Car Crash: A Memoir of the Aftermath

Blaine debuts with a heartbreaking account of the emotional and psychological aftermath of a 2009 car crash that involved him and six of his friends: three were killed, two had serious head injuries and were put into a medically induced coma, and the driver was injured, but 17-year-old Blaine was unscathed. At the scene, bystanders assumed that Blaine and his friends were drunk or on drugs, but the driver was sober and traveling under the speed limit. As Blaine tried to cope with his grief, he was bombarded with intrusive attention from the media, classmates, and strangers, all of which exacerbated his depression: “My survival was a waste of breath,” he writes. The accident’s aftermath also triggered flashbacks of difficult moments from Blaine’s childhood, including his mother’s drinking problem. Throughout, Blaine candidly explores his conflicted feelings about the mourning process. “What would the audience think of me... if I didn’t express grief without delay?” he wonders after watching a news segment about the crash. Some of Blaine’s friends and family are able to heal and move on, but for Blaine, who can’t shake the weight of his guilt, “trauma doesn’t allow for a heartwarming moment of redemption.” It’s an affecting portrait of a survivor. (Oct.)