Let me start off by saying that I'm really disappointed I didn't like this book more. I usually love Ellen Hopkins' books. They're gripping and gritty and terrifying and yet real. But Impulse just fell flat for me. What really made this sink in was that it was taking me a long time to finish. Usually, these Hopkins' books take me two days, tops. But Impulse just dragged on and on. Initially I was invested in the characters and their stories, but as the book wore on I stopped being engaged. Honestly, I feel like this book acts towards suicide almost like Go Ask Alice treated addiction. It's a caricature. 
 If anything, Impulse felt a little formulaic, and overall too much. It had the bare bones of Hopkins' distinctive verse structure without any of the more interesting variations. Instead of pictures or hidden meanings within the poems, each of them was structured virtually the same, with only about two major variations. The characters' dialogue was choppy and unnatural as well, probably due to the fact that it had to be a specific length in order for the poems to "flow" (but forcing this just made everything sound worse). I didn't feel like the characters really connected to each other either; they seemed to drift together and then skip to being inseparable, with no in-between explaining how they grew to care for another. Usually Hopkins is a master of the "show, not tell" mantra, but this time around she barely succeeded in "telling." 
 The book was also difficult to read due to the characters. They were so hard to relate to. It wasn't because of their situations either. I was able to relate to Crank's main character, despite having nothing in common situation-wise. However, there were still common threads that most human beings find relatable which these characters simply lacked. They felt incredibly two-dimensional to me, and this made it extremely hard to care about what was happening to them. 
 The ending was dissatisfying for me as well. After (view spoiler)[Conner's suicide (hide spoiler)] Tony comments (and Vanessa's agreement) that (view spoiler)["I can understand why someone like me would think suicide was the only way out. But Conner had it all--he was great looking, smart rich. He had everything to live for. So why..." made it clear that the two of them, despite claiming to be the closest people to Conner, did not understand him at all. Holy crap, I cannot emphasize how much this annoys me. They claim to be so close to him, and immediately after his death undermine all that he's gone through. It doesn't matter that he's rich and hot. He was depressed, he had problems, and it was this type of mindset towards him "not deserving" to be sad that drove Conner to try to take his life in the first place. (hide spoiler)] 
 Maybe Ellen Hopkins was going for a shock and awe factor. Maybe it's been too long since I've read another book by her, and I would dislike them if I read them now. All I know for sure is that Impulse was a disappointment, and not all that it could have (should have) been. 
 PS: Another thing I found ridiculous was (view spoiler)[after the three have all revealed that they've "killed" people, Vanessa expresses relief that Tony knows even the darkest thing about her, and still loves her. I don't recall her telling him how she walked away as her mother was overdosing?? I feel like that is the darkest thing she's done, the thing that haunts her (the abortion was barely mentioned at all) (hide spoiler)]