After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away
by Joyce Carol Oates
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Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
Joyce Carol Oates's new book for teens has a long title and it really does sort of give away the ending. Although, the ending is probably not the most important, rather the journey and its twists and turns.
Jenna is in a tragic accident with her mother on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Her mother and the driver of the other car are killed, leaving Jenna a survivor, but at what cost? The circumstances of the accident are u...more
Joyce Carol Oates's new book for teens has a long title and it really does sort of give away the ending. Although, the ending is probably not the most important, rather the journey and its twists and turns.
Jenna is in a tragic accident with her mother on the Tappan Zee Bridge. Her mother and the driver of the other car are killed, leaving Jenna a survivor, but at what cost? The circumstances of the accident are u...more
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Read in April, 2007
Jenna Abbott is a high school freshman trying to come to terms with the car accident that killed her mother and sent her to the hospital. Jenna vows that she won't let anyone get close to her again - they always leave her anyway. So when she goes to live with her aunt and uncle in New Hampshire, she pushes her family and former friends away, choosing instead to befriend Trina. Trina, who has many problems of her own, takes Jenna under her wing and introduces her to the world of cutting class,...more
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Read in December, 2007
This is the first full novel I've read from JCO. I've read a couple of her short stories, and mostly liked them, but this? This showed me that Oates probably doesn't talk to people much (because her dialogue is awful), particularly teenage people (because every other sentence is punctuated with "I guess"). In the prose sections, it was okay, but once she got into the dialogue again, she retained the same flowing rhythm of the text--which nobody uses in speech, particularly high sch...more
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Read in January, 2008
This book was kinda ok at first, but as I kept on reading, I realized that this is a really good book. Jenna Abbott is a teenager who was in a car accident with her mother, but unfortunately only she was the survivor. She separates her life in two categories: before the wreck and after the wreck. Her heart,body,mind and soul becomes hard with grief, distress, lonliness and a isolation that she cannot control. She feels like she cannot trust nor love anyone ever again and that her mom is the only...more
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Read in January, 2007
Kind of a sad book because she goes through so much grief after her mother dies. She closes up and doesn’t want to deal with anyone or anything – even though so many people are trying to help her. I liked the ending, but don’t read this book to cheer yourself up!
Summary:Jenna Abbott, 15, is struggling to come to terms with the car accident that killed her mother and nearly took her own life as well. Formerly athletic and smart, she suddenly finds herself unable to conce...more
Summary:Jenna Abbott, 15, is struggling to come to terms with the car accident that killed her mother and nearly took her own life as well. Formerly athletic and smart, she suddenly finds herself unable to conce...more
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Read in December, 2007
Jenna can't remember exactly what caused the wreck that killed her mother, but she has an ugly feeling that it was her. The pain medicine during her immediate recovery made it so easy to drift away and forget, but the doctors have cut her off and now she's in New Hampshire, living with her aunt and uncle, going to a new school. Always she is trying to get back that ability to drift away "into the blue" (a phrase she uses ad nauseam, along with "before the wreck" and "aft...more
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Read in November, 2007
Jenna Abbott’s life can be divided into two parts: before the wreck and after the wreck. Before the wreck, she was happily living with her mom and helping her mom survive the divorce. They wore matching sailor caps, and Jenna even ran for the school’s track team.
After the wreck, Jenna is left physically and mentally broken. She sustained such severe injuries that she’s now addicted to painkillers. And she lost her mother in the crash.
Now living with her aunt’s family, it i...more
After the wreck, Jenna is left physically and mentally broken. She sustained such severe injuries that she’s now addicted to painkillers. And she lost her mother in the crash.
Now living with her aunt’s family, it i...more
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Fifteen-year-old Jenna's life changed careeened and hit the guard rail of the Tappan Zee Bridge leaving her mother and another driver dead and Jenna injured and in a drug- induced haze, in the blue. Feeling that she was responsible for the accident, Jenna wants to stay in the blue. Jenna goes to live with her aunt in New Hampshire, but cannot accept help from her. No surprise, she hooks up with a senior girl with access to drugs and alcohol to stay there. It takes a huge mistake and friendship w...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
teens 16 +
I listened to this on audio, but it didn't help. The story is pretty slow, and the main character is pretty shallow. The basic story is that the girl and her mom are in a car wreck and the mom dies. Most of the book is about the girl's struggle to move on, while being a teenager and blaming herself for her mom's death. She gets involved with a bad crowd and goes through some rough things before she gets back on track. The characters are not very well developed. Red flags: profanity, drug u...more
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Read in January, 2007
I've never been a fan of Oates' adult novels, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this teen novel. Jenna is haunted by the car crash that killed her mother--a crash she may well be responsible for causing. She refuses to reconcile with her dad, who has begun a new family with another wife. Things are pretty bleak. It is when she meets Crow, a gorgeous biker who rescues her from gang rape, that things begin to look up for Jenna. A nice turn on guilt, grief, and the healing power ...more
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Read in February, 2008
Whenever I read Joyce Carol Oates I kind of hate myself. It's overly dramatic and a tries a little too hard to be artsy, yet when I finish, I can't stop thinking about it. It's a very haunting quality.
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Read in February, 2007
Wow. This was an intense read which tackled two of my big fears--car accidents and losing my family. A short book that packs a lot of punch. Wonderfully written.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
I thought it was really good b/c it was about a girl who lost her mom.
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Abraham Lincoln Awards, 2009 Nominee
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.44 (59 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.46 (57 ratings) number of reviews: 15popular shelves
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![After the Wreck, I picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away [UNABRIDGED], (Audio CD)](http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175269193s/498810.jpg)
quote
""See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not know it. But there's a reason. There has to be""
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