Review: Crash (Visions #1) by Lisa McMann

Crash (Visions #1) by Lisa McMann

Publication Date: January 8, 2013
Page Count: 256
Format: Hardcover
Published by: Simon Pulse
Source: Library

Synopsis From Goodreads:

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.

Even though I liked reading Crash, I didn't find it exciting or captivating. I think it would have held my interest better if it had more mystery and suspense. However, I kept reading until the end, so that says something. When Jules starts having visions of a crash everywhere she looks, she realizes that one of the victims is her long-time crush, Sawyer. Unfortunately, Jules and Sawyer are no longer friends because their families are rivals in the restaurant business. The families are also feuding because of a stolen sauce recipe that made one business more successful than the other. Jules has a difficult time deciding what to do about her visions. But when they become more and more disturbing, she finally realizes she must take action to prevent the crash from happening.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Jules was 'in love' with Sawyer like she claimed. She has known him since they were young, but they hadn't been close since 6th grade. It stands to reason that she loves him as a person, but she doesn't know him enough now to be 'in love' with him. I also thought that part of the reason she was (obsessively) drawn to him was because he was off-limits. There's a certain excitement she feels in keeping tabs on him, albeit on the down low. Sadly, we don't learn much about Sawyer as a character. I got the impression that he doesn't have the same sorts of feelings towards Jules. It made me not like him as much because I really wanted him to have been pining over her the same way she did him.

I adored Jules brother, Trey. For me, he was the absolute bright spot in this book. I had a good laugh when Trey and Jules were discussing their mutual 'crush' on Sawyer. Totally hilarious that they have the same taste in guys! I love that Trey didn't come off as a typical gay character. In fact, I never would have guessed that he was gay if he hadn't admitted to having a crush on Sawyer.

The main problem with this book was that the 'vision' scenes were very repetitive. Jules kept seeing the vision replaying over and over, and McMann described every detail again and again. I thought it was a bit of overkill, or maybe just too much of a good thing. It somehow managed to make a really short book feel much longer and drawn out, and not in a good way. For most of the book I was just waiting for Jules to actually DO something about her visions.

I really, really wanted to enjoy reading Crash, but I think it could have been so much better than it was. However, I do want to continue reading this series and learn more about Sawyer, and spend more time with Trey.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars