Crash - Book one
"She
can't believe her eyes."
Jules
Demarco has harbored a crush on Sawyer Angotti since they played together
during indoor recess in the first grade. Her family runs Demarco Pizzeria
restaurant. She is shunned at school because she smells like pizza. The family
lives in an apartment over their restaurant. Her father suffers from depression
and is a hoarder so she never invites friends over. Her mother is the driving
force behind the business since her father stays in the apartment most days.
The middle of three children, Jules is further shunned at school by the vehicle
she drives. For advertising, her mother has her drive their food truck. It has
two giant meatballs on the roof but she get ten bucks a week from her older
brother not to have to be seen anywhere near it. Most of the students at her
school like Angotti's Trattoria restaurant better, owned by Sawyer's family.
Friends throughout school, Sawyer's father made him break of their friendship
in the seventh grade when he discovered it. Their families have feuded for
years. Supposedly, the Angotti's stole the sauce recipe from the Demarco's and
now sell it by the jar in local stores.
Every
few days, Jules sees the same vision. Sometimes it moves, like on the movie
screen the first time she experienced it. Other times it is still like a
picture and always on a Jose Cuervo billboard down the street. No matter how
Jules' experiences the vision, it is always the same; "a careening tuck
hits a building and explodes. Then nine body bags in the snow." One night
after a busy day in the food truck and night in the restaurant, Jules sits down
to relax and finish watching a movie on the DVR. After collecting her money for
the week from her brother, Jules hits play expecting to see the movie. Instead,
her vision occurs. Backing up the footage, she watches it play out on the TV
several times in slow motion. The last frame is a scene she hasn't noticed
before; a close-up of three of the body bags. On closer inspection, Jules
notices that one of the bags is unzipped and the head of a dead body is
exposed. Much to her horror, the face Jules sees is that of Sawyer Angotti.
Her
visions are becoming more frequent and in more places than ever before. Jules
is constantly checking to see if Sawyer is still alive. On a Saturday night
when a group of her classmates come in, she waits on their table. When she
tries to take their order and asks "What sounds good tonight?" She
gets "Angotti’s sounds good but they're closed." Panicking, she
rushes out and goes to their apartment. She turns on the TV and searches for a
phone book. A gardening show is on but suddenly the sound is mute. Looking up,
Jules sees her vision again but this time it is longer. The building catches on
fire and she notices new details about the structure. She is upset because she
doesn't know what to do about the vision. After getting Angotti's phone number,
she calls. A man answers and informs her that the restaurant is closed for the
night for a family wedding reception but will reopen the next day. She wants to
ask about Sawyer but the caller asks if she is Jules. She confesses that it is
and Sawyer tells her that he recognized he voice. That and her family's name
came up on the Caller ID? He wants to know if she is spying for her family but
she tells him that she wanted to know why they were closed since they never are
and to make sure things were okay. Hearing her mother coming to check on her,
Jules whispers that's he is sorry and hangs up the phone. She reassures her
mother that she is alright and her mother tells her to rest and bit and leaves.
Then the phone rings and the Caller ID shows that it is Angotti's Trattoria.
Jules doesn't answer the phone.
Jules
continues to study her vision on the TV in order to glean some more details and
guesses that it might be the back of Angotti's. She sketches out the new
details and makes plans to check to see if she is right about her assumption.
What
is really happening in Jules' vision? Who else besides Sawyer Angotti is in the
body bags that she sees? Why is she having these visions? What happens when
Jules works up her nerve and tells Sawyer about her vision? Is she able to save
his life?
Readers
will be clamoring for the next book.
Bang - Book two
SPOILER
ALERT! If you haven't read Crash! Stop! I don't want to ruin the series
for you.
"They
never saw it coming."
It
has been a week since Jules Demarco received her first kiss from the boy she
has loved since the first grade. And one week since Sawyer Angotti first saw
his vision. Unlike Jules, Sawyer's vision includes sound, eleven gunshots in
fact. With Jules' father unable to let go of his feud with the Angotti family,
Jules and Sawyer find their stolen moments together too few for her to really
help Sawyer. Before too long, the reoccurring frequency of the vision increases
for him and he figures out that it pertains to a school shooting. Together in
their determination to save those in the vision, Jules is helping Sawyer make
sense of what he is seeing.
Will
Jules and Sawyer be able to unravel the clues from his vision in time to alter
it? Can they save lives? What happens when their respective families learn
about their relationship? Will Jules' father be able to cope?
The
Visions series concludes in 2014 with Gasp.
