Crash Into Me by Albert Borris

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.
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Picking up Crash Into Me, I'll admit, I was skeptical. The back sounds morbid, and in all honesty, this book is drenched in morbid and depressed thoughts. Don't expect a light read with this one. The characters, especially the main character whose perspective the novel is written from, Owen, are all singled-minded and intent on ending their lives. Or so it seems when you first start. While I wasn't pining for the romance or feeling all that sympathetic for Owen, even I was scared when it seemed like something had happened to any one of the four teens. The writing was good, if not a tad bit repetitive, and the style of writing was definitely easy to read and easy to follow. I'm not sure this book is a favorite, or that everything that happened was realistic, it was a good book, and in the end, I enjoyed it more than I had thought I would. Also, Jin-Ae, the in-the-closet gay, was most definitely up there in my favorite characters of the month. She was funny and serious at the same time, and just the right amount of sarcastic that I loved her. Audrey and Frank were interesting, but the story didn't dwell much on their backstory or their emotional problems as much.


3.5 stars and a recommendation to readers who like morbidity and suicide or feel like digging slightly into human depression.