“Wrecked isn’t a retelling of The Tempest, Shakespeare’s play was more of a jumping-off point for me.” – Heather Henson. Just as a tempest is always a threat at sea, a wreck is always a threat when a young woman loves to ride her motorcycle. This youth novel, that can certainly be read by adults as a trade novel, is told in the voices of three characters. Mira is the motorcycle rider and mechanic and the teen daughter of a father who makes meth. Her friend, Clay, is the son of a meth-maker, but his mother is in prison for it. And Fen is the son of a DEA agent, a newcomer to Eastern Kentucky who falls in love with Mira. How’s that for a set-up? “Heather Henson has written a breathtaking and harsh and beautiful novel about meth addiction, and about the incredible rush of first love. Wrecked is exquisitely plotted and fast moving, a novel about the tenderness an author feels for a land and its people, and the heartache that underlies a nation struggling.” - Cynthia Kadohata. “Full of grit, passion, and mystery, Henson’s latest book takes a searing look at first loves and second chances, family secrets, and the devastating effects of the opioid crisis, all while exploring the ways home may affect us, but does not have to define us. Wrecked is a raw gem of a book.” – David Arnold. The author, Heather Henson, grew up in Danville, Kentucky, left to attend college in New York and then worked as an editor at Harper and Row but has returned to live on her family’s farm and work as the managing director of the Pioneer Playhouse which her father founded in 1950. She has written many children’s books, all set in Kentucky.
New York: Atheneum/Simon and Schuster, 2022. 272 pages. Hardback in dust jacket.