A little while back I had the pleasure of going to a book signing and meeting Lisa McMann. I read her Wake trilogy( loved it) and was excited to read her new series, Visions. I decided to wait to read Crash, till I was on vacation and needing something to read on the plane.
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 shesees. 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.
Crash was a relatively quick and light read, I finished it on a short 2.5 hour flight. Having visions is not a new idea to the paranormal genre, but McMann was able to put her own spin on it, making it more interesting. During her Q&A at the signing she discussed what influenced some of her decisions and the characters. She talked about how she always wanted a family that was close, siblings thats connected with each other. She drew from that desire when she made the Demarco family. I grew up with 3 sisters and one brother and loved it. I still and close to my family and I loved reading about a family that had a similar chemistry to mine. I loved her brother Trey and how easy going their relationship was. The main relationship, being Sawyer and Jules had a story parallel to the classic Romeo and Juliet. The romance in Crash was very light, its the start of the series, so I am hoping it picks up more now that a good foundation has been set. Jules deals with her visions the way I think most people would, she thinks maybe she is crazy and then realizes even if she isn’t everyone else will think she is. I liked how brave she was though, she makes some decisions that were very gutsy and it made me like her all the more. Crash was a great start to a series and I am very much looking forward to will come! Book two, Bang will l be released October 8, 2013 and I will be waiting ( not so patiently) till then!
