After The Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, And Flew Away (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
Spoiler AlertA young adult book, "After the Wreck" is about Jenna, a teenage girl who is in an accident with her mother who is killed. Jenna feels, though she isn't sure, that she may be to blame. Jenna's life begins spiraling out of control"after the wreck" as her loneliness and guilt lead her to make dangerous decisions involving drugs and alcohol abuse.Refreshingly, this teenage character doesn't blame everyone else in her life for her problems and it's evident she feels powerless to pull herself together. When she finally makes a decision to help someone else, she also takes control of her life and finds unexpected help from a motorcycle riding, tall, dark and handsome "Crow." It's no accident that he's named Crow, because throughout the book images of birds are integrated with Jenna's wish to fly away into "the blue".I admit at first I was disappointed that the Crow came along, with histypical dangerous good looks and sex appeal, characteristic lately of many male YA novels. When I started reading about him I was thinking, Ms. Oates, please don't disappoint me with this character. And of course, she didn't,how could I have doubted her? JCO doesn't allow Crow to become the typical hero; he helps Jenna, but he doesn't "save" her. He has his own demons which he ends up admitting to Jenna and even when Jenna realizes he is far from the perfect guy, she still wants a romantic relationship with him, but thank God JCO doesn't allow the two of them to develop an obsessive love for each other. Instead, both Crow and Jenna, though remaining friends, must individually follow the path their choices and life circumstances have made for them. JCO portrays them sympathetically as "accident prone" young adults who find within themselves they are individually strong enough to deal withlife."After the Wreck" is an example of a novel with something important to share with kids, in contrast to one that's purpose is solely to entertain. Of course teenagers must have access to all types of YA fiction and there's definitely room for fantastic, sexy vampires who save girls from other exceptionally evil vampires and wonderfully, hunky werewolves. God bless Stephanie Meyers for writing great, long books for kids who otherwise would never have attempted anything over 50 pages, and hopefully, feeling successful with their long Gothic fantasy, will go on to read something,maybe not as long, but definitely more substantial. Who knows, maybe one of them will ask me, "Miss, do you have any books about real teenagers?" Now I have just the right one.Looking forward to Freaky Green Eyes, Sexy, and Big Mouth,Ugly Girl herother YA books. The pile is getting higher.
Jenna Abbott was just a normal girl living a normal life, until the wreck happened. Nothing was the same after the wreck as before it—Jenna’s friends, her home, even her own self. She has been irrevocably changed, whether she likes it, or wants to admit it, or not. She’s really only a shell of the girl she once was, clinging desperately to distant memories of happiness even though she’s on the verge of completely losing it. She can’t trust anyone, can’t let herself trust anyone, even her own family. And then Jenna meets Crow, who’s got secrets of his own. Jenna finds that she can open herself up to him, but will this put her on the path of redemption and self forgiveness, or will she continues down the ugly road of self-destruction? In this emotional and moving story, Oates explores the trail of damage that death causes and the fragile strength required to rise about it.Most of this story can be summed up with its lengthy title, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away, because that is, in essence, what Jenna struggles with doing and eventually accomplishes. I really appreciated Oates’ sometimes simplistic writing style because it so effectively conveyed Jenna’s thoughts, emotions, and delusions. It’s from this style of writing that I was able to truly grasp how damaged Jenna was by the wreck, and it caused my heart to go out to her. There is something so fragile and delicate about Jenna’s character that makes the reader want to protect and take care of her, but at the same time, Jenna’s nature does not permit this type of babysitting. I loved how complex Jenna was and how she struggled to distinguish between dream and reality, because I feel this is an issue many of us also struggle with, although not necessarily on so desperate a scale as Jenna. After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away is an emotional journey and moving tale about death, forgiveness, and everlasting friendship.This novel is one of those that you want to take your time reading to fully understand. It ranks up with other novels on the same topic such as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe, and Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël.
What do You think about After The Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, And Flew Away (2006)?
Jenna has just lost her mother in a car accident. After recovering from her own injuries, Jenna refuses to live with her father in CA and moves in with her aunt and uncle. They love her dearly but Jenna can’t get over her mother’s death, which she feels responsible for, and can’t love back. She can’t help wishing she was still “in the blue” (a state that she experienced while still in the hospital barely hanging on to life). She soon discovers that drugs and alcohol help with her mental pains an
—Carrie
A Good Man is Hard to Find will always be one of my favorite short stories. This little novelette not so much.I hadn't realized that Oates was getting into young adult fiction. Maybe it was the book's smaller size- clumsy in the hand- that did me in. The story is about a 15 year old girl whose mother died in a car accident that may or may not have been the kid's fault. The problem with writing with an adolescent voice is that no matter what they think they know adolescents aren't very good at being historians. Or observers, or participants or movants in general. This girl makes a series of really stupid choices. I can't figure out why she just didn't hunt for the right drugs to begin with.
—Carol Waters
After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away tells the story of a girl who was in a car accident which caused her mother's death. After her mother's death Jenna goes down a self-destructive path in which she self-medicates seeking the haze of drugs she experienced in the hospital. Students may be interested in this novel as a story of overcoming obstacles and choosing a path that is not self-destructive. I would include this on a bookshelf in my classroom for SSR or book w
—English Education
