Crash (Visions, #1)

by Lisa McMann

If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first in a series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Wake trilogy.

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.

• ISBN10: 1442405929
• ISBN13: 9781442405929
• Publish Date: 8 January 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

3.5 Stars

Crash is not really the kind of book I seek out, it’s one of those oddly contemporary paranormal that I tend to have trouble with. However I really enjoyed the way Crash played out and it turned out to be a nice read for a weekend.

Jules is having visions of a crash. She sees it everywhere and it begins to consume everything. Only she sees the horrible event and the fact that she has to figure it out by herself makes things even more stressful, add that to the fact that the crash happens at a rival restaurant and Jules can barely think about anything else.

Jules is a funny and level-headed, and she has real problems. Her family is under a ton of stress with the restaurant and the hidden mental illness that threatens to tear them up. I was surprised to see mental illness portrayed in a very serious way as it’s not something I typically find in YA, though I can say now that I’ve read a few since this one. I really liked that I spent a good bit of time toward the beginning wondering if Jules was going down a similar road as her father or not. One of the best things about this book it reads like a contemporary and only hints at the paranormal. Another fantastic point is that her family is completely present for the story! You heard me right, there are no invisible parents in this book. I love that the story affects her relationships at home and that they affect her. Trey was such an awesome brother, he’s funny and supportive and has such a great dynamic with both of his sisters.

I also really enjoyed the relationship between Jules and Sawyer Angotti. Childhood friends split apart because of a very heated family rivalry, it’s sort of very Romeo & Juliet…though it’s definitely not as obsessive, quick, or depressing. It’s clear that Jules cares of Sawyer and that there is a lot going on in both families that is keeping them for being around each other like they use to be. I had a bit of an issue with Sawyer’s depth though, at times he felt a bit flat and though I could tell he was a sweet guy with some darkness in his life I didn’t really know him. We don’t get to spend very much time with him to actually see if there is still a connection between the two, even on a friendship level.

I loved the slow build up of the story with the vision and how we get to know more about the families that would be affected by the crash in Jules’ vision. Thought there were times when I was more interested in the families than the vision itself. The second half of the book is set at a faster pace and it really got my heart pumping the closer it got to the day the vision was set to happen. The ending was completely unexpected as well and I was surprised to see a set up for a second novel. I can’t wait to see what happens in book two!

[lizarodz]

I’m a big fan of McMann’s Wake series and I also enjoyed Cryer’s Cross as well, thus I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Crash. Sadly, this book lacks the interesting qualities of the other two.

Jules… was not what I expected. The story is told from her point of view and she has a strong voice. My main issue was that although I did like her overall personality, she seemed to have unfounded insecurities, and an almost stalkish behavior towards Sawyer. She is loyal, funny, a good person, but obsessed with Sawyer. I understand that her visions (whatever they are) made her paranoid, thinking that everyone will take her for a crazy person. Darn, I probably wouldn't tell anyone either, but I’m not sure that I would have taken matters into my own hands either. And what the heck is with replacing ‘dog’ for the word ‘God’?!! (as in “Oh my dog”!)

I don’t blame Sawyer for not believing Jules, but I blame him for the obvious distress he was causing her. Why couldn’t he confess the family truth earlier? After the ‘incident’ he was suddenly willing to make amends, I don’t think I would have gone for that… Other than that Sawyer was okay.

The respective families are all plain weird. Jules’ father is a hoarder, but no one intervenes and just lives with the junk, and her mother is a martyr. I enjoyed more Jules’ relationship with her brother and sister; they formed a very tight circle and watched out for each other. Sawyer family wasn’t any less crazy and the family drama came as an unexpected twist.

I have mixed feelings about the plot. I really liked the paranormal take and I’m dying to know why the visions and how to act upon them. However, although I didn’t completely dislike the characters, I don’t love them either. I just don’t see the chemistry between Sawyer and Jules and although they knew each other all of their lives, the relationship at the end seemed forced. The writing is typical for McMann, which is to say, really good.

Still, I will read Bang, book two of the series, if only to figure out the paranormal aspect of the story.

About the cover: It’s stunning! The flames are all shiny :)