Wrecked (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

E. R. Frank (Author)

Book Description

Series: Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover) | Publication Date: September 27, 2005

Dear anyone who cared about Cameron,

I was the driver of the "other" car.

The police and my mother and my father and plenty of people are saying that I didn't kill her. But I know I did. That's what her parents must believe. And my brother, Jack. He always sees what's true. I want to tell him how sorry I am about the accident. I want to say a lot of things to him and to everybody -- like how Cameron was smart and beautiful and kind in a way that isn't all that common in high school. Like how much Jack loved her and how sometimes I can hear him crying through the wall at night. I want to say how bad everything can get.

In one split second.

Upside down and shattered.

Just like that.

Wrecked.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Anna is driving a very drunk friend home from a party. Moments into the journey, a head-on collision leaves Ellen with a punctured lung and other serious injuries, Anna with a lacerated eye, and the other driver dead. The dead teen happens to be her brother's girlfriend. Anna clearly remembers Cameron's final screams, and she suffers nightmares. Her father is an emotionally repressed tyrant who at first won't allow his daughter to receive counseling. Frank develops and sustains credible characters whose problems are realistic and interconnected. Brief flashbacks allow readers to become acquainted with Jack as he was before Cameron's death and even as he was when he and Anna were children. Their father's brittle personality is not evil or even cruel, but clearly riddled with flaws bred of deeply held fears. In spite of some plot twists that seem convenient rather than realistic, such as the teens' pre-Thanksgiving trip to Florida with Ellen's parents, this story is compulsively readable both because Anna is likable and imperfect and because Frank's writing is so fluid. Rather than being a didactic anti-drinking or pro-counseling story, this is a psychological drama that is definitely worth teens' time.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 9-12. Returning to the mature voices and situations of Life Is Funny (2000) and America (2002), Frank's fourth novel dissects the suffering of teenage Anna, after she survives a drunk-driving accident that leaves her brother's girlfriend dead. Despite a premise that seems plucked from a problem novel, Frank departs from cliches in her portrayal of Anna as an essentially responsible kid (the other driver was drunk) and in her focus on how tragedy can magnify preexisting conflicts. Other elements receive less-nuanced treatment: Anna's emotionally abusive father's explosions of irrational fury seem caricatured, and subplots dealing with homophobia and alcoholism seem insufficiently developed. Frank may also lose readers in the rambling passages stemming from Anna's guided-visualization therapy. Even so, it's fascinating to observe how a proven author can transform a basically sensational plot, even in limited ways. YAs won't soon forget Anna's moving articulations of "panic spreading through [her] blood, like ink in water," or her inability to banish flashbacks to the late-night drive that ended, horrifically, with "screaming, stopped." Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books; First Edition edition (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689873832
• ISBN-13: 978-0689873836
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,105,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and haunting glimpse into the mind of a teen suffering from PTSD, October 21, 2005

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrecked (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

One day, Anna goes to a party with her best friend Ellen; there, they drink alcohol and visit the other guests. On her way home, Anna gets into a car accident, seriously injuring Ellen and Cameron Polk, her brother's girlfriend and the most beautiful and popular girl in school. Sadly, Cameron dies from her injuries. Anna blames herself for what has happened and begins having nightmares.

While celebrating Thanksgiving with her aunt and uncle, Anna's family hears about a peculiar form of therapy called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Shortly thereafter, Anna begins seeing a psychologist and learns that she's been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Once the EMDR therapy gets underway, Anna begins seeing the real problems in her life --- her relationship with her brother, her low self-esteem, and the fact that her family is living in fear because of her very controlling and abusive father.

WRECKED paints a beautiful and haunting picture by providing readers with a deep understanding of a teenager's mind. Today, thousands of people suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Hopefully they will be able to get help like Anna did and learn how to live a normal life again.

--- Reviewed by Ashley Hartlaub

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Story, Poorly Written, July 12, 2009

By 

Melundie (Olney, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wrecked (Paperback)

I read the book in a day; it's a short and easy read. If you can get over the writing flaws and repetitiveness of it the story is a very interesting and thought-provoking glimpse into the mind of a teen girl who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

I do wish the main character, Anne, would have been developed further because I did not find her particularly likable. Her only quality mentioned in the book is how superficial she is. To be completely honest, at times I felt the book dragging on because of its repetitive nature. Additionally, the writing is not great by any stretch of the imagination. The author uses phrases such as "I go" instead of "I said" which I assume is supposed to make you connect better with Anne, but it really distanced and distracted me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The day I killed my brother's girlfriend started with me hand picking leaves off our front lawn.", June 4, 2006

By 

Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wrecked (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

Sixteen-year-old Anna was driving her (drunk) best friend home from a party when she collided head-on with her brother's girlfriend's car. Now a beautiful high school senior is dead, Anna nearly lost an eye and suffers from PTSD with crippling nightmares, her best friend Ellen is in a wheelchair, and the family is at odds with one another. Wrecked opens with the car accident and its aftermath, but, as a whole, the book is an exploration of the fabric of an entire family.

Anna's friends and family have widely disparate reactions to the wreck. What is the right way to respond, anyway? Anna can find websites about how to deal with a dying family member, how to be a friend to someone who is grieving, and how to cope if you have suicidal thoughts, but there is no website to address the peculiar situation of how to cope with unintentionally killing one of your peers.

The narration of Wrecked is told in a genuine teenaged voice, full of questions, full of frustration with parents, and desperately seeking direction. In a strange way, the entire crisis brings Anna's family closer, to a more complete understanding of one another.

This book is highly recommended for teens and family members of all ages. It is especially important for anyone dealing with a family crisis or the accidental death of a family friend. Fans of this book should seek out Mary Beth Miller's Aimee and John Green's Looking for Alaska.