[BOOK REVIEW] Wrecked by Maria Padian

368 pages

Algonquin Young Readers, 2016

*Disclaimer*

I receive a copy from Netgalley in exchange with an honest review

BLURB

Everyone on campus has a different version of what happened that night.

Haley saw Jenny return from the party, shell-shocked.

Richard heard Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with.

When Jenny accuses Jordan of rape, Haley and Richard are pushed to opposite sides of the school's investigation. Now 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. 

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Wrecked tells us an important story about rape in the society. The story itself takes place in the college and it centers on a rape scene that happened to a girl named Jenny. What's interesting about 'Wrecked' is how Padian decided to focus more on capturing 'Who's the real victim' situation instead of telling readers about how painful or traumatizing a rape could be. Padian made me question about who speaks the truth for the entire book. Is Jenny the real victim? or is she the 'culprit' instead? Because the case where an innocent man accused as rapist doesn't only happen once or twice. It happens all the time. And Padian takes this into account. She puts the reader into a bystander point of view. Where we see the whole scenario through Jenny's roommate, named Haley, and the suspect's housemate, named Richard. 

Even though Wrecked focuses more on the possibility of false accusation, it doesn't completely disregard about the traumatizing effects of rape to its victim. It portrays the effects pretty well without being too much or too dramatized. The effects are portrayed perfectly.

Aside from being a strong book about rape, it also has some portion for romance. A cute one, even. The romance between Haley and Richard isn't forced. It fits the whole story perfectly and even adds more dimension into it. 

Another thing that I love about Wrecked is how the book doesn't fall into a depressive or dark category. It is light and educative. It's such a unique thing, knowing that most of the books that are dealing with rape are usually pretty depressive. 

By the end of this book, I'm willing to give this 4 glorious stars, simply because of its awesomeness. I'm glad that I pick this book despite of being worry about the number of pages at first. Since I still think that a contemporary YA romance with more than 300 pages is actually kinda... worrying(?) I mean, I don't want to read a lovey-dovey cringy relationship for more than 300 pages. And I could assure you that Wrecked is definitely not one of them!