Crash Into Me by Albert Borris

Title: Crash Into Me
Author: Albert Borris
Published: July 2009
Source: the library
Synopsis from goodreads.com:
Owen, Frank, Audrey, and Jin-Ae have one thing in common: they all want to die. When they meet online after each attempts suicide and fails, the four teens make a deadly pact: they will escape together on a summer road trip to visit the sites of celebrity suicides...and at their final destination, they will all end their lives. As they drive cross-country, bonding over their dark impulses, sharing their deepest secrets and desires, living it up, hooking up, and becoming true friends, each must decide whether life is worth living--or if there's no turning back.

Crash Into Me was an interesting novel. It was about, in a word, suicide. I'd checked it out before and hadn't gotten around to reading it, but I decided to give it another chance. I'm glad that I did. It's definitely not an easy book to read. There are a lot of morbid things in here, and a lot of depressing thoughts, but I thought that everything was well balanced out.

The book is from Owen's point of view, which I wasn't expecting. Based on the synopsis I thought that it would be split between the four main characters. I guess that it's good that Owen was the only narrator, because if it was split between all of them there would probably have been less drama and surprise in parts. Owen was an interesting narrator. He's very introverted and doesn't talk much. Audrey is loud and outspoken, not worried about what other people think. Frank is an alcoholic and doesn't think that he's worthy of anything. Jin-Ae is a lesbian, and she feels like she can't come out.

They all have reasons for wanting to commit suicide, and they've all tried before. They became friends online and set up cross country trip where they look at the graves of famous people who committed suicide as a way to meet each other in person. And as a last stand before they kill themselves. Along the way they learn a lot about themselves and each other. Do they commit suicide? You won't know until you read.

The writing is this book wasn't spectacularly good or spectacularly bad. It was just average. I thought that there was pretty good imagery, and I felt like I knew Owen pretty well by the end. I liked how there were bits of their previous online conversations thrown in randomly, but I felt like it was too "chat speak." i no that i dont talk lik ths online. But maybe that's just me?

Characters: 9/10
Plot: 8/10
Originality: 10/10
Writing: 7/10
Ending: 7/10
Overall: 41/50 B-
Cover/Title: 4/5 I don't really get the title, but the cover is true to the book.

Hooked by: I wasn't ever really hooked, just intrigued.
Recommend to: anyone who wants to know a bit more about why teens commit suicide.