Wrecked By E.R. Frank

The author of the book Wrecked, is E.R. Frank. She had written three other books including Life is Funny, Friction, and America. She won the Teen People Book Club NEXT award for her first novel, Life is Funny. Her novel America was made into a TV movie in 2009. The novel is young adult fiction. It is intended for young adults but it would be a good book for anyone to read. The purpose is to show what the affects can be of something you do.

The title, “Wrecked”, fits into the story because a “wreck” is part of the plot. E.R. Frank related the title to the work because that is a major part of the story. The title encapsulates the whole story. It doesn’t seem to be an interesting title until you start the book.

From how the author describes the setting, it seems to be a relatively small town. It seems like everyone knows each others business. The story is set in the present day life as a teenager. The main characters of the story include Cameron, Ellen, Jack, and Anna. Anna is singled out as the main character. She is self conscious and nervous around most people. She seems to be shy and soft spoken to anyone she doesn’t know well.

Anna and Ellen went to a party at a friends house where alcohol was involved. Ellen got very drunk so Anna drove home. While driving home, they got in a car accident. The person in the other car was Anna’s brother Jack’s girlfriend, Cameron Polk. Anna had minor injuries, Ellen was unresponsive for a while with brain damage and a broken leg, and Cameron got killed in the crash. Throughout the story, Anna is trying to get over killing her brother’s girlfriend. She feels that it is her fault, but she was told that Cameron swerved to avoid hitting a fallen tree. Anna deals with her best friend Ellen’s pain as well as her brother’s pain of losing his girlfriend. Anna’s family hears about a special therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. After they find out, Anna begins seeing a psychologist and learns that she's been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Once the EMDR therapy gets underway, Anna starts to see the real problems in her life, her relationship with her brother, her low self-esteem, and the fact that her family is living in fear because of her very controlling and abusive father.

"No boys in your room. Period." "You let Cameron in Jack's room." This shows how Anna’s dad treats her differently than he does Jack. "At first when she got the short cast off, she walked sort of funny. Tippy-toed. She couldn't get her heel flat on the ground. But now she's moving pretty smoothly.” This quote shows the healing of Ellen's leg, as a metaphor to the healing of the accident. This quote shows how healing takes a lot of time, but in the end it will get better. "But you do handle it. Because the thing you learn is that you can." This quote shows Anna's overall growth after the accident. It shows how she learned that she has to handle the situation to be able to recover from it. This shows how she is now accepting the accident in a positive way.  

The author showed emotion and tone that I, or anyone else, could connect with. The author’s personal values help show the emotion of the book. She is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist and I think that helps her relate to the reader. The topic of the story is something you don’t see very often. It include the dangers of underage drink, drunk driving, traumatic issues, and sibling relationships all in one.

I think that E.R. Frank was trying to show the dangers of alcohol, the importance of sibling relationships, and how to deal with stress and trauma in life. The story illustrates the idea that you can get past trauma in your life by showing Anna’s struggle at the beginning to her positive acceptance in the end. I like the way the author worded the story. She used descriptive words that really helped me understand what was going on. The whole idea of the accident and killing her brother’s girlfriend caught my attention and showed me that things could be worse. However, the way that the author showed Anna dealing with the stress and anxiety of the accident seemed very realistic and could help someone dealing with a traumatic situation. I thought the book was very interesting and it kept my attention. I would recommend it to almost anyone.