The Wrecking Ball : A Novel
Author(s): Christiana Spens
Armed with trust funds and pedigrees but bent on rebellion, twenty-somethings Alice, Harry, Rose, and Hugo are teetering on the brink of self-destruction. With Manhattan and London as their playgrounds, they chase oblivion—and their next high—through a glittering blur of nightclubs, decadent parties, high fashion, and underground music scenes, hard-partying on the razor's edge with a never-ending cocktail of drugs and booze. Insomniacs and unstoppable, these four lost souls ride the extreme highs and devastating lows of a summer that quickly reaches a crescendo of music, heat, and hedonism. Wavering between moments of revelation and ruin, they illuminate a generation given everything—except an answer to the timeless question: Who am I?
From a remarkable new literary voice comes a startling, fresh, strikingly candid novel of addiction and excess.
Review(s):
“Trainspotting for trust funders”
“In razor-sharp prose that’s soaked with authenticity…with characters whose increasingly flimsy grasp on reality is as gripping as it is disconcerting…The Wrecking Ball accurately shows where self-destruction can ultimately lead, effectively and entertainingly proving that the ‘dream life’ can often be anything but.”
“[Christiana] writes beautifully about the taste for oblivion, the temptation of the abyss, the alluring mystery of nothingness. Truth is its soul and brevity is its body. I like young women. Their stories are shorter. Consider yourself seduced.”
“Reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero, this book has trust-fund babies downing vodka at breakfast, barely eating expensive lunches, and getting stoned at rock shows. [Spens is] a raconteur of the party scene.”
ISBN: 9780061649349