ARC Review: Wrecked

Title: Wrecked
Author: Maria Padian
Publication Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Format: ARC*
Goodreads

“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.

Wrecked offers a kaleidoscopic account of a sexual assault on a college campus. It will leave you thinking about how memory, identity, and who sits in judgment shape what we all decide to believe about the truth.”

Let me begin by saying that Wrecked is probably one of the most important books I’ve read this year. It covers an unfortunately timely topic – rape on college campuses. Both my undergraduate and graduate universities have difficult histories with sexual assault, and often in Oxford’s case, those events have been brought into the glaring light of the public eye. The rape that takes place at fictional MacCallum College doesn’t end up in a very public trial with media coverage, but that’s part of what makes it is important.

Wrecked does a brutally honest job of portraying what occurs when a student accuses another of rape at most American universities. Unless the accuser goes to the police, the allegations are handled by the university as a potential violation of student conduct or some similar policy. There is no arrest, no real protection for either party, and the accuser and accused remain at the same (sometimes very small) campus for the duration of the investigation. It is no secret that these investigations, just like our current legal system, are often cruelly unfair to the accuser, and very rarely actually end with a guilty verdict. Often, the accused can simply decide to withdraw from the university and then go on to live his or her life with few to no repercussions. This is the system that Maria Padian exposes in Wrecked.

Wrecked is unique for many reasons, including the fact that it’s told from the dual narratives of Haley, Jenny’s roommate, and Richard, Jordan’s friend. Haley and Richard are one step removed from the situation, and provide two very different perspectives. This allows the reader to see the situation from the outside, and provides a better appreciation for how difficult it is to punish rapists, and how easily doubt and the self-interest of others undermine investigations. Classmates are worried about getting in trouble for underage drinking, memories are unclear from getting wasted, and more often than not, an appropriate resolution is never reached.

I enjoyed that Padian also confronts rape culture in smaller ways, having characters frankly discuss consent and fight back against victim blaming. Hayley and Richard have an intense argument over his flippant use of the word rape, and Richard is continually forced to check his own privilege and internalized sexism throughout the book.

And yet, I can’t say that I honestly enjoyed this book. Is it important? Yes, incredibly so. But did I enjoy reading Wrecked; did I come to care for these characters? No, not really. I can’t explain the disparity between my appreciation for this book and my simultaneous lack of enjoyment. All of the individual pieces were perfect, yet the entire package fell a bit flat.

That being said, Wrecked is one of the most realistic portrayals of sexual assault in college that I’ve ever come across. These characters were in my classes, I went to that frat party, and Richard one of my male friends who had to be called out on their sexism. I knew too many Jordans and Exleys, but I didn’t know any Jennys. Why? Because they knew that all-too often at small liberal arts schools like ours, like MacCallum, it’s really the victim who’s put on trial. So they kept quiet.

Please, read this book. Get angry and demand change. Demand that universities protect their victims, not their rapists. Stop asking how much a girl had to drink and what a boy’s athletic record is. My own alma maters are finally instituting sexual assault policies and procedures that are actually intended to protect the victim and provide some semblance of justice. We are still so far from where we need to be, but Wrecked helps us take a step in that direction.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  stars

*I received this ARC from the publisher at BEA in exchange for a free & honest review.

ARC Review: The Loose Ends List

Title: The Loose Ends List
Author: Carrie Firestone
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Publisher: The Novl / Little, Brown
Format: ARC*

“Seventeen-year-old Maddie O'Neill Levine lives a charmed life, and is primed to spend the perfect pre-college summer with her best friends and young-at-heart socialite grandmother (also Maddie's closest confidante), tying up high school loose ends. Maddie's plans change the instant Gram announces that she is terminally ill and has booked the family on a secret "death with dignity" cruise ship so that she can leave the world in her own unconventional way - and give the O'Neill clan an unforgettable summer of dreams-come-true in the process.

