Book Review: Bang

Bang (Visions #2)

By: Lisa McMann

Published By: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: October 8, 2013

Page Count: 256

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Publisher via Edelweiss

Audience: Young Adult - Fantasy

In Crash, Jules has to work out how to stop a vision of a snow plough from crashing into the love of her life's family restaurant, and killing him, from coming true. She had a little help from her older and awesome brother, Trey. In Bang, Jules and Trey have to team up with Sawyer, the hot guy, and try to help him with his vision of a school shooting.

 

It seems nearly impossible, with so few details to go on, but the gang work hard and manage to work out what they need to. All the while they have to deal with the ridiculous rivalry between their parents over some super secret recipe theft. I love the fact that in this story, the kids are adamant that the parents need to get over themselves. They will not perpetuate this rivalry and they are clearly way more mature than their years. Jules and Trey also have to cope with their father's mental instability. They, along with their kick butt little sister Rowan, have to walk on egg shells at home just to make it from one day to the next without a massive tantrum from their father.

This book made me think a lot about depression and domestic abuse. The characters have to put up with such horrible home lives that really, having the mystery to solve seemed to give them some higher purpose to help them rise above their individual woes. I especially love Jules. She has an excellent line on how to behave; she recognises that she is being deceptive but rationalises it by saying that if everyone would only act rationally, then she wouldn't need to deceive them all. I loved how it was Jules, Trey and Rowan against the madness of her family but that didn't extend to the older two covering for Rowan so she could fly off to visit her boyfriend though. I thought that was irresponsible and went much further than sneaking out to see a boyfriend. Rowan... She is a force to be reckoned with and I hope that now she has called the other three out on their detective work they will involve her more.

 

I read Bang in next to no time at all, and it was really really exciting. I can't quite say why I didn't give it five out of five, but there was something just holding me back from that. Perhaps I would just have liked something more to happen to Sawyer's abusive father or  Jules's mentally unstable father. They were big issues and went largely unaddressed as the kids just crept around their crazy parents. Sawyer did see some progress on the home front by the end, but I feel like he was just avoiding the problem rather than directly dealing with it, and I am hoping that in the next book of the series there is a little more consequence for these awful parents. Jules's mom does her best but she has a lot to deal with, and she mostly deals with it by ignoring things and hoping that they go away. I could see how that damaged her relationship with her children, but strengthened their collective bonds, and it made me sad. It has been a while since I read some really good YA fiction where the parent is supportive and the child can turn to them for help. I would very much like to see Jules, Trey, Rowan and Sawyer find a way of connecting with their parents to fix that.

 

Aside from that one small bugbear, I think Bang was totally addictive and all the elements I loved in Crash were still there in Bang; Jules's lists of "five reasons why", her blushes, Sawyer's dreaminess, Trey's awesome razor sharp side kick style wit... Plenty of reasons to pick this up! 

Summary:

Jules should be happy. She saved a lot of people’s lives and she’s finally with Sawyer, pretty much the guy of her dreams. But the nightmare’s not over, because she somehow managed to pass the psycho vision stuff to Sawyer. Excellent.

Feeling responsible for what he’s going through and knowing that people’s lives are at stake, Jules is determined to help him figure it all out. But Sawyer’s vision is so awful he can barely describe it, much less make sense of it. All he can tell her is there’s a gun, and eleven ear-splitting shots. Bang.

Jules and Sawyer have to work out the details fast, because the visions are getting worse and that means only one thing: time is running out. But every clue they see takes them down the wrong path. If they can’t prevent the vision from happening, lives will be lost. And they may be among the casualties…