perfect life. But dig a little deeper and find a boy who is in constant battle with his parents, his life, himself.

In one instant each of these young people decided enough was enough. They grabbed the blade, the bottle, the gun—and tried to end it all. Now they have a second chance, and just maybe, with each other’s help, they can find their way to a better life—but only if they’re strong and can fight the demons that brought them here in the first place.

2. Perfect (2011)

Impulse #2
147,000 words, 622 pages, 8 hrs and 10 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.33 out of 5 on Goodreads

Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.

Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never understand.

Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?

Tricks

1. Tricks (2009)

Tricks #1
179,000 words, 627 pages, 10 hrs and 10 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.29 out of 5 on Goodreads

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching … for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words “I love you” are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?”

2. Traffick (2015)

Tricks #2
150,000 words, 505 pages, 8 hrs and 20 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.28 out of 5 on Goodreads

Five teens victimized by sex trafficking try to find their way to a new life in this riveting companion to the New York Times bestselling Tricks from Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank.

In her bestselling novel, Tricks, Ellen Hopkins introduced us to five memorable characters tackling these enormous questions: Eden, the preacher’s daughter who turns tricks in Vegas and is helped into a child prostitution rescue; Seth, the gay farm boy disowned by his father who finds himself without money or resources other than his own body; Whitney, the privileged kid coaxed into the life by a pimp and whose dreams are ruined in a heroin haze; Ginger, who runs away from home with her girlfriend and is arrested for soliciting an undercover cop; and Cody, whose gambling habit forces him into the life, but who is shot and left for dead.

And now, in Traffick, these five are faced with the toughest question of all: Is there a way out? How these five teenagers face the aftermath of their decisions and experiences is the soul of this story that exposes the dark, ferocious underbelly of the child trafficking trade. Heartwrenching and hopeful, Traffick takes us on five separate but intertwined journeys through the painful challenges of recovery, rehabilitation, and renewal to forgiveness and love. All the way home.

Love Lies Beneath

1. Love Lies Beneath (2015)

Love Lies Beneath #1
88,000 words, 303 pages, 5 hrs and 49 mins to read.
Published by Atria Books
3.54 out of 5 on Goodreads

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Collateral comes a gripping novel about a woman caught in a love affair that could be her salvation … or her undoing.

Tara is gorgeous, affluent, and forty. She lives in an impeccably restored Russian Hill mansion in San Francisco. Once a widow, twice divorced, she’s a woman with a past she prefers keeping to herself.

Enter Cavin Lattimore. He’s handsome, kind, charming, and the surgeon assigned to Tara following a ski accident in Lake Tahoe. In the weeks it takes her to recover, Cavin sweeps her off her feet and their relationship blossoms into something Tara had never imagined possible. But then she begins to notice some strange things: a van parked outside her home at odd times, a break-in, threatening text messages and emails. She also starts to notice cracks in Cavin’s seemingly perfect personality, like the suppressed rage his conniving teenage son brings out in him, and the discovery that Cavin hired a detective to investigate her immediately after they met.

2. A Sin Such as This (2018)

Love Lies Beneath #2
98,000 words, 384 pages, 6 hrs and 23 mins to read.
Published by Atria Books
3.83 out of 5 on Goodreads

In this gripping follow-up to Love Lies Beneath, #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins’s “fabulous, sex-filled masterpiece of mystery and romance” (Library Journal, starred review), the honeymoon ends for Tara Lattimore when her husband’s ex-girlfriend is murdered, and she becomes a prime suspect.

Tara thought she was finally settling down when she married charming, handsome Dr. Cavin Lattimore, but life seems to be only getting more complicated. During the honeymoon, Tara’s niece Kayla moved into their Lake Tahoe home and quickly hooked up with Cavin’s manipulative, seductive son Eli. In a matter of weeks, Tara has gone from rich, single San Francisco professional to suburban housewife managing her niece’s emotional ups-and-downs, as well as her stepson’s continuing overt advances.

Adding to the family drama, Tara’s younger sister Melody is going through a serious marital breakdown. During a heated argument, her husband Graham insists he and Tara once had an affair. Despite Tara’s vehement denials, Melody is desperate to find the truth.

Standalone Novels

Identical (2008)

108,000 words, 565 pages, 8 hrs and 43 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.30 out of 5 on Goodreads

Do twins begin in the womb?

