Andrew WedderburnBesprekingen

I read this quite awhile back and thought I'd added a review. I remember the main character loved to drive and every time I see that Nissan car chick in the commercials I think 'wow! Driving really is a thing for some people, and not just race car drivers!' The author was a good writer and the story unique.½

I made it to page 65 and had to stop. DNF. It was boring and I did not care for it at all.

For the rest of this review, visit my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/ONqB15HKcLY

Enjoy!

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.

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.½

Many thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program for this book and the opportunity to read/review it. The novel narrates the story of Audrey Cole, a woman with a past life that eventually pulls her away from her quiet existence and a young daughter and sets her escaping on the road with a stolen vehicle. Lots of references to music, the life of a road band, driving, and life choices. Perhaps it was just a matter of the wrong book at the wrong time for the wrong person but unfortunately, the story didn't hold my interest.

The Crash Palace is well-written. The author creates a sense of mystery and urgency. Audrey Cole is obsessed with driving and as the narrative shifts in time, that obsession continues to drive her actions. In the past, she is a young woman discovering her obsession, finding a job driving at an oil shale camp, a short-lived job that led to her picking up a new one driving an unprofitable, but dedicated rock band around from club to club around western Canada.

In the later timeline, she steals a car to drive out to The Crash Palace, a huge, rambling resort hotel where she and the band ended their peregrinations not all that many years ago. As a reader, I got the feeling that something epic must have happened for the place to haunt her.

When she arrives there, she recalls the past, which mostly seemed to be the bystander and cocktail mixer. It is a testament to Andrew Wedderburn’s skill that I stuck it out as again and again, nothing much happened.

The Crash Palace was a huge disappointment. It reminded me of something a college professor asked me about a research project I was working on, he had one comment, “So what?” I finished this book wondering the same thing. I felt like I read a lot about very little. Yes, Wedderburn wrote in a way that engaged my interest, but in the end, I felt conned. I was intrigued and wanted to know why she was afraid, yet fascinated by, the Skinny Cowboy and why she fled The Crash Palace in such haste, and why she was so desperate to see it again that she stole a car. Those questions don’t get answered satisfactorily, or at all.

I received an ARC of The Crash Palace from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

The Crash Palace at Coach House Books

Andrew Wedderburn

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2021/01/21/the-crash-palace-by-andre...

I tried to like this book. The beginning was great with Audrey in the present checking car handles. Then the book shifts to Audrey's past and I felt the reading was dry and too verbose. Even though the book isn't very long, it seemed like it went on forever. I wanted to like this book but unfortunately it fell flat for me.
Special thanks to LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's giveaway for this free book and the opportunity to read and review it.

I enjoy reading other reader's comments on books I have read and "The Crash Palace '' has some varying reviews. My own reading experience was mostly positive - I like to read things that are a little bit different from the usual type of story and enjoyed the story line and the characters. The book kept my interest throughout and I especially appreciated the way the flash backs were handled by showing the date at the start of the chapter. However I was very disappointed with the way the book ended. I felt the incident with the kitten could have been handled much differently and Audrey could still have found closure with her past. I have always felt that a really good fiction writer should be able to find a way to make a plot point without unnecessarily harming an animal or small child and I try not to read books where this happens. There is even a site for others who feel the same - https://www.doesthedogdie.com/ Because of this I did not rate the book as highly as I would have otherwise done.

I received this book as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer. I tried to like this book but got about 1/3 of the way through before I had to set it aside. The author initially gives a brief look at present-day Audrey then jumps right into Audrey's past starting in her youth with her preoccupation with driving/racing. I did not feel that the character development happened quickly enough to hold the reader's attention, nor did I find the character development in the first 70 pages to be all that thorough. Sure, she clearly was fixated on cars at a young age and fell into driving for a living by haphazard and circuitous means. Buy why? I just wasn't captivated enough with Audrey or her story to stick around to find out. I hope that by the end of the story, Audrey finally found what she was running towards and resolved what she was escaping. I have read worse books by less-skilled authors, and Mr. Wedderburn is clearly intelligent. But intelligence alone was not enough to hold my interest for the rest of the book.

I always make a real effort with early reviewers to read the entire book, but The Crash Palace, is the rare book that got the better of me. Fifty-plus pages in, I just didn't feel any interest in Audrey or the plot in general. A little bit of research tells me that Andrew Wedderburn has something of a following of readers, but unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that I am not one of them.

This is an interesting novel that meanders at its own pace, making frequent detours when it desires.

For young Aubrey Coleman, driving has always served as a type of therapy. As a child, her father taught her while surf music bands provided the soundtrack. As she grew older, she used her skills to pursue opportunities to earn a living. The pursuit of which leads to unforeseen circumstances and conflicts.

Set in Canada, the author captures the spirit of our neighbor to the north in telling his tale. The pacing reflecting that of its setting. A good read, that will leave a reader with much to think about.

Andrew Wedderburn has written an ok book. It passed the 30-page test, where I decide whether to continue reading or not. But, I like stories that don’t tell me everything, make me work, are not predictable.

This might be a story about Audrey Cole, who loved cars and wanted to be a rally driver.
It might be about rock bands in early 21st century Canadian dive bars.
Maybe it’s about drug dealing, low lifes and crime bosses.
Maybe about a single mother trying to come to terms with some things from her past.

Much is left out, but then some scenes are full of detail. Detail about obscure, maybe real-life, bands. About learning to play pinball. About magic tricks. About how to drive from one place to another in Alberta and British Columbia.

It is like meeting someone good at telling stories, and they spend considerable time telling long tales that may or may not round up to conclusions, stories that may or may not connect.
The storyline is cinematic, in the sense that it is made up of sub-plots crosscut through different time periods, times hard for me to keep track of. When a book interests me, I’m willing to make a character list, and even plot out quirky time shifts. I did both of those things for this novel, these connected sets of short stories.