CRASH (Visions, book 1) by Lisa McMann

Title: CRASH (Visions, book 1)
Author: Lisa McMann
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: January 8, 2013
Number of Pages: 256
Source of Book: ARC from publisher at NCTE

If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first of four books 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.

This is a must-get book – I can’t wait to get this into the hands of teens because I think they’re going to eat it up. I adore Lisa McMann and have enjoyed all of her other books, so I was excited to see she’d be signing advanced copies at NCTE this year. Ever since I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I wanted to read it…and it totally lived up to, and exceeded, my expectations. The great thing about Lisa McMann’s young adult books, just like in the WAKE trilogy, is the ease with which she writes that makes for a fast read and in a style that engages my more hesitant student readers as well. CRASH was unputdownable and I read it in one day, which was good because I was dying to know what would happen and how it would all turn out.

The plot of this story is suspenseful and fast-moving. There are layers to what is going on with family and school and the visions and romance and everything that’s happening that keep the reader going. The reader goes along with Jules as she tries to figure out what exactly is happening to her, and we find out more about her home life as we go along as well as what’s happening to her at school and with the boy she’s been in love with since she was a kid. This all comes to a head in the last third of the book as the visions become more insistent and Jules realizes time is running out for her to figure out what’s happening and save the people she cares about.

I so enjoyed the characters in CRASH. Lisa McMann has written relatable, entertaining, and endearing primary and secondary characters in this story. The voice of Jules is fantastic, especially the sarcastic top 5 lists throughout. I’d want to be friends with her for sure. There is also so much humor in this story, especially in her interactions with her family, that kept me engaged throughout. Her family situation is not always the best, but her sibling relationships are something everyone would hope for. She has an incredible older brother in Trey, who happens to be gay, which is handled in such a subtle, matter-of-fact, honest, realistic way which I really loved. I really felt like I was reading about real teens and real things that would happen to them, with the added context of the fantasy elements of the visions added in.

CRASH is a book for readers who like romance, quick-reads, suspense, mystery, science-fictiony/fantasyish predicitons of the future, family stories, and those who just want an engaging, fun, exciting read.  I’m super happy to hear that there are going to be four books in this series. I definitely want more of this story and engaging world Lisa has created in the Visions series!