Customer Reviews

After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Joyce Carol Oates's new book for teens has a long title and it really does sort of give away the ending. Although, the ending is probably not the most important, rather the journey and its twists and turns.

Jenna is in a tragic accident with her mother on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Her mother and the driver of the other car are killed, leaving Jenna a survivor, but at what cost? The circumstances of the accident are unclear. What Jenna does remember leads her to believe she might have been responsible.

As Jenna struggles to recover from her injuries, she lives in a drug-induced haze. Her father, who remarried years ago, has a new family. Jenna certainly doesn't feel welcome in his home, so she's told she will be living with an aunt and uncle. Her mother's house is sold and her new home comes complete with two cousins, a new school, and the sometimes nosey concern of a small town.

Attempting to cope with new surroundings and the death of her mother sends Jenna into a tailspin of emotions. She meets new friends, but gravitates to those who help her forget with pills and alcohol. An accidental overdose lands Jenna in the emergency room and under the care of a therapist. Despite the care and concern of her caregivers, her life continues to spin out of control.

Finally there is the arrival of Crow with his dark and mysterious side. Jenna finds she can talk to Crow about things she can't say to anyone else. Does he care about her? Does he have the answers to get her back on track?

AFTER THE WRECK, I PICKED MYSELF UP, SPREAD MY WINGS, AND FLEW AWAY captured me right from the start. Jenna's struggle felt authentic and true. I was touched by her pain and sensitive to her attempts to move on, only to drift back into confusion. Oates definitely outdoes herself with this one.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Jenna's life is divided into before and after the wreck: before she lives with her mother in New York; after she's alone and hiding her feelings - until she meets the mysterious Crow, who may be the only person who can understand her trauma and why she's hiding it. A powerful novel of grief and recovery emerges from the telling hand of a long-time novelist who does as good a job for teens as she does for adults.

I love Oates and bought this for myself but soon realized it was written more for teens, though I did enjoy it. Gave it to my 14 year old niece and she LOVED it!

If you have ever known a teenager who sullenly withdraws into herself, begins doing poorly at school, denies cutting classes, drinks, lies, steals, and "accidentally" OD's on Christmas Eve--then you might recognize Jennifer Abbot, the 15-year-old protagonist in Joyce Carol Oates' young adult novel, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away.
After Jenna's mother is killed in a freak car accident in which Jenna is severely injured, she is left feeling guilty (the accident must have been her fault) and angry (rehab is painful, her house is sold to pay for the medical bills, her teachers and friends feels sorry for her) and powerless (she has to move to New Hampshire to live with her aunt- there is nowhere else for her to go). Her father, who abandoned the family years earlier for a new wife and family, is of no help and Jenna's bitterness towards him fuels the flame of her anger and despair.
In her loneliness, Jenna finds acceptance from `Trina, a bulimic teen who befriends Jenna, but also uses her. A dramatic scene at a party gone bad shows Jenna the direction in which she is heading. Although the reader only sees him briefly, Jenna's one true friend is a young man nicknamed "Crow" who speaks words of truth that resonate in Jenna's heart. His own traumatic experiences (including his brother's death, living with a father who is an injured Vietnam vet, and his own accidents) enable him to come alongside of her and provides the exact help that she needs--a firm hand that pulls her out of her fears and self-incrimination and pushes her to move on with her life.
Oates use of symbolism is powerful. When you read this book, be aware of how birds and bridges are important in the story. I would recommend this to older teens (there are some sexual references in the book, although nothing explicit) and adults. Parents who are struggling to understand their own teen or the effects of peer pressure might better appreciate the iceberg underneath the surface of a teen's "whatever" façade after reading this book.

Jenna Abbott was just a normal girl living a normal life, until the wreck happened. Nothing was the same after the wreck as before it--Jenna's friends, her home, even her own self. She has been irrevocably changed, whether she likes it, or wants to admit it, or not. She's really only a shell of the girl she once was, clinging desperately to distant memories of happiness even though she's on the verge of completely losing it. She can't trust anyone, can't let herself trust anyone, even her own family. And then Jenna meets Crow, who's got secrets of his own. Jenna finds that she can open herself up to him, but will this put her on the path of redemption and self forgiveness, or will she continues down the ugly road of self-destruction? In this emotional and moving story, Oates explores the trail of damage that death causes and the fragile strength required to rise about it.

