56 pages • 1 hour read
Maria PadianWrecked
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 28-31
Chapter 28 Summary: “Richard”
In a slightly longer italicized section before Chapter 28, Jenny expresses her immediate need to leave the party. Internally, she feels sick. A boy helps her upstairs and sits in his room, where they talk about his dog, Oscar. When the boy leaves the room for a moment, Jenny throws up.
Richard is doing his work in the Taylor House common area when he is interrupted by Brandon Exley, who wants to know why Richard isn’t speaking to Jordan. Exley has a threatening demeanor, which Richard responds to by challenging Exley about his own bad behavior. Exley leaves with a parting shot: “Don’t play games you can’t win, Richie” (251).
Chapter 29 Summary: “Haley”
Before Chapter 29, the italicized section describes Joe trying to find Jenny’s friends for her; he is the boy who took her to his room to take care of her. When he finally figures out that the other girls, besides Tamra, who is occupied with Exley, have left the party, Joe returns to his room, where he is met with “the stink of vomit” (252).
After leaving the dean’s office, Jenny meets the wrath of her father. Sobbing, Jenny doesn’t respond to his questions, while Haley tries to explain that the dean “asked tough questions” (254). The family, their lawyer, and Haley drive over to the hotel where Jenny’s parents are staying. In the car, Mr. James continues to ask Jenny about what’s happening, and Jenny finally explains about the stalking and the cyber-harassment she has been experiencing. By the time they are inside the hotel room, Mr. James is ready to listen to a more detailed account of what has been happening, which Haley provides.
When Jenny has collected herself, she also begins sharing, talking about how badly the interview went. The lawyer, Mr. Talbot, explains that it “might not have gone as badly as [she] think[s]” (259). Mr. Talbot emphasizes the importance of maintaining the same story over time. When Mr. James pushes on the idea of pursuing other legal options, Mr. Talbot explains that they can still go to the police. Jenny responds with her boldest voice, demanding that her family “LISTEN” to her as she says what she wants (261), which is for them to stop telling her to leave college. She explains to her parents that she knows they love her but they “can’t fix this” (262). Haley is grateful when she and Jenny are able to exit.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Richard”
In the italicized passage preceding Chapter 30, Jordan continues to attempt to get back into the party at Conundrum House, knocking on the back door and window. The partygoers inside laugh at him and ignore him, refusing to open the door.
Joe and two other Conundrum housemates ask to meet with Richard, who feels confused about what they can possibly want him to talk about. The group meets over food at the student union, where Joe explains that they know he’s “not supposed to talk about this rape case” (266), but they want to get to the bottom of some of the rumors, like whether or not the punch was roofied. When Richard pushes back, arguing that it doesn’t really concern them, Joe tells him more, revealing that Joe was the person who took Jenny upstairs to make sure she was okay. After she threw up, she left.
One of the other young men, Jasper, explains that it wasn’t just Joe’s room, since the two share a double. Richard emphasizes that “no one is coming after you guys” (267) for serving a minor alcohol and repeats his earlier confusion about what they hope to get out of the conversation. The housemates reveal that they know Richard and Haley are dating because someone called “Dr. Feelgood” has posted about it on the board. They push Richard to tell them more, and when he firmly declines, one of them says “Exley warned us you’d be a total douche” (269).
This comment, though intended to be mean, prompts an important thought pattern for Richard, who connects an earlier statement by Exley about people wanting to “feel good, and that’s what the Doctor’s there for” (269). Having connected the clues, Richard immediately texts Haley, and they arrange to meet at her room. When he opens the door, Richard is surprised to see Carrie alone on Jenny’s vacant bed.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Haley”
The short, italicized section before Chapter 31 describes Joe cleaning out Jenny’s vomit from his recycling bin. As he washes the tub, he hears shouting, and someone explains to him that “Bockus got locked out” (270).
When Haley gets to her room to meet Richard, she walks in on him and Carrie mid-argument. After a few moments of awkward interaction, Richard asserts that Carrie should be the one who leaves. Haley feels a sense of relief, since she is “sick of these women picking on Richard” (272). The night before, she had listened as Carrie, Mona, and Gail all discussed men who are immature, using Richard as their prime example.
Back in the dorm room, Haley uses the opportunity to push against Carrie, asking her to “say what [she] want[s]” (274) then to leave. Carrie challenges Haley about the fact that Richard lives with Jenny’s rapist. As the conversation gets more heated, Carrie suggests that she should report both Haley and Richard for violating confidentiality, but Richard makes the smart point that it would ruin the whole investigation.
Before she leaves, Carrie asks why Haley would “quit” on Jenny. Haley reflects on their painful conversation, which went from Haley being supportive to Jenny revealing that weeks before, Haley’s mother called Ms. James to ask them to leave Haley out of the case. Haley feels badly about her mother, but not guilty overall, and explains to Carrie that she hasn’t quit. Finally, Carrie leaves, and she and Richard begin to relax.
Chapters 28-31 Analysis
Thematically, an important aspect of Wrecked is the ways that characters operate in different spaces and how characters think about their private space. Padian repeatedly refers to whether a space is deemed private or public; on a college campus, this tension is a core aspect of social life. Many of the places that college students spend their time to do private activities, like showering, eating, and studying, are actually public: the dormitory bathroom, the dining hall, and the library. Through the various characters in the novel, Padian illustrates how difficult it is for young adults to navigate the ways that their personal lives are, to some extent, on display by virtue of living on a college campus.
Further, because of the intense subject matter portrayed in Wrecked, many of the characters also have to figure out how to maintain privacy and confidentiality despite the ability of their peers to constantly see what they are doing. The online community of The Board becomes an important illustration of this complexity. By centering the conflicts that characters experience around public versus private space, Padian both highlights a common experience for young college-going adults as well as challenging readers to empathize with the difficulties that the college campus poses via its openness.
As Wrecked moves into the climax, several of the main characters begin showing their personal growth as they express themselves with clearer agency. For Jenny, Richard, and Haley, figuring out how to assert themselves has been a process they have struggled with over the course of the novel’s plot. The maturation of each of these young adults is the crux of the novel’s development: it becomes less important what happens with Jenny’s case and more important how each central character figures out their own identity and capacity to make decisions.
Although the novel doesn’t directly present her perspective, Jenny’s development into a more actualized young adult is a clear and important part of the plot of Wrecked. Her immediate response to being raped is typical of trauma victims, but her development from that point on illustrates how she is able to take control of her decisions and her voice. This is best shown in the argument she has with her parents after her interview with the dean, as Jenny finally asserts herself and expresses her own wants and needs. This stuns her parents, and she is finally able to begin moving towards an outcome that she has chosen rather than performing for others.
While Jenny’s growth appears mostly in her relationship with her parents, both Haley and Richard develop strength in relation to their peers. Richard spends much of the novel wrestling with how to relate to the other young men he lives with, some of whom represent toxic forms of masculinity. As Richard finds his way to having greater confidence in his own perspective and opinions, he begins finding it easier express himself to his peers. Padian illustrates this confidence in his conversation with Joe and his other housemates, as Richard both refuses to buy into their line of thinking and defends himself with strength. He again demonstrates this newfound confidence with Carrie and Haley. Through each of these characters, Padian offers the important ways that young adults can find themselves developing a stronger sense of self and moral compass, leading them to greater agency over their own lives, even when faced with difficult situations.
