And Today I Realized Five Of My Favorite Books Are About Car Crashes

Well, they are not about car crashes per se - but they include them. A distinction, yes, but "And Today I Realized Five Of My Favorite Books Include Scenes Where Cars Crash" is a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?

And, please note, it's not like these are my only favorite books, either. They are five of (at the moment) seventy. (Yes, I do know how many books I consider favorites. I'm neurotic like that. Also, the internet tells me so.)

At this point, you are probably wondering either a) why you are wasting your valuable time on my blog (I can sympathize, as I wonder why I'm writing this) or b) what these books are.

If I Stay (by Gayle Forman)  is about a girl who is in a car crash with her entire family, and she is the only survivor. It is sad and poignant and filled with so much warmth that I fell instantly in love.

Before I Fall (by Lauren Oliver) is about a girl who dies in a car crash, and is forced to relive the last day of her life over and over until she lives it right. It is also sad and also poignant and, though it is not warm at first, it gets you there eventually. I personally think it is far superior to Delirium, also by Oliver, which I just finished. (No, that book does not have a car crash.) (But it does have a motorcycle one... kind of...).

Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska (both by John Green) both have extremely significant car crashes (one fairly humorous, with an underbelly of sadness to it, and the other straight-up heartbreaking).

Jellicoe Road (by Melina Marchetta)... well, it is a book I will have to learn to discuss without spewing my love and adoration and a million other redundancies at the world. Because for the moment, that is all I can do. (Give me a break, I did finish it all of yesterday). Anyway, it can be adequately described only by this quote, from the book itself: (first part omitted because of earth-shaking spoilers) "[The families] who set out on their separate journeys that day not realising the tragic ironies and joys of that collision of worlds on the Jellicoe Road. (pg. 393)"

(Blogger thinks 'realising' should be spelled with a 'z'. I am going to rebel by spelling it with an 's' for the rest of my life.)

Ahem, yes. Car crashes get around. A lot. These are only the instances they're used in my absolute favorites - I'm not even thinking about the car crash in Twenty Boy Summer (by Sarah Ockler) or the one that begins Vampire Academy (by Richelle Mead) (the series is a favorite, as a whole, but not the first book).  Also, what about Vampire Diaries? I haven't read the books (I'm such a hypocrite), but that's how the story starts there, too. And, of course, hundreds of others (Well, how do I know? But I'm guessing).

So what gives? I think, in my slightly-jaded view of literature, that it is quite an easy way to kill-off-the-parents-and-make-the-hero-or-heroine-do-stuff. Killing off the parents is a more general way to describe it, obviously, but I cannot get over the Car Crash aspect.

But do you want to know what's cool? In my favorites (I say with a way-too-smug smile), the car crashes are used as catalysts. Sure, they kill people and give us plot, but they also serve as this slam to something bigger. I love that. It may sound stupid and extremely conceited, but I love my taste in books.

 Well, I suppose that is all for today. I have homework to do, a novel to edit, and I've just begun reading Countdown by Deborah Wiles. Does anyone know if it's any good?

I will be back, at some point. I am going to try to not be one of those stereotypical reviewers, and to actually post when I have a unique thought or when I really, desperately need to procrastinate.

Also, if you haven't seen this, please see it. Fans will understand. (Be warned there is a "Really Bad" swear word, even in the title, and Extremely Inappropriate Content.) (And by that I mean it's all sex jokes.)

(Please note, that I also inhabit shelfari and am an ex-tenant of fanfiction.net, if you feel like saying hello.)

(Comments here are also appreciated.)

Thanks for reading!

Hugs & Smiles,
Abbie