Review: Triangles
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Atria Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster Inc
Source: ARC from Atria Books - Simon & Schuster Inc
Aisle B rating: 
Excerpt from Triangles page 1
Holly
runs to escape the
dumdrolls of
household life
wrapped in her erotica spells and mysterious sex
Andrea
Slaughters her dreams of
Finding her perfect mate
Shuns the life Holly conjures
Denies her follies for forsaking
A loving man who worships her
Marissa
Awakens to living each day
Hoping for the miracle cure
To salvage her angel’s torment
Unknownst of the shame her husband hides
Each life tied to the lines of the Triangles that link them all - parallel lives
A trapezoid best defined with polygons vertices
by the edges of lines defined by ties.
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Ellen Hopkins’ Triangles verses makes the reader aware of the poetics of reading. Coerced into a new understanding and awe for the power of creativity. This foray of versatile poetry in the context of a novel is moving and incredibly done with raw emotions linking each lives of its main characters Holly, Andrea and Marissa.
The book represents segments of their lives in a multi-dynamic foray examining their fears, dreams, guilts, and the courage to live against the challenges of time. All these women arrive at their mid age with a realization that their lives are not what they thought. Holly will disturb you for her morals, Andrea will move you for her unrequited search for the perfect mate, while Marissa will torment you for the life she desperately wishes to save.
Marissa is the one person whom I felt for the most. Her life will tug at your heart and you will feel the anguish of a mother / wife clinging to hope for all that will challenge her.
Hopkins’ Triangles is poetry in motion and her words will mark you for the route it takes you. My first impression leaves me wondering why I had never thought of reading the pleasures of verses in the minefield of reads. It’s so much more than poetry - it is in fact a destiny filled with clever devises using the structures of words to delineate the artistry words can conjure.
Impressive and raw - a work I would recommend to those who are willing to discover its creativity. Some of the images will mock the conventions of marriage and expect to be shocked by the subjects slammed in your face. You are forewarned but do not be deterred by the sensuality of words in verse- Hopkins’ delivers with Triangles - take a risk and discover the poetic license enfolded in her latest writing.
