New Young Adult Novel Depicts Campus Sexual Assault

On Wednesday, October 13th at 6:30 P.M. young adult author Maria Padian will read from her new novel, WRECKED at RiverRun Books in Portsmouth. This event is free and open to the public.

Described as "ripped from the headlines," WRECKED deftly tackles the hot-button issue of sexual assault on college campuses. Padian, winner of the ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults for her novel Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress, wrote WRECKED to participate in the national dialogue on consent and sexual assault, particularly on college campuses. “I’ve always been fascinated with how a story changes depending on the narrator, and how ‘truth’ varies with point-of-view,” Padian says. “It struck me that our opinions are heavily formed by what we bring to the table, biases we might not realize we have.” Offering a kaleidoscopic perspective, WRECKED examines the blurry line between assumption and truth.

From publisher Algonquin Young Readers:
"Everyone at McCallum College has heard a different version of what happened that night at the wild Conundrum House party. Haley was already in bed when her roommate, Jenny, arrived home shell-shocked, and Richard heard his housemate Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with earlier that night. When Jenny formally 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."

WRECKED brilliantly dramatizes the difficulty of reaching closure and finding justice when colleges, whose interests may not be the same as a victim’s, take on questions of guilt and punishment. Padian challenges readers to reflect on the harsh realities of campus sexual assault and its repercussions in what Kirkus Reviews calls “an important, devastating new perspective on an all-too-timely subject.”

Maria Padian is a graduate of Middlebury College (BA) and the University of Virginia (MA). She is a freelance writer, essayist, and author of young adult novels, including Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress, Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best, and Out of Nowhere. Maria lives with her family in Brunswick, Maine. Visit Maria Padian online at mariapadian.com and find her on Twitter: @mpadian.