"The Crash"

“The Crash”
Written by Lisa Drakeford
Review written by Diana Iozzia


In reading “The Crash”, I found myself wondering a few questions. Why do we decide a book premise is interesting to us? Is a premise interesting if it contains familiar tropes or plot devices that are appealing?  On a similar note, do we also choose books that remind us of others, in hoping that we would feel the same way when reading it? Either way, I’m not entirely sure why I decided to read “The Crash”. As I began reading through it, I found myself like it less and less. Is this a fault of the author or myself? Let’s explore.

The premise of “The Crash” starts when a car with three people destroys the living room of a small family in England, leaving some characters injured and all characters forever changed by this event. The players in this story are:
• Sophie, a simple, ‘average’ teen.
• Tye, Sophie’s best friend, on the verge of coming out as gay.
• Jordan, Tye’s hidden boyfriend.
• Deano, an abusive delinquent.
• Gemma, a naïve girlfriend of Deano
• Harry, protective brother of Gemma.
• Issy, a young neighbor who is abused along with her mother by her evil stepfather.

When Sophie’s living room is crashed into by Deano, Gemma, and Harry, this event sets off a domino effect. Tye becomes so injured he’s in a coma. Harry breaks his ankle and becomes close with Sophie. Issy involves herself, pointlessly. Deano is on the run.

We experience the story through multiple third-person perspectives. Issy and Gemma’s storylines mirror each other. Gemma’s perspective is told two years prior, when she and Deano met. Under his influence, she was involved in a few serious crimes. Under Issy’s stepfather’s abuse, Issy’s young life is affected deeply. We experience the story mainly through Sophie’s eyes as she puts the pieces together of those around her and completes the story to figure out what really happened.

The results of this book are disappointing. This was a very easy to read book without many complex characters or confusing plot lines. This book felt reminiscent of “Big Little Lies”, “The Slap”, “Dirty Little Secrets”, “Never Have I Ever”, and a few other neighborhood-based, dramatic thrillers. I felt the story revealed important details about each character, but I never felt the reveals propelled the plot in any way. There wasn’t a conflict to me, rather than just a mystery that (I guess) needed to be unfolded.

In conclusion, there’s no clear resolution for most of the characters and none of them do seem truly happy. I enjoyed the writing style and dialogue of this story, which lead me to believe I would enjoy more from this author. Hopefully, the characters would be more fleshed out, they would develop, and the plot would be more interesting next time. I do recommend this book to those who enjoyed the books I mentioned earlier. The small-town vibe, the close neighbors, and the character study of a story definitely are reminiscent of those books. I hope to read more by Lisa Drakeford in the future.