There are moments when everything changes, and it happens so quickly, in the time it takes to blink or catch your breath.
For Lucy Martinez, that moment comes one night during a long road trip with her older brother, Jamie, and his friend Kit. They are caught in a blinding rainstorm when their car hits something. At first they think it’s an animal – until their worst fears are realized.
What happens when three teenagers can no longer pretend innocence?
I had to read this book for one of my modules this semester, we’ve all had a different book to read and then we’re going to be talking about them in the lecture closest to World Book Day. When the selection of books were spread out for us to choose from there was a complete scramble to get a book, I wouldn’t expect anything different from a group of library students really. The cover of this book caught my eye as soon as the lecturer put it down so I was glad to be able to get my hands on it, and that the synopsis sounded like my kind of thing too.
The story is primarily about the teens hitting something with their car in the rain, and the consequences of that. Wrapped up within this story is also a mystery/thriller aspect and a bit of romance too. With so many things going on within the plot I’m not sure that any of them were actually managed particularly well. There were a few things that I would have like to seen dealt with better or more fully.
I found all the three main teens all quite difficult to like. Even by the last page I didn’t feel that I had got a handle on Lucy. I found Kit to be rather selfish and manipulative, I think there was supposed to be some deeper redeeming quality to him, but it didn’t work for me.
I think this book could have been brilliant, and done right it’s the kind of book I’d have been singing from the rooftops about it. Sadly it fell short of brilliant and ended up just being okay.
Desert Crossing is published in paperback by Walker Books in the UK.
