Wrecked

Maria Padian

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What really happened at the party that night?

Everyone has a different version of what happened that night at MacCallum College. Haley was already in bed when her roommate, Jenny, arrived home shellshocked from the wild Conundrum House party. Richard heard his housemate Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with. When Jenny 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.

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.


"Wrecked" was a Fall 16 Kids' Indie Next Pick; a winner of the Maine Lupine Honor Award and winner of the Maine Literary Award.

Praise for "Wrecked"

"Padian's latest boasts a swift, excellently crafted plot, excedingly readable prose, and painfully relatable characters. Particularly relevant for high school seniors and college freshmen."
     - Booklist, Starred Review

"Riveting . . . With intriguing, flawed characters and a gripping storyline,Wrecked offers readers a view of a college sexual assault case that is as engrossing as it is important." 
     - Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review

"In the face of recent college rape trials, readers will be rapt and emotionally spent by the end. An important, devastating new perspective on an all-too-timely subject."
     - Kirkus Reviews

"A sobering, compelling and realistic view of campus sexual assault. This isn’t just a book that all young men and women should read; it’s gripping and human enough that many will want to. VERDICT: Shelve and display alongside Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Courtney Summers’s All the Rage."
     - School Library Journal 

"Revelatory, deeply real, and urgently important."
     - Nova Ren Suma, author of The Walls Around Us

"This is, hands down, one of the best sexual assault reads in YA, and it's a book that high schoolers of all genders should read. ... outstanding, powerful and important."
          - Kelly Jensen, Book Riot

"WRECKED is so much more than your average 'he said, she said' book. It is about the implications of associations, about the frailty of belief, about the difficulty of speaking up. An incredible story from beginning to end that makes you keep turning page after page."
          Rachel Strolle, Anderson's Bookshop

"WRECKED is a powerful story that makes no attempt to define the absolute truth of what happened that night. Instead, it demands that each character, and the reader, decide where to stand, because not taking a stand causes its own damage."
          Sara Hines, Eight Cousins

"WRECKED becomes neither a dueling narrative nor an overtly styled teen issues book; instead it is a compelling thriller and fascinating window into a story some of us know all too well and others attempt to willfully ignore."
          Johanna Albrecht, Flyleaf Books

"Timely, gripping, and incredibly important, Padian's novel confronts the difficult and often complicated nature of sexual assault on a college campus, as well as the inevitable student discussion and backlash."
          Sara Grochowski, Brilliant Books

"Take a deep breath and be prepared that you might not come up for air until you finish this groundbreaking YA book. As thorough and thought-provoking as Krakauer's MISSOULA, this is a vital and significant read. While the theme is serious, there is the most genuine and compelling love story that emerges between two significant characters as they grapple with their roles in the aftermath of the assault."
          Jesica Sweedler DeHart, BookPeople of Moscow

Copyright © 2019 Maria Padian
Photo by Greta Rybus