Out of the Crash

by Susan Poole

Overview

After a fatal hit-and-run devastates their close-knit community, author Caroline Beasley and high school senior Ethan Shawver find themselves at a crossroads as their lives intertwine in unexpected ways. Both are left reeling as they try to make sense of the tragedy that has irrevocably changed their lives. Caroline struggles with the dark implications of her son's role in the crash, feeling the weight of guilt and despair. Meanwhile, Ethan grapples with the sudden loss of his mother and stumbles upon a disturbing family secret that threatens to upend everything he believes. As they each search for truth and healing, they must confront their deepest fears and regrets to find a way forward.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509260515
Publisher:	Wild Rose Press
Publication date:	07/28/2025
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.69(d)

Editorial Reviews

2025-06-02
A fatal car accident pits two families against each other and compels both to confront their unresolved emotional issues in Poole’s novel.

Kyle Beasley is an 18-year-old high-school senior with a promising future before him—a spectacular athlete, he has secured a full scholarship to college to play Division One baseball. However, his bright prospects are thrown into doubt by a tragic accident—while driving, he strikes and kills Amy Shawver, the mother of Ethan, one of his schoolmates. In a fit of panic, Kyle flees the scene, but he is quickly arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, a crime for which he could serve considerable prison time. In the aftermath of the accident, the two affected families become adversaries, “kind of like the Hatfields and the McCoys,” and the tension between them spills over into the town at large, now riven by competing loyalties. In this psychologically subtle novel, the crisis pushes both families to wrestle with their own dysfunctions—Ethan’s relationship with his father is fraught with conflict, and he discovers that his mother was once a reckless alcoholic. Meanwhile, Kyle’s parents, Caroline and Jordan, try to repair a marriage left battered after her bout with breast cancer. The portrayal of the accident’s ramifications crackles with emotional power; Poole’s depiction of the split within the Beasley family—between the terror of the prospect of prison time for Kyle and an aching sympathy for the Shawvers—is drawn with artful nuance. One could quibble that the book’s conclusion is too neatly settled, but it never descends into cheap sentimentality. The tale is a rarity in contemporary literature: a novel that revolves around a moral predicament and resists the temptation to issue didactic lessons and simplistic bromides. Here, the author delicately combines terrible loss and a moving hopefulness into one seamless and plausible story.

A haunting story about familial catastrophe.

Kirkus Reviews