Fallout

by Ellen Hopkins

First published 2010

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer live in separate homes with different guardians and different last names. They share one connection: their mother Kristina Snow, who destroyed their family nineteen years ago when she met crank. Now each sibling carries the weight of her choices. They battle the same emptiness where maternal love should exist. They face the same genetic pull toward addiction. Hunter struggles with his own demons while Autumn and Summer follow dangerous paths involving sex, drugs, alcohol, and abuse. Each child mirrors more of Kristina than they want to admit. When circumstances finally bring the three together face to face, they must confront their shared damage. In each other, they discover something they have never known: the possibility of trust, hope, and the strength to break the destructive pattern their mother created. This meeting becomes their chance to forge a different future from the wreckage of their past.

Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, addiction, contemporary, young-adult, family-drama

Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking

Tropes: found-family, redemption

665 pages · Hardcover · Margaret K. McElderry Books

Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, mental-illness, substance-abuse

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