Wrecker

Carl Hiaasen’s 2023 Wrecker is a middle-grade adventure novel set in Key West, Florida. Its protagonist, 15-year-old Valdez Jones, also known as “Wrecker,” accidentally gets involved with a group of criminals who are smuggling forged vaccination papers. As Wrecker struggles to free himself from the criminals’ control and bring them to justice, he reluctantly accepts the help of high-school friend Willi. As the two work together in dangerous circumstances, their friendship blossoms into romance.

Author Carl Hiaasen has written dozens of books for both adults and young people, all of them set in his home state of Florida. He has won many awards, including the prestigious Newbery Medal in 2003, and was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2014. His other middle-grade novels include Hoot (2002), Flush (2005), Scat (2009), Chomp (2012), Skink—No Surrender (2014), and Squirm (2018).

This study guide refers to the 2023 Alfred A. Knopf hardcover first edition of Wrecker.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, graphic violence, death by suicide, and death.

Plot Summary

15-year-old Valdez Jones, who goes by the nickname “Wrecker,” lives with his plastic surgery obsessed mother; his father abandoned the family long ago to pursue music. One day, Wrecker is fishing when he spots a speedboat that has run aground. The three secretive strangers aboard ask him for help, but Wrecker’s attempt to tow them is unsuccessful. Wrecker concludes that the men are likely to be smugglers.

At the local cemetery, Wrecker discovers the grave of Manuel Cabeza, who died in 1921 after being tortured and then lynched by the KKK because of his relationship with a biracial woman. As a biracial person himself, Wrecker shudders to think of the violence Black men faced in the past.

The smuggler leader, whom Wrecker nicknames Silver Mustache (his name is later revealed to be Marco David Quantraine), offers Wrecker money to keep watch over a new cemetery crypt, which Silver Mustache claims is for his friend who died of COVID. Wrecker shares his experiences at the cemetery with school acquaintance Willi. On the grave Quantraine asked him to watch is the name “Bendito Vachs” and an incorrect date of death. When Wrecker calls Quantraine to let him know about the error, Quantraine mentions many details of Wrecker’s life. Wrecker is alarmed at how much the man knows about him.

Wrecker goes to the docks and sneaks aboard the smugglers’ boat and sees a military assault rifle. The next day, Wrecker and Willi find a crashed boat full of strange, pizza-box-shaped packages wrapped in blue tarp. Inside are forged COVID vaccination cards. Wrecker guesses that the men are smuggling fake vaccination cards to sell to people who refuse to get immunized but who need the cards for work or travel. Quantraine demands that Wrecker drive the smugglers’ new speedboat. Wrecker feels he has no choice.

In between his cemetery adventures, Wrecker faces complexities at home. His mother’s second husband Roger has a very serious case of COVID, which develops into long COVID. The elderly neighbor Mr. Riley, who hired Wrecker to clean his sister’s grave, dies and his remains are repatriated to Ireland. Wrecker’s father comes to town to play a show, giving Wrecker the chance to confront him about abandoning his family.

Meanwhile, Willi discovers that no one named Bendito Vachs has died in Key West, so it cannot be him in the crypt. Then, Willi stops answering Wrecker’s texts for five days. Wrecker scales the gate, but Willi refuses to open the door. On Wrecker’s way out, a police officer new to Key West takes him to the police station for trespassing. The officer is openly racist, but fortunately for Wrecker another officer intervenes.

At the cemetery, Wrecker hears a black-haired girl singing at Cabeza’s grave, but Silver Mustache’s goons scare her off. Following her, Wrecker finds a black wig snagged on the cemetery fence. The next day, Wrecker meets Willi and confronts her about ghosting him. He shows her the black wig and says he knows she is the girl who was singing. Willi confesses that her great-great-grandfather was one of the white men who tortured and killed Cabeza. She has been visiting Cabeza’s grave to mourn. Wrecker promises not to tell her secret and offers to go together. Wrecker and Willi make a plan to break into the Vachs crypt.

When it is time for Wrecker to drive the smugglers’ boat, he meets a man called Rodrigo to exchange cash for vaccination cards. Quantraine pays Wrecker $1000, which Wrecker hides in a barge wreck, safe inside the handle of a fishing gaff.

That night, Wrecker and Willi break into Vachs’s crypt and discover that it holds a coffin full of cash. Willi takes photos before they leave. Wrecker delivers the pizza boxes holding the fake vaccination cards to the police, hiding his identity and pretending to be a pizza delivery person.

Quantraine is suspicious that Wrecker knows something about the crypt break-in, but Wrecker manages to convince him that he is innocent. Silver Mustache needs Wrecker to drive the boat one last time; after this, the gang will be using its own printing press.

Wrecker helps his stepsister, Suzanne, an environmental activist with Friends of Blue Waters, publicize a video of a cruise ship harming dolphins as it sails. Wrecker’s video goes viral and attracts the press’s attention to a protest that will attempt to block the cruise ship from leaving the harbor. As Wrecker prepares for the final smuggling run, he sees the ever-growing demonstration against the cruise line.

After Wrecker and Quantraine complete the last exchange with Rodrigo, Wrecker runs aground deliberately, passing it off as a careless accident. Pretending to be seeking help, Wrecker blasts an air horn at a passing skiff. Its driver is Willi. Wrecker crosses the shallow water to the skiff, jumps in, and he and Willi take off.

As Quantraine’s men retrieve the coffin full of money from the cemetery, the police arrest them, acting Wrecker’s tip. Based on a tip from Willi, the Coast Guard arrests Quantraine for possession of illegal weapons and forged vaccination cards.

Carole and Roger plan to move to Pebble Beach, California. Carole asks Wrecker to come along, but Suzanne persuades her that Wrecker should finish high school in Key West. Suzanne and Wrecker agree to visit Pebble Beach regularly. Wrecker retrieves his hidden money. Then, he goes to see his father perform a new song at a rally for Friends of Blue Waters. The group is raising money to blockade another cruise ship scheduled to arrive on the following day. Before leaving the rally, Wrecker stuffs the money into the Friends of Blue Waters’ collection jar.

Wrecker and Willi go to visit Cabeza’s grave one final time together. Wrecker asks Willi to ride with him in his skiff during the blockade flotilla on the following morning. She makes him agree to take her free diving after the protest. Wrecker kisses her on the cheek before they part for the evening.