Triangles by Ellen Hopkins

Ellen Hopkins is a popular teen writer and this is her first adult novel. I have not read any of her books previous to this one and was not impressed. Her books are written in verse and at first I found it interesting and quick to read. After a while, the novelty wore off and it just got annoying. Throughout the book, the story would be interrupted by an actual poem about what just happened. The extra poetry slowed down the story when I already wanted it to be over. I knew the book was covering dark subject matter which wasn't the problem. The problem was that there was so much going on at the same time that it didn't really show the characters dealing with any problem in particular. Read my summary and you'll understand. The book concluded with the characters figuratively shrugging their shoulders and moving on with their lives, even after life altering situations. I didn't find any of her characters particularly likable or well fleshed out.

The book follows three women. Holly, Andrea and Marissa. Holly is a woman about to turn 40 and looks outside of her marriage to spice up her life. She starts writing erotica and has an affair with a man in her writers group. He introduces her to a club for swingers and she ends up falling in love with him. At the same time, she is searching for her birth parents and her teenaged daughter gets pregnant. Andrea is Holly's single friend who watches Holly flirt with guys when they go out and envies her perfect husband. Even though she judges Holly for being adulterous, she doesn't think twice about having an affair with Holly's husband when he comes crying after he discovers Holly's infidelity. Andrea is also dealing with a dead beat ex husband and a young daughter who develops a crush on her ex husband's girlfriend's son. She also seems to have a problem coming to terms with her hippie parents' communal lifestyle and how her dad might not be her biological dad. Marissa is Andrea's sister who has a terminally ill child who is dying and a gay teenaged son. She also finds out her husband has been cheating on her for the past 5 years. Does this all sound like too much? It was. Have you ever heard of "too much of a good thing"? This was too much of a bad thing.