Books › Collateral
Collateral
496 pages
An intense, verse-driven exploration of love, sacrifice, and the emotional shrapnel of loving a soldier.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like holding your breath through a long, uncertain night. Told entirely in rhythmic, stunning poetic verse, the narrative moves with a brisk, pulsing energy that mirrors the intense, sexually charged romance at its core. The atmosphere is heavy with the shadow of war, capturing the unique, agonizing tension of being the one left behind during multiple deployments. It is a deeply reflective and emotionally charged experience that immerses the reader in the stark realities of military life and the sacrifices demanded of loved ones on the home front. Readers who crave raw, character-driven stories about impossible choices, divergent life paths, and the collateral damage of love and war will find themselves completely absorbed by this poignant journey.
- Mood
- emotionally charged
- tense
- melancholic
- shadowed
- Tone
- earnest
- passionate
- reflective
- poignant
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- military relationships · the collateral damage of war · romantic conflict · sacrifice on the home front · divergent life paths
- The writing
- Written in a stunning, rhythmic poetic verse that heightens the emotional intensity of every moment.
- The arc
- Moves from the intoxicating rush of an unexpected romance into a heavy, reflective struggle with the realities of loving someone at war.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave intense, emotionally heavy romances and appreciate the raw, distilled emotion of verse novels.
Content notes
- war themes
- military deployment
- sexual content
About the book
Meet Ashley, a graduate student at San Diego State University. She was raised in northern California reading poetry and singing back-up in 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.
Description from Open Library.
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