Book Review: Crash

Title: Crash.
Author: Lisa McMann.
Format: Audio Book.
Series: Yes, #1.
Source: Publisher.
Publisher: Simon Pulse.
Published Date: 1/8/2013.
Summary:

"Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that. What she can’t handle is the recurring vision that haunts her. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode...and nine body bags in the snow. The vision is everywhere—on billboards, television screens, windows—and she’s the only one who sees it. And the more she sees it, the more she sees. The vision is giving her clues, and soon Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it’s someone she knows. Someone she has been in love with for as long as she can remember. In this riveting start to a gripping series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann, Jules has to act—and act fast—to keep her vision from becoming reality."

Links:
Goodreads.
Barnes and Noble.

My Thoughts:

I loved Lisa McMann's Wake Trilogy, so when reading this book I had extremely high expectations for both the story and the quality of the characters. While Crash wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, I still enjoyed it!

Crash starts off funny, and I right away loved the main character! Jules is a outcast at school, with no real friends besides her brother and sister; the three seem more like best friends than siblings. I loved how close they were and it made me wish that my brother and I are closer. Within the first two or three chapters I knew I would really like Jules; she seemed funny and down to earth! The three siblings go to school together where they take the family food truck, that happens to have two big meat balls sitting right on top, HA! And if that isn't bad enough, when the three aren't at school, they work at their family's restaurant waiter(ing?) and delivering the rest of their day.

When Jules' visions start occurring, she can't get away from them. Everywhere she looks, she sees the same car crash over and over again, seeing the body bags and realizing one of them is Sawyer. Sawyer, the boy she's been crushing on since she was little. Not knowing what to do, or who to tell about her visions, Jules doesn't handle the situation very well. She ends up telling Sawyer...and kind of makes herself sound crazy..

Doing anything and everything she can, including going against her parents wishes, Jules is willing to risk it all to save the boy she's always loved. But will he believe her? Or does she just sound crazy? Will Sawyer survive? Will he die like he does in Jules' visions?

Before even starting Crash I had high hopes and excitement for this story, due to enjoying Lisa McMann's other books. The first few chapters pushed those hopes even higher, to a good ending. I loved the beginning of the story and the characters. But some of that quickly changed...

Jules is seventeen, but sometimes has the maturity level of a twelve year old. She handles the situation a bit immature, and does things in ways I would never do them. Jules makes herself seem crazy when she informs Sawyer about her visions. I understand that she felt trap and wasn't sure who she could tell about her visions, but COME ON! She was so close to her brother and sister, why couldn't she tell them?

Jules brother and sister, and Sawyer were the characters I really kept reading the book for. Sawyer was more down to earth, and realistic, especially when someone like Jules is telling him that he is going to die...

The story overall had no twists or secrets, besides the ending, when Jules isn't the one seeing the visions anymore, someone else is. The story reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, which isn't a bad thing, Crash actually puts a funny twist on the classical story.

The beginning of the book was good, and caused me to have even higher hopes than I had before reading it. The middle was a little upsetting due to Jules' change and the way she decided to handle the entire situation. The story ended on a good note, with leaving a bit of a cliff hanger. Overall I still enjoyed the story, the only things that irritated me was the way Jules handled things, and that the reader never finds out why she's even having the visions..but maybe Lisa McMann is saving that for the next book!