Soon, Maddie is on the trip of a lifetime with her over-the-top family. As they travel the globe, Maddie bonds with other passengers and falls for Enzo, who is processing his own grief. But despite the laughter, headiness of first love, and excitement of glamorous destinations, Maddie knows she is on the brink of losing Gram. She struggles to find the strength to say good-bye in a whirlwind summer shaped by love, loss, and the power of forgiveness.”



This is one of those rare instances in which all of the ingredients are right, but the cake isn’t baked properly and thus the end result is an unsatisfying mess. I wanted to read The Loose Ends List because it’s billed as a book about “death with dignity” – when a person decides to end their life in order to relieve pain and suffering, often due to a terminal illness. Euthanasia is still a rather controversial topic, but I was impressed to see it tackled in an upcoming YA novel. I have strong personal opinions regarding this concept, and hoped that The Loose Ends List would do it justice. In terms of how death with dignity was represented, the weight of that choice and its impact upon everyone involved, I thought The Loose Ends List was spectacular. Lots of difficult but necessary conversations happen throughout this book, and I think it’s important to included “hard topics” in young adult literature. However, I have to be honest and say that I didn’t enjoy a single other thing about this book.

As I get older, it’s becoming increasingly clear that I have little natural sympathy for characters of extreme privilege, and an author really needs to work hard for me to care about their problems. The Loose Ends List epically failed in this regard. Our protagonist Maddie comes from an absurdly wealthy family, all of who are forced to go on a death with dignity cruise when their matriarch, Maddie’s Gram, announces she’s dying. I think Firestone intended to write the family as initially unlikable but ultimately a group you’d come to root for, but she utterly failed in the execution. I was continually amazed at how selfish and unbearable these characters were – from Maddie’s hateful aunt to her alcoholic mother to her cousin who’s straight up described as a slut. I mean, seriously. The entire family was simply too much, and written in such a heavy-handed fashion that I couldn’t believe Firestone actually tried to pass this off as a relatable family. No family should be this worried about whether their granddaughter/niece/daughter/cousin is still a virgin. 

Maddie was perhaps the worst of them all – an insipid girl whom Firestone strikes with IBS for seemingly no other reason than to include a handful of not-funny remarks. Maddie’s grandmother is dying, they are on a trip around the world which will culminate in her grandmother being laid to rest, and she falls for a cute boy in the span of a day. This infuriated me. Why, why ruin what could have been a heartfelt, emotional family story with a love story? Young adult books do NOT have to have romance every single time, people. And in this case, Maddie’s whirlwind romance with a boy who sounds like a total loser and shames her for being a virgin insured that by the time Gram died and Maddie was more distraught over losing her boyfriend, I did not feel an ounce of sympathy for a single character in that family. The other people on the cruise? Sure, those characters I actually cried for. But I couldn’t stand the family at the heart of this story, and that ultimately ruined any goodwill I harbored towards The Loose Ends List. 

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Review: Extraordinary Means

Title: Extraordinary Means
Author: Robyn Schneider
Publisher: Katherine Tegen / HarperCollins
Publication Date: May 26, 2015

"John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park in this darkly funny novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Beginning of Everything. Up until his diagnosis, Lane lived a fairly predictable life. But when he finds himself at a tuberculosis sanatorium called Latham House, he discovers an insular world with paradoxical rules, med sensors, and an eccentric yet utterly compelling confidant named Sadie - and life as Lane knows it will never be the same. Robyn Schneider's Extraordinary Means is a heart-wrenching yet ultimately hopeful story about the miracles of first love and second chances."



