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Imagine you had a vision of an accident where people you knew were killed and in body bags. Would you stop it? What if they were strangers and you were hurt too... would you take the chance to stop it and save strangers if you could be killed in the meantime? Lisa McMann's sequel in the Visions series, Bang, makes you ask yourself that very question.
Jules saved the lives of a bunch of people, including the delicious Romeo to her Juliet, Sawyer. Their families have despised each other for a generation, but they refuse to carry on the ridiculous tradition. In saving his family's restaurant, however, she has put herself on the wrong side of her father's mental illness. Now he doesn't trust her and will do anything to keep her away from Sawyer. Luckily for Jules, her sister Rowan and her brother Trey are comrades in the war against their unpredictable father, and they help her to come and go without his knowing. All would be perfect if only Sawyer hadn't had a vision...
When he tells her he had a vision, she can't believe she somehow "infected" him with such a burden. They have no idea how he got the vision, but they all know the ramifications of what he has seen. He knows it is some kind of school because the shooting takes place in a classroom, but the vision is so difficult for him to cope with that he can't seem to get a handle on it to get any specifics. Jules knows she has to help him to work through the vision, but are they willing to risk their own lives to save the lives of a bunch of strangers?
Whenever I first start a McMann book, I am usually turned off by the "uber-teen" language that sounds campy, hokey, and forced. I work with teens, live with teens, spend an exorbitant amount of my life with large amounts of adolescents, and I don't know any who talk like Jules and the others do in these books. It is kind of a turn off for any older readers, but I have found middle school students don't seem to mind it (maybe they think that's how high school students talk!). It is a shame that language struggle happens because as soon as I get into the book a little, I am sucked into such a good story! Sadly, that campy language detracts from the engaging, exciting story McMann wove, but at least I can ignore it once the excitement of the story takes over.
The stories are really exciting, and McMann writes a good middle-of-the-road book where the language is very simplistic but the books are engaging enough for a mature reader (if you can get past the silly language). I use these for those 12-14 yr old students who struggle to stay with a book because their reading skills are lower than their interest. And the stories are short enough that they can get through the story with only reading 20 minutes a day or so. With larger books they tend to lose track of what is happening, but the story in McMann's series' are condensed and fast, so they can keep up.
In addition, this story has some really deep, adult situations, like the fact that Sawyer's father and grandfather have a tendency to hit him. Or the fact that Jules' dad's mental illness made the entire family walk on eggshells. There was one scene where her mother comes into her room where Jules and her brother and sister are sitting. They expect her to be mad for setting off their father again, but instead she just tells them she is so grateful they have each other. It was such a devastating and moving scene, I couldn't get over the ridiculous campy language McMann put into Jules' mouth. Such a weird juxtaposition! But still, this is a great series and it will be great for those older struggling readers. I can only imagine where McMann is going to go with all these visions!
Once in a while a book comes by that tells a story of a character you can relate to and empathize with so much, you feel like you have known them all your life. That is exactly how I felt about Sarah in J.J. Johnson's The Theory of Everything. I loved everything about this character and this book.
Sarah suffered an inconceivable tragedy; she lost her best friend Jamie in a horrible accident. But that isn't the worst part. The accident was Sarah's fault. Now SJD (Since Jamie's Death), she has become a different person, a person apparently no one enjoys being around, including her parents and her boyfriend Stenn. And to top it off? Her regular demeanor was replaced by a snark box that makes people stop feeling sorry for her and start getting annoyed by her. But regardless of how much Sarah just wants to be left alone to wallow in her misery, no one seems to want to leave her alone. The only creature who understands Sarah is Ruby, her rescued dog who knows just how to calm Sarah and exactly how to get her in trouble.
Feeling guilty, Sarah agrees to go to a party with Stenn, but she brings Ruby along as a buffer. When Ruby takes off through the woods and ends up in a creepy man's garage eating the very same deer carcass that crashed through the high school gym right in front of Sarah (bringing all the memories of Jamie's accident flooding back with a vengeance). When the creepy man shows up at Sarah's school, he offers her a chance to work off the lost meat by working on his Christmas tree farm. If she agrees, he won't tell her parents about where she was and how her precious dog went native. Sarah will do anything to protect Ruby, but she wasn't expecting hard labor to be just the thing she needed to truly begin to heal. Snark Box and all!
Oh, how I loved this book, let me count the ways! 1. Sarah and her snark box were just the kind of dry sarcasm I have been looking for in a main character these days. Coming from a family full of Snark Monsters, I appreciate a good snark box! 2. Sarah's grief was real, it was tangible, and it made me, the reader, grieve right along with her. Her reactions are expected and unexpected at the same time, the very nature of grief personified. It was beautiful and painful, all wrapped up together. 3. There was no attempt to romanticize or glorify Sarah's relationship with Emmett, Jamie's twin brother. In a cheaper, cheesier YA novel, they would have realized their love for one another and ridden off into the sunset. In this book? They are both suffering. They need each other. But it isn't about some forced romance. It is friendship, understanding, and a mutual love for someone they both lost. 4. Stenn was a good guy. He really was! He was, months after Jamie's death, growing weary of Sarah's actions and unable to understand why she couldn't move on, but he was patient, he loved her, and he was devoted. He wanted the best for her, but he was human and humans can grow impatient eventually. Even when he grew impatient, though, he was always just a boy who cared about her and wanted to see her smile again.
This is one of those books that just makes your literary hairs stand on end. I loved every single page, every description, and every bit of dialogue. I am so very impressed with Johnson's portrayal of this young woman who just can't survived in a world SJD. It reminded me of Green's Fault in Our Stars and Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere not because they are similar stories, but because the characters are so real and the situations are so bitter-sweet you can picture yourself doing and saying exactly what the authors have written. This is a story for so many different people. Basically, if you know someone with a heart who needs a good book, pass this along. You won't be sorry. Snark and all, this was quite the masterpiece!
