An impeccably written book, but with complicated spirituality and some sexual content.
Plot
Set in 2028, "Wreckers" is a book that exhibits England in an alien state of austerity and abrasive justice - the King is in power, and England has recently suffered a tumultuous attack on London, killing seven million people. The nation has endured a mass eco-project, compelling only people of prestige to have vehicles, and brick-sized mobile phones. Common people have succumbed to simple livelihoods, where no outsiders are welcome.
The story is situated in Port Zannon, in Cornwall, and narrated separately by a group of five friends (Dilly, Maude, Danzel, Jenna and Gurnet), who have been kindred spirits since baby-hood. Their tale begins when they spend Halloween night in a dilapidated Manor house, and they unearth a featureless wooden box - a box that contains a fluttering, pulsating creature that is Hopelessness itself. It is this attribute that is the culminating parallel to the story of Pandora's box, for Pandora had unleashed all evils except this one.
Gurnet fosters the creature, and it is proceeding this that the bizarre and perilous, talking "creature" entails a labyrinthine string of misfortunes to the people in Port Zannon.
The story is a battle between hope and hopelessness, and the anguishes of "The Gang" (the five friends) to coax Gurnet into quelling the creature. The individual struggles of the characters are exemplars to how the wider village, stalwart and secular, requires faith, hope and love to balm their hardships and kill the evil that has arisen against them.
Morality
Amiable behavior is clearly delineated from wrongdoings. There is deceit, sexual compulsion, and underage drinking. Characters, particularly Jenna, display terrible selfishness, being more concerned about stealing a dress from the manor house to impress an American actor than in helping her friend, Maude, who will not leave her house, or Gurnet, whom the others are trying to rescue from the clutch of the creature Hopelessness. However, this is definitely seen, from the eyes of Hearn, as wrong behavior.
Spiritual Content
The book is curious in that, while Hearn speaks of Christianity as if it would be a hardship to have it as the definitive faith of the Nation, she writes a great deal concerning the legend that Jesus came to England, and seems to appraise Christian ethics through telling diction and metaphors.
Danzel and Dilly stumble upon Gurnet reading a Bible story to the creature, and the climatic stage of the story is the prevailing of hope. One of the characters, in the midst of turbulence, falls to their knees and thinks only to pray for help.
The village people attend a remembrance service, in a Church, for the Attack on London. It is unclear if the story is rigorously Christian, or secular. The King tried to force the country into attending Church every Sunday, which makes out that Christianity is something negative and controlling, but Hearn has also made the good characters more spiritually orientated.
Violence
A council member is hurt with a knife, by another character, and there is mention of blood on the ladder.
Drug and Alcohol Content
Any drinking under the age of 21 could entail a beheading, in the book, but the characters (primarily, Gurnet and Danzel, the two boys) disregard this to down cider. The girls, apart from Dilly, take a little cider in the Manor house, and it is from then that Danzel adopts an unhealthy hankering for it, often. However, he renounces this later in the book.
Gurnet's father is a drunkard, but we never witness him in such a state. Cider is the only alcohol mentioned.
Sexual Content
Jenna has many sexual compulsions towards Danzel, and then to Connor Blue, the American actor. One of the villains, a council member, displays lawless, sexual subtleties towards one of the gang, when pursuing them down a road at night - however, his reasoning for pursuing them is not sexual, it is to find out information about the creature, but he uses it as a threat.
Maude, who works in a cafe, wears an apron that says "Catch of the day" on it, and Connor Blue makes a very subtle remark on it, with a wink and, "Nice apron".
Crude or Profane Language or Content
There is no swearing, and, interestingly, the characters utter "Oh my stars" rather than taking God's name in vain. "In God's name" is used. The creature sticks two fingers up. "Flicking" substitutes the more insulting f-word.
Conclusion
This book has an incredible plot, and its having no specific genre compels it into being a riveting read. It has inklings of fantasy, history, myth & legend, science fiction, the conventional romance, and, at times, perhaps a little horror.
I found the stalwart bonds between the friends especially stirring and humbling, and Hearn writes with an articulate (although, perhaps, sometimes a little too verbosely speculated) discernment over the situation. The philosophy has been both thought-provoking and helpful for me for a long while after I read it, and it is almost inspiring, in that it accentuates the need for friendship and love. It does, however, have tangled spirituality that is not solidly Christian. If you are easily spooked, read the first few chapters with care, but it shouldn't severely frighten the audience it was written for, and I recommend it to any older teenagers.
This review is brought to you by Bethany.
