Review - Bang (Visions #2) by Lisa McMann

Title: Bang

Author: Lisa McMann

Series: 2nd (Crash)

Pages: 256

Published:  October 8th 2013 by Simon Pulse 

ISBN: 9781442466258

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

 

Description: 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… 

I Give This ...

I have extremely conflicting emotions about this one.  And separating those emotions and evaluating the book for what it was proved to be harder than I thought.  There was that nagging thought in the back of my head that really bugged me.

On one hand, I actually felt that this story was an improvement over the first book.  Jules and Sawyer are acting a little bit more their age.  Their family dynamics are crazy, but they are both pushing the boundaries that I think they should.  And maybe some they shouldn't.  Jules starts lying about almost everything.  But, she can't explain the visions and the need she feels to solve the riddle being seen.  And she's not about to give up Sawyer for their families stupid feuds.  Sawyer is standing up for himself and I'm curious how this might play out in the next book.  He's taken a drastic measure that has some big consequences.

The events of the story are well played out.  The visions seem way less specific this time and are harder to decipher.  This really seems to effect Sawyer and I would not want to see what he sees on repeat all the time.  I admired their courage to see it through even placing themselves in significant danger just to help those in the vision.  They really saved a lot of lives and trauma.

What really bothered me about this, was that I often wondered if this was too soon for this type of event to be written out in literature this way?  I seem to be the only one that has been mentioned this in reviews, so maybe I'm the only one that feels the events of December 2012 are still to raw.  I really wanted to know if the author already had this book partially (or fully) written when Sandy Hook happened or did this come after?  It's something that has weighed on my mind.

I let my emotions ride and decided to give the book its dues.  I liked it despite the emotions it made me feel.  I all enjoyed the hook at the end.  It had a very Final Destination feel to it!