Most of this story can be summed up with its lengthy title, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away, because that is, in essence, what Jenna struggles with doing and eventually accomplishes. I really appreciated Oates' sometimes simplistic writing style because it so effectively conveyed Jenna's thoughts, emotions, and delusions. It's from this style of writing that I was able to truly grasp how damaged Jenna was by the wreck, and it caused my heart to go out to her. There is something so fragile and delicate about Jenna's character that makes the reader want to protect and take care of her, but at the same time, Jenna's nature does not permit this type of babysitting. I loved how complex Jenna was and how she struggled to distinguish between dream and reality, because I feel this is an issue many of us also struggle with, although not necessarily on so desperate a scale as Jenna. After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away is an emotional journey and moving tale about death, forgiveness, and everlasting friendship.

This novel is one of those that you want to take your time reading to fully understand. It ranks up with other novels on the same topic such as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe, and Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël.

Joyce Carol Oates's new book for teens has a long title and it really does sort of give away the ending. Although, the ending is probably not the most important, rather the journey and its twists and turns.

Jenna is in a tragic accident with her mother on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Her mother and the driver of the other car are killed, leaving Jenna a survivor, but at what cost? The circumstances of the accident are unclear. What Jenna does remember leads her to believe she might have been responsible.

As Jenna struggles to recover from her injuries, she lives in a drug-induced haze. Her father, who remarried years ago, has a new family. Jenna certainly doesn't feel welcome in his home, so she's told she will be living with an aunt and uncle. Her mother's house is sold and her new home comes complete with two cousins, a new school, and the sometimes nosey concern of a small town.

Attempting to cope with new surroundings and the death of her mother sends Jenna into a tailspin of emotions. She meets new friends, but gravitates to those who help her forget with pills and alcohol. An accidental overdose lands Jenna in the emergency room and under the care of a therapist. Despite the care and concern of her caregivers, her life continues to spin out of control.

Finally there is the arrival of Crow with his dark and mysterious side. Jenna finds she can talk to Crow about things she can't say to anyone else. Does he care about her? Does he have the answers to get her back on track?

AFTER THE WRECK, I PICKED MYSELF UP, SPREAD MY WINGS, AND FLEW AWAY captured me right from the start. Jenna's struggle felt authentic and true. I was touched by her pain and sensitive to her attempts to move on, only to drift back into confusion. Oates definitely outdoes herself with this one.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Fifteen-year-old Jenna Abbott just knows she's to blame for the accident that killed her mother. As far as she's concerned, she should've died, too. The horrific injuries upon waking are only the beginning. For a while, she can escape everything by going "into the blue." Soon enough, she faces reality: her mom is gone; her estranged father wants her to join his "new" family in La Jolla--clear on the other coast; her family has to sell the house that belonged to Jenna and her mom; and Jenna will have to transfer to a new school--scars and all.

Jenna defines her life as "before the wreck" and "after the wreck." Before the wreck, she had friends, was on the track team, and was a fairly normal teenager. After the wreck, pain, loneliness, leave her alone, did she see something on that bridge, did she grab her mother's steering wheel, she doesn't want new friends, she finds a friend, her new friend has a crapload of her own issues, and then there's Crow...

The writing reflects Jenna's state of mind throughout her ordeal. Immediately after the wreck, her thoughts are confused and fragmented due to her head injury and pain medications. Her mind clears, but nothing else seems to, despite time's insistence on pressing forward.

Oates masterfully steers the reader along Jenna's ride from shattered mind and body to beyond. The novel is as hopeful as it is solemn. I highly recommend this book for teens who have been through tragedy. I especially recommend this book for anyone who is close to a teen who has been traumatized. It will offer meaningful insight into things that sometimes can't be spoken aloud.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
9/5/2006

Have you ever been in a horrific car accident that has changed your life forever?

Jenna was living a normal life as a normal teenager. Then she got into a car accident. Her mom dies and she is seriously hurt and is sent to rehab. Then she is sent to live with her aunt and her aunt's family, and has to go to a different school. She is determined not to get close to anyone ever again because she thinks that anyone one who you get close to either leaves you, like her dad, or is taken from you, like her mom. That is when Jenna meets Crow. He becomes her friend and helps her get through the rough times.

This was definitely not a great book. It was okay. The one good thing was that it was like talking directly to the main character, Jenna. It was made in diary form, and it seemed like it was actually written by a teenager named Jenna instead of an adult, even though Jenna seemed pretty boring.

I gave this book two stars because it was a boring and slightly annoying book. It would have been better if there were longer chapters. On average they were only two and a half pages long. There were also many fragments in the book that were annoying. It would say things like, "Or not. Kick the remote off my bed," and she would be talking about something she did, not something that she was telling someone to do. It had many other fragments and they would make the book hard to understand sometimes.

I would recommend this book to teenage girls who want to bore themselves and nothing else to do.