Andrew Wedderburn

This book was totally addictive to read, but by the finale I was left wondering what was the point. Wedderburn drew me in with the intriguing character of Audrey Cole, a young woman from Canmore, Alberta (woo, almost local!!!) whose biggest drive in life is to drive. This premise doesn't sound all that promising, since she doesn't actually make it to being a racer and essentially winds up as a roadie for a not very popular rock and roll band, but once Audrey hits the road and her backstory starts to get explored I had to find out how it all ended. Somehow during her travels with the band she ended up at a hotel in the Alberta wilderness, the titular Crash Palace, a place of iniquity, fun, and a whole lot of drinking. We spend most of the book waiting to see whether Audrey actually has any fun at the Crash Palace (a seeming eden for parties), but besides mixing drinks for people, small conversations with the band, and an unexpected pregnancy the story is almost devoid of drama. This technique does keep us hooked until the final pages, especially once Audrey decides to visit the Crash Palace once again years later and gets stuck there in a blizzard, but the arbitrary ending is rather unsatisfying. If you're a fan of slow burn stories and want to explore the relative meaninglessness of small lives, then I would recommend this book, but otherwise I'm not quite sure what to make of it.… (altro)

This book is certainly unique in it's plot and characters, and the writing is good. But, I just didn't like this story. About half way through I almost quit reading it, but it picked up a bit and while I did end up finishing it, I didn't really enjoy it, and I can't entirely say why. Perhaps it's because most of the characters have little back-story or redeeming qualities to make you care about them, or because there are enough lose ends to knit a hat with, or because when you finally get to the end, the story has no true conclusion. Others may enjoy this story for it's interesting music references and somewhat quirky protagonist, but I need a little bit more of a cohesive plot and characters that aren't all a complete mystery to be able to recommend a book.… (altro)