I'm going to kick things off by telling you to completely forget the first sentence of the blurb above. This book is NOT TFIOS meets Eleanor & Park. It's not. I've complained about books getting the TFIOS comparison kiss of death (pun intended) before, and it's my least favorite marketing ploy publishers love to use lately. Extraordinary Means is the newest installment in the niche corner of contemporary YA that is quickly becoming "sick-lit," but TFIOS this is not. It's better. Yeah, I'm throwing down the gauntlet here and saying that I enjoyed Extraordinary Means more than The Fault in Our Stars. Not like reading is a competition, but still. Now you undoubtedly want to know why, and I'll gladly tell you. Not to sound insensitive, but there are lots of books about kids with cancer. Kids with tuberculosis? Now that's new for this century.

The premise of Extraordinary Means is fascinating: in the near-future there is an epidemic of a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, causing those infected to be sent away to sanatoriums, where our two narrators Lane and Sadie meet. Some potential readers may wonder if there's really a difference between kids with tuberculosis and kids with cancer...but there is, there is. This is going into personal stuff, but years ago I had a positive TB skin test, and became obsessed with the thought that I might develop active TB. No such thing happened, but I still have nightmares where I cough up blood and my lungs atrophy with every breath. So there was never a question of me not reading this book. Robyn Schneider is a bioethicist, so her knowledge and research created a sound medical foundation upon which to build this story about two teenagers trying to live their lives in an environment that exists because they're dying.

Schneider is a master of the "real teen prose," as evidenced by her much-loved previous novel The Beginning of Everything. Her characters are believable (I've known many Lanes in my life, and even a Sadie or two), they have realistic conversations, and act like actual teens - Lane's frank commentary on masturbation is a brilliant example. The characters are ill, but they're at a glorified boarding school, so they do what any normal teen would: they fight the system. Sneaking out and evading room checks and smuggling contraband...all the same things I did at boarding school. But it happens through the lens of TB, so there are med sensors that record their vital signs, strict nutrition guidelines, and constantly open windows for fresh air.

Extraordinary Means is a character-driven novel, and the narration is split between Lane and Sadie. Their relationship develops at a good pace, and the moments they share are wonderful and painful in all the ways first loves are. The friendships, especially the hilarious group dynamic, provide an anchor for the story that sometimes makes the reader forget why they're at Latham. The characters are all fleshed out and complex, and you see them each struggle with being themselves apart from their TB.

"Any of us could wake up the next morning with blood splattered across the pillow and a hole in our lungs so painful that having a broken heart on top of it would have been unbearable." (129)

    
As expected, there are very frank discussions about illness and death in Extraordinary Means, and there are very sad moments. The characters are confronted not only with the prospect of dying themselves, but also potentially losing every one of their friends. So many books force feed readers some moral about always having hope and just turning on a light in the darkest times and whatnot. But here's the thing: sometimes there is nothing more cruel than having hope. That idea gets explored considerably in Extraordinary Means. There's a theme throughout the novel about a potential cure, and it turns the characters' world upside down with dizzying, impossible hope for "what if."

"It had hurt to accept what was wrong with me, but it hurt even more to have hope." (215)

Extraordinary Means is therefore a deeply sad novel, and it quite simply left me devastated. More so than TFIOS or any other, because Schneider so strongly evokes the painful, desperate possibility of hope. Readers will feel it just as much as the characters, and there are a multitude of lines that will quietly break your heart:

"...they were just empty hospital words, the kind that you wish were true because the alternative is too painful to bear."

This book is more than just sadness, though. It's devastating and hilarious and clever and hopeful and real. And many more adjectives but that's probably enough for now. I know that some people just cannot get into "sick-lit" but I'd still recommend that you consider this. If you need a good cry, if your favorite author or composer died of "consumption," if you agree with Sadie that living and dying are different words for the same thing, if sometimes you have to try and beat the odds...Extraordinary Means needs to be the book you pick up next. A friend responded to my Extraordinary Means snapchat with "ugh that sounds awful," and if you're that kind of person, then I can't help you. Don't read this book because it will be wasted on you. But if you can appreciate that sad stories are still worth telling, and that you have to live on your own terms, then give this a shot.

Life goes on, until it doesn't.

Rating: 5 stars