Crash and Burn

De: Michael Hassan

Narrado por: Graham Halstead

Major streaming series coming soon to Hulu. Starring in the Hulu adaptation of this cult best seller: Alex Fitzalan, Alex Wolff, Sebastian Chacon, and Camila Perez.

On April 21, 2008, Steven "Crash" Crashinsky saved more than a thousand people when he stopped his classmate David Burnett from taking their high school hostage armed with assault weapons and high-powered explosives.

You likely already know what came after for Crash: the nationwide notoriety, the college recruitment, and, of course, the book deal. What you might not know is what came before: a story of two teens whose lives have been inextricably linked since grade school, who were destined, some say, to meet that day in the teachers' lounge of Meadows High.

And what you definitely don't know are the words that Burn whispered to Crash right as the siege was ending, a secret that Crash has never revealed.

Until now.

©2013 Michael Hassan (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Very unlikable MC

Grade: B+

Steven Crashinski (Crash) , unlikely hero who saved his school from David Burnett's (Burn's) bullets and bombs must finish confronts himself, his father and his past writing an account of the incident.

Narrator Crash is sympathetic yet maddening, arrogant yet lacking esteem, thoughtless and thoughtful, hurting yet hurtful. Verbally abused by his father, I found rooting for Crash to be easy, though sometimes I wanted to shake some sense into him and other times I wanted to teach him how to respect girls. He may even have had more negative traits than positive ones, but I still saw so much potential to be a great young man in him. I'm not sues how much he grew throughout the book, but I'd like to believe his next steps would be wiser.

Readers only see Burn through Crash's eyes, from mentally ill young boy, to adolescent who lost his father in 9/11 to would-be school bomber. I would have loved to read some of the voluminous psych records he must have had.

Debut writer Michael Hassan created near brilliance in his freshman effort. Crash's voice is pitch perfect for a certain type of problematic adolescent boy with lots of problems to create his behavior.

CRASH AND BURN is very long, over 500 pages and at times redundant. I had trouble keeping track of all Crash's friends, classmates and sexual conquests. I love long books, but think this one could have been trimmed by cutting out some of the partying and hookups that didn't really add to my understanding of the plot or character.

THEMES: verbal abuse, violence, friendship, drugs/alcohol, sex, family, parents, siblings

CRASH AND BURN is a tough but important story, filled with teenage (though not all teenagers) profanity, partying and sexploration on steroids, which be reasons to skip this novel that tells us everybody has a story behind how they present themselves.