My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Author: Lisa McMann
Narrator: Allyson Ryan
Length: 5 hrs., 18 mins.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publisher’s Summary: If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first in a series from the New York Times best-selling 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 best-selling author Lisa McMann, Jules has to act – and act fast – to keep her vision from becoming reality.
©2013 Lisa McMann (P)2013 Simon & Schuster
My Review: I’m a sucker for a good series and Crash begins the Visions series by Lisa McMann with a bang, literally. Sixteen-year-old Jules Demarco has a busy life between school and working at her family’s restaurant. Her depressed hoarder father rules the roost with an iron fist and her mother doesn’t lack behind in her strictness.
Thankfully, Jules doesn’t face the world alone. Her siblings, older brother Trey and younger sister Rowan, add great characters to this audiobook! I love Trey’s personality and humor, even at awkward times. Rowan may sound sweet and innocent but I can see her developing into a stronger character in future books.
Jules’ mind is blown when things start appearing on billboards and signs around her. Everyone sees the Jose Cuervo billboard.. except Jules. The same scene plays over and over. A snowplow barrels down the road, jumps the curb, smashes through the front of a building and blows up. Then there’s 9 body bags laying in the snow and only one face is visible… Sawyer.
Crash’s Romeo and Juliet feeling is obvious from the first mention of Jules’ love interest Sawyer Angotti. Sawyer’s parents and family run the rival Italian restaurant and both families have a mutual hatred for one another. Except Jules and Sawyer… They’ve loved each other since childhood but were separated when the families learned of their friendship.
The best part? The secret is more than lost business between the restaurants, it’s much deeper. And darker. Jules has to act fast to solve the clues in her vision and try to save the day. Nine people’s lives are counting on her to save them, but they have no idea of the danger dangling in the midst.
Crash was a great listen and I would recommend it to any young adult. The plot and characters kept my attention from beginning to end with lots of drama and action. The dynamics between Sawyer and Jules were awesome and I’m hoping to feel more of that spark in book two.
I’m really impressed with Crash and I’m thinking of dabbling in McMann’s other works.
Narrator Review: Allyson Ryan did a wonderful job of narrating. I found her annunciation to be a little much in the beginning but I adjusted quickly and enjoyed her reading. She packed great emotion into Jules’ character and my heart ached for the character during the dramatic, heartfelt scenes.
