Wrecked by Maria Padian

Expected publication: October 4th 2016

Everyone has heard a different version of what happened that night at MacCallum College. Haley was already in bed when her roommate, Jenny, arrived home shell-shocked from the wild Conundrum House party. Richard heard his housemate Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with. When Jenny formally accuses Jordan of rape, Haley and Richard find themselves pushed onto opposite sides of the school’s investigation. But conflicting interests fueling conflicting versions of the story may make bringing the truth to light nearly impossible–especially when reputations, relationships, and whole futures are riding on the verdict.

Maria Padian offers a kaleidoscopic view of a sexual assault on a college campus. Wrecked will leave readers thinking about how memory and identity, what’s at stake, and who sits in judgment shape what we all decide to believe about the truth. (Goodreads)

Note: I received an ARC copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I was worried, going into this book, that it would be too much like What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler. I shouldn’t have worried because this book is the complete opposite of that one! I really enjoyed this book and I found it to be a refreshing change from the books that we normally get about sexual assault.

This book isn’t from the perspective of the victim or the perpetrator – it from the aspects of the two friends. Haley, who is Jenny’s roommate and Richard, who is Jordan’s friend/housemate. I think reading the book from this perspective changed what would be the normal view of things because we are going into this from the eyes of two people who weren’t there that night. They have no idea what went down that night, but they were stuck on opposite sides of the fence.

I also think this book made a pretty powerful point with the whole gossip and social media aspect of it. I think it represents society today in way that nothing else does. It shows how callous and cruel people can be about women who accuse someone of rape. I obviously don’t want to say too much, but it was a pretty powerful message.

The only problem I really had with this book was that, at times, it was a bit of a slow read. I liked the events unfolding between the alternating perspectives because it was like a slow mystery unravelling itself before changing back to present day. At times, though, I felt almost bored. I felt like the story was going just a little bit too slow and I also question the college and whether the college would investigate themselves. I don’t know the system in America and whether the colleges actually do that, but it wasn’t something I could easily imagine.

All in all, I fairly enjoyed this book and I feel like it conveyed quite a few strong messages about rape culture and social media as well as gossip. I gave this book 4/5 stars.