Collateral Book Review

Collateral
Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Atria Books
Publishing Date: November 6, 12

 

 

 

Book Description

 

From the New York Times bestselling author of Triangles comes an exquisitely told story about a young woman torn between passionate first love and the gripping realities of war.

Meet Ashley, a graduate student at San Diego State University. She was raised in northern California reading poetry and singing backupin her best friend’s band. The last thing she ever expected was to end up a military wife. But one night, she meets a handsome Marine named Cole. He doesn’t match the stereotype of the aggressive military man she’d always presumed to be true; he’s passionate and romantic, and he even writes poetry. Their relationship evolves into a deeply felt, sexually charged love affair that goes on for five years and survives four deployments. Cole desperately wants Ashley to marry him, but when she meets another man, a college professor, with similar professional pursuits and values, she begins to see what life might be like outside the shadow of war.

Written in Ellen Hopkins’s stunning poetic verse style, Collateral captures the hearts of the soldiers on the battlefield and the minds of the friends, family, and lovers they leave behind. While those at home may be far from the relentless, sand-choked skies of the Middle East and the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, they, too, sacrifice their lives and happiness for their country at war. And all must eventually ask themselves if the collateral damage it causes is worth the fight.

 

My Thoughts

‘Collateral’ was Ellen Hopkins second book in her adult series and oh my goodness was it fantastic.

Cole is a marine and Ashley is a college student who wants to be a social worker. They are in love but can their love survive the war?

‘Collateral’ was a bombshell of a novel. It was a hard hitting, dramatic, tear down your heart strings, action packed, page turner.

I loved this book, I have many members of my family who have served this country in the military so this book really hit home for me.

This book discusses what these soldiers really go through. Nightmares, post-traumatic stress disorder, paranoia, substance abuse, you name it, soldiers suffer from it, they come back and they have nothing. They don’t have the jobs they were promised or the homes they had when they left.

Denial is a wide spread disease in this country, war is real, everyone realizes this fact but not many people realize the fact of what war really is and what it does to the soldiers.

Ironically the day after I finished ‘Collateral’ a marine showed up on my doorstep. He was doing a program for wounded soldiers. His story broke my heart, 23 years old, he was shot, lost his hearing in one ear, and had lost all of his memories from his junior year in high school back do to a blast that sent him flying, leaving a piece of remnant in his head. He also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The horrible things he went through to serve his country and now the government won’t even pay for their tuition to go to school. It just breaks my heart.

 

Every time you see a soldier you should always give him or her, your thanks. A simple ‘Thank you for your service,’  will not cost you anything but it may have cost them more than you can ever understand so please just do this one simple thing, it is your civilian duty as far as I am concerned.

 

Everyone should really read this book, it is a big eye opener for many and it is beautifully written. I highly, highly recommend it.

 

 

This book really captured it. It was a truly amazing book, written brilliantly.

Ashley and Cole’s story was a really tragic one and sadly it happens around the world every day. A soldier returns home broken beyond repair.

A soldier sent back to his wife and children and a coffin never getting to say goodbye,

A mother getting nothing but her daughter’s dog tags, always wondering if there is a possibility that she somehow survived, when there were no remains.

A soldier losing her limbs before she is even 25 and can truly even begin her life.

 

That is war. War is ugly. War is real. War is and always will be Satan’s favorite form of entertainment.

* I bought this book on my own and decided to review it. All opinions shared in this review are my own. I did not receive compensation for this review.