Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout is the last book in Ellen Hopkins’s Crank trilogy. It came out in September 2010, after Crank and Glass, and like the rest of her work it is told in verse.

What is Fallout about?

The trilogy began with Kristina Snow and her meth addiction. This final volume turns to the damage that addiction left behind, especially on her children, who are now facing choices of their own. Hopkins writes about drugs, sex and family wreckage without softening any of it. That frankness is what challengers tend to object to.

Who has pulled Fallout, and when?

A well-known case came in 2022, when Utah’s Alpine School District removed 52 books under a new state law. Five were by Hopkins: Crank, Fallout, Impulse, People Kill People and Tilt.

The removals have kept piling up. PEN America counted 19 bans of Fallout in the 2025–26 school year, enough to put it on that year’s most-banned list. Most of the bans PEN recorded that year were in Texas and Florida. Hopkins herself has been called the most banned author in America by PEN America.

Is it gone from every shelf?

No. Each ban is a decision by one school district, so the book can vanish from a library in one town and stay on the shelf in the next. The bans cover school libraries and classrooms. Bookstores still sell it, and you can still borrow it from a public library.

Hopkins is far from the only author in this position. Maia Kobabe’s memoir Gender Queer is another frequent target, and our banned books section tracks more of them. For other stories about what gets restricted and who decides, start at the TabooWorld homepage.