Katherine Marple

As a woman who has my own disability, I could relate to the heroine of this book. She suffers type 1 diabetes. She is young and tired of fighting her disease. This is a disease that can take over your life. It's not a simple matter of changing your diet. (Note, there are different kinds of diabetes. The kind the heroine has is not talked about in infocommericals. The more common diabetes is type 2.)

The heroine has been dating Shane for three years when he breaks up with her. He is tired of wondering if he is going to wake up next to a dead girlfriend in the morning. Here is an excerpt of what this disease is like from Shane's POV:

"You were kicking really hard, so when I turned over to wake you up, you were ice cold. You felt like you were dead. All of your muscles tightened up, your arms pressed hard against your chest. I tried to move your legs, because they looked so distorted, but I couldn't fight against the strength of your strained muscles. You were biting your tongue hard and your eyes rolled back into your head."

No wonder Shane freaks out. On one hand, what Shane does makes sense. He wants the heroine to start taking care of herself. He can't do it for her. She must care for herself before anyone else will care for her. The problem is she has grown resigned to her fate, aware that she won't live a long and full life and as a result, isn't really living it. As Shane begins to step out of the picture, she begins to grow close to Drew, a man at work.

The book is a short but sad read and meaningful. The heroine not only deals with man problems but also tries to quit smoking, write a book, struggles with new medications, has issues with her estranged mother, and even gets a pump. She is afraid to go to sleep for fear she won't wake up. And top all that off with kidney disease.

Can she get it together and live her life despite her illness? Can she keep her illness in check? Can she live life without Shane? Is Drew going to be a part of the long term picture or is she going to learn to live life for HERSELF, not for any man?

The first person narrative is very real and honest. I almost gave this a four star tho because the heroine (no name is another minor irritant) is irritating at times with her indecisiveness. One minute she will push Shane away and say, "I'm not ready," three hours later, they are having sex. However, the ending blew me away. I wasn't expecting it and I had to struggle not to cry. The ending brought the book back up to a 5 star rating.… (més)

Reviewed by Melanie Foust for TeensReadToo.com

She loves Shane, but Shane is afraid of losing her. When they're together, they fight, hurling the meanest insults they can imagine. When they're apart, they pine for the other's company.

She works with Drew at her job as a waitress. She finds herself falling for him, as he falls for her, but they both have pasts neither can get over. Shane remains at the back of her mind and in her heart, just as a girl remains in Drew's.

All the while, her disease rages on. Days, sometimes weeks if she's lucky, go by with seemingly nothing wrong. Then it comes back, with each time seeming worse than the one before. The doctors are running out of options, and her time could be running out.

The name of the main character in this story remains a mystery. It made things a bit odd in the beginning chapters, since I kept looking for a name, but after a while, I was able to dismiss it and move on with the story. I have to admit that I'm very curious as to why the main character doesn't have a name, since everyone else in the book does.

The plot moves along at a steady pace. Between her love life and her illness, there is never a boring moment. One of my favorite parts of the plot is her road to becoming a published writer. It's truly her dream, and it's great to watch her journey to capturing it.

The ending of this book is heartbreaking, and I can't help but wish it was different. Yet this book taught me a lot, not only about a deadly disease, but also about living life to the fullest while you have the chance.… (més)

Reviewed by Melanie Foust for TeensReadToo.com

She was planning on biding her time until graduation. She endured her father's demeaning talk and physical cruelty, wishing for the day to come when she could leave and never look back. That day came much sooner than she planned when he took a small step toward sexual abuse. She knew that it would never stop, so she left.

But she was not alone. She would never be alone as long as she had London. London would always be her best friend. He had always been and would always be there for here, but soon she will have to learn to stand on her own.

This book is a fairly quick read, but its story will stay with you long after finishing the last page. I found myself rooting for the protagonist through the entire book, even when she was confused and made mistakes. After having such a painful past, I was continually wishing her a better future.

Never knowing the main character's name adds an air of mystery to this book. The reader goes along this journey with her, sees her through all the ups and downs, yet is withheld one of the first things we normally find out about people. At first, I found myself looking for her name, but as the story continued I concluded that it wasn't her name that really mattered but instead the girl herself.

This story's ending brought it to a bittersweet end. It made me think of the important things in life and made me thankful for the privileged life that I lead.… (més)

I would recommend 'Wretched' to anyone who wants a quick, entertaining read. It certainly is a page-turner.
'Wretched' is the story of a young girl suffering from 'type one' diabetes and goes some way to educating people who do not know about the disease. It is also a story of love and loss, as the young girl battles between her feelings for the man she has loved for most of her life, and a new man on the scene. It's written in the first person from the young girl's viewpoint (I don't think we ever find out her name). I felt that it was very much like reading someone's journal/diary rather than a novel. But in a way, this made it more intriguing.
My main issue with the novel was that I could not warm to the main character. She came across as very needy, selfish and self-obsessed. This of course, may have been intentional, and maybe a result of the years of suffering with her disease, or due to her unhappy childhood. It was hard to feel any sympathy for someone who was so unstable and did not seem to even care about herself.
The book could have benefited from some editing in parts. At times I also thought that it would have been better to have written the novel in the third person and to have included more about her past. This would have enabled the author to develop the other characters. For example, the book would have benefitted from development of the girl's father's character, as he played such an important role at the end of the story, but was a very minor character up until that point.
There were a few memorable and inspirational quotes in the novella, and I enjoyed the poems which were scattered among the pages, even though I'm not a great fan of poetry. The ending was a good twist, if not entirely unforeseeable.
I recently read Katherine Marple's latest novella 'Okay' and really enjoyed it. I feel that in 'Okay' Marple has found her 'voice'. 'Wretched' is an earlier work and not as accomplished; but, like 'Okay', it does contain signs that this author is destined for greatness.
I am looking forward to Katherine Marple's next book… (més)