Wrecked by E.R. Frank
Frank, author of _America_, _Friction_, and the highly acclaimed and
very controversial _Life is Funny_ (the first book ever banned in my
district) has written another winner. In _Life is Funny_ she showed us
life in the inner city. In _Wrecked_ she takes us out to the suburbs.
Told from the perspective of teen-aged Anna, the novel shows us the
effects a deadly accident has on a family and a group of friends.
Anna begins the novel with, “The day I killed my brother’s girlfriend…”
It is also the day she begins her teen rebellion against her
controlling, anxious father. Anna goes to a party against her father’s
orders and on the way home has a head-on collision with her brother’s
girlfriend. Anna nearly looses and eye and her best friend, Ellen,
suffers severe leg injuries but beautiful, charming Cameron, driving the
other car, is killed.
Though Anna had been drinking earlier in the evening, she was sober at
the time of the accident. No one holds her responsible for the
accident, no one but Anna herself. Wracked by guilt, Anna suffers
anxiety attacks and her already strained relationship with her brother
is further tested. In her nightmares she is haunted by Cameron’s final
screams (her “screaming, stopped”). Her overbearing father insists that
she doesn’t need psychological help and Anna is only too happy to agree,
despite her mother’s protestations. It soon becomes clear, though, that
everyone in the family needs help— and not just for dealing with the
aftermath of the accident.
Anna’s father finally, grudgingly allows her to see a therapist.
Through a treatment called EMDR Anna begins to confront her demons, both
new and old. In the course of her therapy and through other flashbacks
we learn some of her family history and how the relationships have
changed over the years. We also learn a little bit about what drives
her father. The descriptions of the therapy session may turn off a few
teens but most will be drawn to Anna, her flaws, and her struggle to
heal and to be a better person.
Recommended for high school and mature jr. high students.
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Tony Doyle, Librarian
Livingston High School, Livingston, CA
tdoyle@muhsd.k12.ca.us
<Http://www.lhs.muhsd.k12.ca.us/library/index.htm>
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get
people to stop reading them."-- Ray Bradbury
"One of the standard problems with the universe is that it's large
enough that unlikely things happen pretty often."--Nigel Sharp, U.S.
National Science Foundation
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