Crushed

In Book 2 of the “Maryn O’Brien” Series, Maryn starts school after the Christmas holidays unprepared for most of her subjects because she had spent the break planning her bike race schedule, training, and hanging out with her BFF Janey instead of doing the homework assignments. But what’s really bothering Maryn at the start of this new year are the many visible displays of affection at school. Janey agrees with Maryn: all the “couples”, “hand-holding”, and “kids who can’t even walk through the halls without stopping five times to make out” is nauseating. Furthermore, Maryn and her friend have noticed that most of the girls change when they start going out with a boy. They may eat less or try to hide their intelligence in the classroom. And then there’s the “scary drama” and break-ups.

Maryn and Janey don’t want anything to do with the whole “couples” business. However, Liam, an acquaintance since Junior Kindergarten, is interested in Maryn, and she has just recently noticed his amazing smile. Liam is impressed by Maryn’s dedication to mountain biking. When he encourages her to study with him at the library and then go for a hot chocolate afterwards, Janey observes that this is a date. One date leads to another, and it’s not long before Maryn is having difficulty juggling her time between her BFF and Liam. She even gets out of the yearly “daughter and dad dream retreat” weekend to spend time with Liam’s family. Because she needs her sleep, Maryn has resorted to energy drinks in the past (as alluded to at the beginning of the above excerpt), but she still can’t say no to late-night phone conversations with Liam. So, it’s not long before she’s sleep deprived, missing early practices, and unable to focus properly during her races. When Coach finds out why after an especially disastrous race, he tells Maryn to work things out with Liam. After some “drama” in the middle of a busy gym, she and Liam do sort things out. Then, with Liam’s understanding attitude and support, Maryn gets back into the harness and continues on her path to mountain-biking success.

Fifteen-year-old Maryn is experiencing her first ‘love’. Her struggle to stay true to her best friend and her parents, as well as to keep on top of school work and a rigorous training schedule, is credible. Coach, while simply sketched, feels believable. And Janey is fairly well-rounded. It is a surprise at the end of the novel, however, when she reports that her parents’ relationship has moved from the brink of divorce to the hope of stability (rapidly and essentially for reasons unknown). Hence, her view of “couples” has conveniently brightened. Like the members of Maryn’s family, Liam is almost too good to be true, as per the following excerpt:

“Listen, I respect how close you are to your family,” [Liam] said. “I would never want to come between you. So, these past few days, I’ve been trying to give you the space you need to live your life the way you should be living it.”

“Now I’ve ruined everything!” Maryn cried. Her eyes smarted as she held back tears.

“No you haven’t.” Liam shook his head vigorously.

There are a number of little incidents that this reader was disappointed were not developed further during the novel, such as the following, when Maryn and a teammate are racing on their winter tires.

“Argh!” [Maryn] cried as two girls stepped out onto the road in front of the coffee shop without looking, Stephanie Harwood and her side-kick, Julie Davis – two of Maryn’s least favourite people at school. That figured.

With no hope of stopping on the icy road, Maryn jumped her bike up onto the curb and blew past them on the sidewalk. Their screams followed her as she swerved past a parking meter. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that one of them had dropped her coffee.

“Maryn O’Brien, you suck!” Stephanie screeched after her.

“I’ll buy you another!” Maryn called back.

… Joe looked down the street at Stephanie and Julie who still stood outside the Redford Coffee House, glaring at them with their hands on their hips. “We better get outta here before those two end up calling the police and I end up being even later for Grandma’s party.”

… [Maryn] doubted they’d report her, since they had their own bad reputations with the police for a stunt they’d pulled back in September, but you never knew with those two.

Crushed would have benefitted from more thorough editing. The story arc uniting Crash Course, the first book in this series, and Crushed is clearly Maryn’s desire to make it onto the Olympic mountain biking team. That’s working alright. However, unresolved smaller plots within Crushed, perhaps intended to be picked up again in the next book in the “Maryn O’Brien” series, and deficiencies in the development of supporting characters left this reader frustrated.