January 8th, 2013 from Simon Pulse
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.
This is one of my favorite McMann books! I read CRASH in two sittings and was surprised when I was suddenly on the last page. From the opening pages I fell in love with Jules and her nutso family. They are loud, involved, and totally reminded me of my own. I especially love her relationship with her older brother Trey. I love when books shine siblings in a positive light! It should happen a lot more often, in my opinion! He is compassionate, understanding, and the two have a way about them that I hope is inspirational to other teens. Her relationship with her parents are another thing entirely. The love is there, but so is obligation and maybe guilt. I felt bad that Jules and her siblings work night and day in the family restaurant. When a rivalry between another Italian restaurant surfaces, things in the kitchen really heat up! (ha) We learn about ties to the past, a secret recipe, and a very cute boy.
