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The Wreck
Two couples pursue their dream of communal living in the English countryside – and then it all comes tumbling down
Charlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid-1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart.
When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community.
At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing each of them in a new light.
The Wreck is a glorious genre-defying illustrated novel about the messy tangle of love, envy and desire that underpins our most precious relationships, and the difficult paths we must take to discover our true selves.
Charlotte and Francesca were best friends at university in the mid-1970s. But tensions coursed beneath their natural affection, deepening when Fran got together with Charlotte’s friend Adrian, and the two women drifted apart.
When Fran contacts Charlotte out of the blue with an unusual proposal – an invitation to live with her and Adrian in the rambling house they’ve bought in the countryside – Charlotte impulsively persuades her partner, Bill, to accept this tantalising promise of a new kind of community.
At first their new life feels utopian; life and space are shared joyfully. But it doesn’t take long for old tensions to rise to the surface, shattering their illusions and showing each of them in a new light.
The Wreck is a glorious genre-defying illustrated novel about the messy tangle of love, envy and desire that underpins our most precious relationships, and the difficult paths we must take to discover our true selves.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published April 9, 2026
About the author
Lizzy Stewart
32 books76 followersLizzy Stewart is a British illustrator and author currently based in London. She has written and illustrated various books for children and adults. Her debut full-length illustrated novel Alison was published in 2022. She teaches illustration at Goldsmiths University and has also taught courses on behalf of the National Portrait Gallery.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
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December 19, 2025Just the perfect combination of words and pictures - a graphic novel but also with lots of text which I delighted in lingering over. Lizzy Stewart is so good at capturing human emotion through both drawing and writing.
The Wreck is about two couples: Charlotte and Bill, and Fran and Adrian who in the 1980s decide to test the idyllic dream of living communally in a big house in the English countryside. For a summer their lives are perfect, until they aren't.
Another contender for my books of the year!
The Wreck is about two couples: Charlotte and Bill, and Fran and Adrian who in the 1980s decide to test the idyllic dream of living communally in a big house in the English countryside. For a summer their lives are perfect, until they aren't.
Another contender for my books of the year!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
It's felt like a while since I've really loved a new (or soon to be published) book, so The Wreck felt like a complete breath of fresh air. I can't remember the last time a book had me so excited to get back to it, and I will be amazed if this isn't one of my books of the year by the end of 2026!
Part novel and part graphic novel, The Wreck is the story of four friends, two couples, who in the 1980s decide to try living together in their forties in a big countryside house - a utopia of sorts. As they each find a way to live together, some easier than others, they create a wonderful existence together that makes you wonder why more people don't do this. But of course, tensions and feelings soon erupt and the bubble bursts.
I loved the way Lizzy Stewart carefully crafted each character. All four of them felt distinct to me, and you could really grasp how and why each of them were feeling the way that they did. The way class, ambition, happiness, creativity mean something different to them all. I thought it explored friendship with such honesty - the way we compare ourselves, the need to impress, but also the drive they can create in you to fulfil your ambitions. Also just the sheer joy of having those few friends who know you almost inside out, the kind of friendships that are almost impossible to recreate as a fully fledged adult.
I loved Lizzy's beautiful drawings equally as much as the prose, and found The Wreck to be such a wonderful reading experience. I already have her previous graphic novel, Alison, lined up to read. I hope The Wreck gets all the praise it deserves in 2026!
Part novel and part graphic novel, The Wreck is the story of four friends, two couples, who in the 1980s decide to try living together in their forties in a big countryside house - a utopia of sorts. As they each find a way to live together, some easier than others, they create a wonderful existence together that makes you wonder why more people don't do this. But of course, tensions and feelings soon erupt and the bubble bursts.
I loved the way Lizzy Stewart carefully crafted each character. All four of them felt distinct to me, and you could really grasp how and why each of them were feeling the way that they did. The way class, ambition, happiness, creativity mean something different to them all. I thought it explored friendship with such honesty - the way we compare ourselves, the need to impress, but also the drive they can create in you to fulfil your ambitions. Also just the sheer joy of having those few friends who know you almost inside out, the kind of friendships that are almost impossible to recreate as a fully fledged adult.
I loved Lizzy's beautiful drawings equally as much as the prose, and found The Wreck to be such a wonderful reading experience. I already have her previous graphic novel, Alison, lined up to read. I hope The Wreck gets all the praise it deserves in 2026!
December 28, 2025
weeping, weeping
July 12, 2026
Tore through this. Can't remember the last time a graphic novel (or illustrated novel, I guess) brought me to tears. The last few pages are heart wrenching. Charlotte is so real to me that at first I thought this was a memoir. Lizzy Stewart is a powerhouse.
July 2, 2026
Loved this! A perfect mix of words and images that made the read so engaging, with characters that felt warm and human in every way and a story that was quietly compelling.
March 10, 2026
FIVE STARS AMAZING
April 12, 2026
Seamless. Lizzie Stewart is a masterful storyteller, her talent is in telling the lives of her characters, making them real and knowing the small details that can expose a person. I knew from reading ‘Alison’ that this would stop me in my tracks. Thoroughly recommend.
May 3, 2026
What a treat of a book!
As gorgeous, thoughtful and entertaining as Alison, the two books also share themes (art, friendship, class) and that delightful mix of words and pictures that Stewart masters.
Perfect for reading in one sitting (bonus points if in the garden)
As gorgeous, thoughtful and entertaining as Alison, the two books also share themes (art, friendship, class) and that delightful mix of words and pictures that Stewart masters.
Perfect for reading in one sitting (bonus points if in the garden)
May 24, 2026
This was a beautifully illustrated book and I loved the characters. The plot let it down slightly as I found myself losing interest as the story went on. But overall, I would still recommend it!
July 2, 2026
this reader will pick up whatever Lizzy Stewart puts out. except this time I made it our bookclub pick 🥳
July 2, 2026
The protagonist is unlikeable, self involved and has a massive chip on her shoulder. Lizzy Stewart follows her life through university, the friends she makes and is reunited with in their 40s. Somehow the bitter MC Charlotte makes a lovely best friend Fran and nabs a lovely boyfriend Bill. Successful Fran invites stagnant Charlotte and Bill to join her and her husband in their country house and try communal living, of course it all goes to shit. The Wreck has a fascinating premise but it slightly drags. Stewart tells the story with a mix of novel text and then pages of graphic novel panels, it defines should have been a straight graphic novel, we didn’t the extra text. Although it gave Stewart more room to explore the characters feelings in depth I think the she should have trusted the reader to intuit those from the images.
April 12, 2026
Loved this! Such a good combination of comics/drawing/prose and full of complex beautifully written characters. Many deeply relatable sections that made me feel very SEEN!!
March 29, 2026
I am, fittingly, a complete wreck after finishing ‘The Wreck’. Reading it felt like pushing on a bruise: it’s painful, but you keep returning to it, chasing the ache.
In ‘The Wreck’, Lizzy Stewart explores some really painful emotions, like jealousy, insecurity, and resentment, some of them justified — like the protagonist Charlotte’s experience of class difference and sexism — and some of them a bit uglier: Charlotte’s envy of her friends’ seemingly easy lives, her youthful and shame-filled confusion and longing towards her best friend’s husband, Adrian, and a growing resentment and bitterness that she notices but can’t stop. It’s uncomfortable, but completely compulsive, and I just couldn’t stop reading.
The emotions laid bare on the pages, in immaculate prose and hand drawn watercolor, are both recognizable and intensely familiar — perhaps that’s why this book feels so powerful. Stewart is unflinching, laying bare every ugly feeling stored inside her protagonist; and I felt myself split open and seen, too. Who hasn’t felt young and overlooked, wanting to be special, watching others have an easy time of it while you struggle to fit in? It’s vulnerable and nostalgic in equal measure, and I felt completely swallowed by the book.
Also, I know it’s a novel about an affair, but MY GOD can this woman write female friendships! I was deeply moved by the final section, which moves into Francesca’s perspective. After being carried through the affair narrative, you expect her section to be the portrait of a wronged woman; but I was shocked and delighted to find instead one of enduring warmth, respect and, yes, longing towards her once best friend, even long after the affair blew up their friendship. I don’t know why I expected anything less — the clues are in Stewart’s previous works, ‘Alison’ and ‘It’s Not What You Thought It Would Be’, both of which are *so* good on ambivalent and enduring female friendships; but I was impressed, all the same, by her generosity and the freshness of her portrayal of this gorgeous, messy friendship.
That final panel, in which the two women run into each other in the street after 20 years apart, had me in tears; whoever said that friendships can’t be as bruising and confusing and sustaining and frustrating and beautiful as romantic relationships has never read a Lizzy Stewart graphic novel.
What a gift.
In ‘The Wreck’, Lizzy Stewart explores some really painful emotions, like jealousy, insecurity, and resentment, some of them justified — like the protagonist Charlotte’s experience of class difference and sexism — and some of them a bit uglier: Charlotte’s envy of her friends’ seemingly easy lives, her youthful and shame-filled confusion and longing towards her best friend’s husband, Adrian, and a growing resentment and bitterness that she notices but can’t stop. It’s uncomfortable, but completely compulsive, and I just couldn’t stop reading.
The emotions laid bare on the pages, in immaculate prose and hand drawn watercolor, are both recognizable and intensely familiar — perhaps that’s why this book feels so powerful. Stewart is unflinching, laying bare every ugly feeling stored inside her protagonist; and I felt myself split open and seen, too. Who hasn’t felt young and overlooked, wanting to be special, watching others have an easy time of it while you struggle to fit in? It’s vulnerable and nostalgic in equal measure, and I felt completely swallowed by the book.
Also, I know it’s a novel about an affair, but MY GOD can this woman write female friendships! I was deeply moved by the final section, which moves into Francesca’s perspective. After being carried through the affair narrative, you expect her section to be the portrait of a wronged woman; but I was shocked and delighted to find instead one of enduring warmth, respect and, yes, longing towards her once best friend, even long after the affair blew up their friendship. I don’t know why I expected anything less — the clues are in Stewart’s previous works, ‘Alison’ and ‘It’s Not What You Thought It Would Be’, both of which are *so* good on ambivalent and enduring female friendships; but I was impressed, all the same, by her generosity and the freshness of her portrayal of this gorgeous, messy friendship.
That final panel, in which the two women run into each other in the street after 20 years apart, had me in tears; whoever said that friendships can’t be as bruising and confusing and sustaining and frustrating and beautiful as romantic relationships has never read a Lizzy Stewart graphic novel.
What a gift.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2026
Reading an illustrated novel is really unusual for me, in fact I think I’ve only read two graphic novels before (both by Audrey Niffenegger if you’re interested). What drew me to The Wreck is that it is a combination of written and graphic elements, the written being the story and the graphic the dialogue, which gave me a real sense of the characters.
Those characters are Charlotte and Bill, Francesca and Adrian. Charlotte, Fran and Adrian were friends at university in the 1970s but over the years had drifted apart, partly due to Fran and Adrian getting together, and later getting married, which kind of fractured the friendship with Charlotte. Twenty years later Fran gets in touch with Charlotte with an unexpected and surprising proposal: that Charlotte and Bill move into Fran and Adrian’s large house in the country, known as The Wreck, and embrace a kind of communal living.
I enjoyed The Wreck so much. It’s a large book so I have been reading a little every evening and I always very much looked forward to picking it up. The story itself is engrossing, told for the first three parts from Charlotte’s perspective and then in the last part from Fran’s. It takes the reader back to the university days, setting the scene for all that was to come, the old friendships and the new ones, and life at the Wreck. At first life is really good but there was a sort of inevitability to the outcome I think.
The illustrations are absolutely stunning. Lizzy Stewart is a brilliant artist and I got to truly know the characters through her art, each one so perfectly drawn and which put me right there with them at the Wreck. I took a bit of a chance on this book, it being something different for me, and I’m so glad that I did. In fact, I’ve now bought Stewart’s first illustrated novel, Alison. I highly recommend The Wreck; it’s a captivating and pleasing written and visual experience.
Those characters are Charlotte and Bill, Francesca and Adrian. Charlotte, Fran and Adrian were friends at university in the 1970s but over the years had drifted apart, partly due to Fran and Adrian getting together, and later getting married, which kind of fractured the friendship with Charlotte. Twenty years later Fran gets in touch with Charlotte with an unexpected and surprising proposal: that Charlotte and Bill move into Fran and Adrian’s large house in the country, known as The Wreck, and embrace a kind of communal living.