Or in a better place?

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that’s where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she’s the misplaced focus of Daddy’s love, intended for a mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. All that Raeanne sees is Daddy playing a game of favorites—and she is losing. If she has to lose, she will do it on her own terms, so she chooses drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it’s obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is—who?

Triangles (2011)

148,000 words, 529 pages, 8 hrs and 14 mins to read.
Published by Atria Books
3.97 out of 5 on Goodreads

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.

Tilt (2012)

188,000 words, 608 pages, 8 hrs and 42 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.20 out of 5 on Goodreads

Love—good and bad—forces three teens’ worlds to tilt in a riveting novel from New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing that his life, too, will be shortened?

Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Love, in all its forms, has crucial consequences in this standalone novel.

Collateral (2012)

106,000 words, 496 pages, 8 hrs and 37 mins to read.
Published by Atria Books
3.91 out of 5 on Goodreads

Written in Hopkins’s stunning poetic verse style, Collateral centers on Ashley, an MFA student at San Diego State University. She grew up reading books and never dreamed she would become a military wife. One night she meets a handsome soldier named Cole. He doesn’t match the stereotype of the aggressive military man. He’s passionate and romantic. He even writes poetry. Their relationship evolves into a sexually charged love affair that goes on for five years and survives four deployments. Cole wants Ashley to marry him, but when she meets another man, a professor with similar pursuits and values, she begins to see what life might be like outside the shadow of war.

Collateral captures the hearts of the soldiers on the battlefield and the minds of the friends, family, and lovers they leave behind. Those who remain at home may be far away from the relentless, sand-choked skies of the Middle East and the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, but just the same, all of them will sacrifice a part of themselves for their country and all will eventually ask themselves if the collateral damage caused by war is worth the fight.

Rumble (2014)

116,000 words, 550 pages, 9 hrs and 8 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
4.04 out of 5 on Goodreads

Can an atheist be saved? The New York Times bestselling author of Crank and Tricks explores the highly charged landscapes of faith and forgiveness with brilliant sensitivity and emotional resonance.

“There is no God, no benevolent ruler of the earth, no omnipotent grand poobah of countless universes. Because if there was … my little brother would still be fishing or playing basketball instead of fertilizing cemetery vegetation.”

Matthew Turner doesn’t have faith in anything.

Not in family—his is a shambles after his younger brother was bullied into suicide. Not in so-called friends who turn their backs when things get tough. Not in some all-powerful creator who lets too much bad stuff happen. And certainly not in some “It Gets Better” psychobabble.

No matter what his girlfriend Hayden says about faith and forgiveness, there’s no way Matt’s letting go of blame. He’s decided to “live large and go out with a huge bang,” and whatever happens happens. But when a horrific event plunges Matt into a dark, silent place, he hears a rumble … a rumble that wakes him up, calling everything he’s ever disbelieved into question.

The You I’ve Never Known (2017)

123,000 words, 608 pages, 8 hrs and 49 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
3.93 out of 5 on Goodreads

How do you live your life if your past is based on a lie? A new novel in both verse and prose from #1 New York Times bestselling author, Ellen Hopkins.

For as long as she can remember, it’s been just Ariel and Dad. Ariel’s mom disappeared when she was a baby. Dad says home is wherever the two of them are, but Ariel is now seventeen and after years of new apartments, new schools, and new faces, all she wants is to put down some roots. Complicating things are Monica and Gabe, both of whom have stirred a different kind of desire.

Maya’s a teenager who’s run from an abusive mother right into the arms of an older man she thinks she can trust. But now she’s isolated with a baby on the way, and life’s getting more complicated than Maya ever could have imagined.

Ariel and Maya’s lives collide unexpectedly when Ariel’s mother shows up out of the blue with wild accusations: Ariel wasn’t abandoned. Her father kidnapped her fourteen years ago.

People Kill People (2018)

122,000 words, 431 pages, 8 hrs and 37 mins to read.
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books
3.87 out of 5 on Goodreads

People kill people. Guns just make it easier.

A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?

One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?

Closer to Nowhere (2020)

49,300 words, 416 pages, 4 hrs and 34 mins to read.
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
4.29 out of 5 on Goodreads

A novel in verse about coming to terms with indelible truths of family and belonging.

For the most part, Hannah’s life is just how she wants it. She has two supportive parents, she’s popular at school, and she’s been killing it at gymnastics. But when her cousin Cal moves in with her family, everything changes. Cal tells half-truths and tall tales, pranks Hannah constantly, and seems to be the reason her parents are fighting more and more. Nothing is how it used to be. She knows that Cal went through a lot after his mom died and she is trying to be patient, but most days Hannah just wishes Cal never moved in.

For his part, Cal is trying his hardest to fit in, but not everyone is as appreciative of his unique sense of humor and storytelling gifts as he is. Humor and stories might be his defense mechanism, but if Cal doesn’t let his walls down soon, he might push away the very people who are trying their best to love him.

Told in verse from the alternating perspectives of Hannah and Cal, this is a story of two cousins who are more alike than they realize and the family they both want to save.

Will, who’s five years older, has never looked down on him. It was Will who taught Trace to ride a bike, would watch sports on TV with him, and cheer him on at little league. But when Will was knocked out cold during a football game, resulting in a brain injury–everything changed. Now, sixteen months later, their family is still living under the weight of the incident, that left Will with a facial tic, depression, and an anger he cannot always control, culminating in their parents’ divorce. Afraid of further fracturing his family, Trace begins to cover for Will who, struggling with addiction to pain medication, becomes someone Trace doesn’t recognize. But when the brother he loves so much becomes more and more withdrawn, and escalates to stealing money and ditching school, Trace realizes some secrets cannot be kept if we ever hope to heal.

Sanctuary Highway (2022) 

This is a strange one. There was some controversy surrounding this book and it appears that it was never published. Ellen Hopkins has regularly had her books banned because they deal with challenging ideas but it would appear this one had gone too far for her publisher. We don’t know any more than that but we’ll leave you with a snippet from her Wikipedia page about censorship of her work.

Hopkins’s books have regularly been included in the American Library Association’s lists of the most frequently banned and challenged books in the United States. Four of her novels were included in the list of the top 100 banned and challenged novels between 2010 and 2019: Crank (38th), Burned (83rd), Glass (86th), and Tricks (98th). In 2010, Crank made the top ten list.

And for the book itself, here’s the synopsis: 

No longer the land of the free. But home of a few brave souls.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins comes an edge-of-your-seat novel about two teens struggling to survive in a radicalized, militarized United States.

The United States government, now called the Confederation, has redefined what it means to be ‘American.’ The parameters are narrow; the exceptions few.

In danger and on the run, two teens who fall outside the ‘correct’ Confederation designation must join forces on a thousand mile journey north for safety. But survival means relying on strangers and not everyone is who they appear to be. Who do you turn to when the only person you can trust is yourself, and one wrong whisper can be the difference between freedom and imprisonment, life and death?

Short Story Collections

Grim (2014)

144,300 words, 480 pages, 13 hrs and 7 mins to read.
Published by Harlequin Teen
3.73 out of 5 on Goodreads

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: 

Ellen Hopkins
Amanda Hocking
Julie Kagawa
Claudia Gray
Rachel Hawkins
Kimberly Derting
Myra McEntire
Malinda Lo
Sarah Rees-Brennan
Jackson Pearce
Christine Johnson
Jeri Smith Ready
Shaun David Hutchinson
Saundra Mitchell
Sonia Gensler
Tessa Gratton
Jon Skrovon

Overall

Ellen Hopkins has written some hugely popular, intense stories aimed at both the YA and adult market that deal with a lot of challenging issues. For this, sometimes her work has been met with criticism and even censorship.

If you have enjoyed any of her work and want to learn more about her or any other of her work, then feel free to check out her website. 

Which one is your favourite or most looking forward to picking up next? 

Let us know!

Happy reading!

Total Word Count for Ellen Hopkins Books

Total Words: 2,694,519
Total Pages: 10,760
Total Time to Read/Listen: 158 hrs and 38 mins

More of the same, but different:

• Hunger Games Books in Order
• Tim Dorsey Books in Order
• Little Women Books in Order

Things to Note:

1. Word count is an approximation.
2. Amount of pages may differ due to different publications, font style and/or size etc.
3. Time spent reading is generally an approximation based on the word count and the average reading time. The average reader will read 250 WPM (Words Per Minute).
4. This is the original publisher of the books.
5. The current Goodreads score at the time of writing.