Wrecked.

Prior to reading Wrecked, I was excited. I knew the book touched on sensitive issues such as sexual assault and it took place at a college. In more recent years, issues such as these, especially on college campuses, have become more and more prevalent. Due to the rise in occurrences, I feel like talking about issues such as sexual assault in a high school setting is important. After reading Wrecked, however, I'm not sure that it is the best book to be used for that specific purpose.

As previously stated, Wrecked is supposed to tell the story of a girl, Jenny, that was raped at a college party, and her struggles to not only overcome the emotional damage of the instance, but also try to convict her rapist. Wrecked is unique in the sense that it is not told from the victim's point of view, instead, it is told through Haley and Richard. Haley is Jenny's roommate and friend, while Richard is Jenny's rapist's roommate. After every chapter, we get a slice of the actual events that took place that night. By the end of the novel, we are able to get the truth about the events that took place that night.

Telling the entire novel through the point of views of everyone but the victim is what makes Wrecked  unique, but it is also its greatest weakness. Unfortunately, by the halfway point of the novel, Haley and Richard meet and fall in love. The story no longer focuses on Jenny and her assault, but instead Haley and Richard's weird, stupid, creepy love story. Their relationship makes two unlikeable characters even more unlikeable.

Personally, I don't give a shit about their relationship. By choosing to focus on this, I think that it takes away from the "big picture" of the novel. It kind of makes Jenny's rape seem like an event, an unimportant subplot, and dehumanizes Jenny as a character. Classified as a novel that deals with sexual assault, I don't really think that this was the best choice to make. I mean, really?

Anyway, the book is a fairly quick, easy read and I think that regarding reading level, the book would be age-appropriate for high school readers. However, if given the choice, I don't think that I will be using this book. I think that in regards to discussing issues such as sexual assault, there are stronger books that could be used. For example, Speak was discussed a lot in the previous class.

Fortunately(?), for me, I don't think I have much to worry about in regards to being forced to teach the book. I feel as though it is unlikely that this book would go over well with parents, I mean, they get upset about "foul language" in classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Of Mice and Men. However, I would of course keep the book on a shelf in my classroom library. However, if asked, I would definitely not recommend it.

However, Wrecked is not all garbage. The book does have some strong teaching points. For example, I think that it would be interesting to design a lesson plan based on point of view. As previously stated, the novel is tells the same story through multiple perspectives. Like I said, definitely not my first choice, but it does contain some value in an educational setting.