After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (review)

Jenna divides her life into "before the wreck" and "after the wreck," the wreck being the dramatic traffic accident that killed Jenna's mother and nearly killed Jenna, leaving their car dangling over the edge of the Tappan Zee Bridge until rescuers were able to remove its occupants. After leaving the hospital, Jenna refuses to move in with her estranged father and his new wife and son, instead opting to live with her mother's sister, Caroline, and Caroline's family in a small New Hampshire town. Still traumatized and grief-stricken, Jenna resists friendships but finds herself intrigued by biker-boy Crow, whose unexpected kindness and understanding touches her, and she's swept up by fast-living bad girl Trina, who happens to be Crow's girlfriend. Jenna's narration effectively conveys her shock and pain, and also the secret guilt—she thinks she may have caused her mother to swerve the car into oncoming traffic—that convinces her she's not worthy of real belonging or friendship. The book keeps things realistically tough and challenging by avoiding easy answers with new friends or romance: Trina can't face Jenna after Jenna calls the cops to intervene in a party turned vicious assault, and Crow leaves town to try to make it work with the mother of his young son. Since it's believable that the accident would have left Jenna with a phobia about bridges, the metaphor about her finally crossing one is unforced; readers will understand that the wreck has changed Jenna, but they'll be glad to see her finally moving forward.