I enjoyed The Wreck so much. It’s a large book so I have been reading a little every evening and I always very much looked forward to picking it up. The story itself is engrossing, told for the first three parts from Charlotte’s perspective and then in the last part from Fran’s. It takes the reader back to the university days, setting the scene for all that was to come, the old friendships and the new ones, and life at the Wreck. At first life is really good but there was a sort of inevitability to the outcome I think.
The illustrations are absolutely stunning. Lizzy Stewart is a brilliant artist and I got to truly know the characters through her art, each one so perfectly drawn and which put me right there with them at the Wreck. I took a bit of a chance on this book, it being something different for me, and I’m so glad that I did. In fact, I’ve now bought Stewart’s first illustrated novel, Alison. I highly recommend The Wreck; it’s a captivating and pleasing written and visual experience.
July 9, 2026
The Wreck is an unusual hybrid of novel and graphic novel, following two couples whose long, complicated friendship stretches from their university days in the 1970s to an experiment in communal living in the English countryside decades later. Old rivalries, buried resentments, class differences and unfulfilled ambitions gradually undermine what initially appears to be an idyllic arrangement, until the dream inevitably begins to fall apart.
This was my first proper venture into the graphic novel genre and, having dipped my toes in the water, I can safely say it isn’t for me.
Lizzy Stewart is clearly a talented illustrator, but I never felt the drawings added anything to the story. If anything, they kept pulling me out of it. Rather than becoming immersed in the novel, I found myself flicking between text and artwork in a way that reminded me of reading comics as a child.
For me, one of the great pleasures of reading a well-written novel is that the words become pictures in your own mind. Every reader imagines the characters, the settings and the emotions slightly differently. Here, those images were supplied for me, and I realised I would much rather have created them myself.
The story itself has potential, but I never connected with it because the format constantly distracted me. That’s not really a criticism of Stewart’s abilities as either a writer or an artist; it’s simply that I’ve discovered graphic novels are not my thing.
Sometimes a book teaches you something unexpected. In this case, it taught me that I don’t like graphic novels.
This was my first proper venture into the graphic novel genre and, having dipped my toes in the water, I can safely say it isn’t for me.
Lizzy Stewart is clearly a talented illustrator, but I never felt the drawings added anything to the story. If anything, they kept pulling me out of it. Rather than becoming immersed in the novel, I found myself flicking between text and artwork in a way that reminded me of reading comics as a child.
For me, one of the great pleasures of reading a well-written novel is that the words become pictures in your own mind. Every reader imagines the characters, the settings and the emotions slightly differently. Here, those images were supplied for me, and I realised I would much rather have created them myself.
The story itself has potential, but I never connected with it because the format constantly distracted me. That’s not really a criticism of Stewart’s abilities as either a writer or an artist; it’s simply that I’ve discovered graphic novels are not my thing.
Sometimes a book teaches you something unexpected. In this case, it taught me that I don’t like graphic novels.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Sumptuous, complex, and so very human. This is what graphic novels were meant for.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Utterly beautiful and heartbreaking, sharp and observant and full of essential truths about friendship and love - I ADORED IT
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April 6, 2026Goodreads won't let me rate this because apparently it's not out yet (never mind I have a hardback from Waterstones), but it's 5 stars.
April 19, 2026
Magnificent.
I really think a good graphic novel can’t be beaten.
I really think a good graphic novel can’t be beaten.
April 19, 2026
complex and messy and fun, with so much depth. loved the layer of meaning the illustrations added
April 20, 2026
OBSESSED. LOVE LOVE LOVE. this has really opened my eyes to this type of work !!!!
cannot rate enough
cannot rate enough
April 21, 2026
Essential reading, no matter if you dont reach for graphic novels. I loved it.
April 22, 2026
Oh my heart
May 6, 2026
I adored this. So many searing reflections on class, love and friendship. So much to love here.
May 9, 2026
Soo good. Gone and bought everything else by her. So well written I coudnt stop once started reading.
May 15, 2026
5🌟 I love a slow burn / morally complex storyline and characters. Will be talking about this for the forseeable future. Beautiful story and the addition of the illustrations: chef's kiss!
May 16, 2026
Truly beautiful, a shimmering example of just how powerful the interlacing of prose and illustration can be.
A treasure of a novel.
A treasure of a novel.
June 15, 2026
I can't fully express how much I loved this book. I fell in love with the clearly defined characters and adore the swapping between graphic novel and novel. I thought it was perfect.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews