Deadly Wandering (Richtel) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Matt Richtel’s riveting book is narrative nonfiction at its finest.... This book should be placed in every school and legislative chamber in the country.
Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah


Americans are addicted to their technology, putting us on a modern day collision course with very real consequences. Matt Richtel brilliantly tells the story of the aftermath of a deadly distracted driving crash. His portrait is riveting. I could not stop reading, and neither will you.
Ray LaHood, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation


Richtel gives Shaw's story the thorough, emotional treatment it is due, interweaving a detailed chronicle of the science behind distracted driving. As an instructive social parable, Richtel's densely reported…compassionate and persuasive book deserves a spot next to Fast Food Nation and To Kill a Mockingbird in America's high school curriculums. To say it may save lives is self-evident…Richtel displays admirable empathy for everyone involved but reserves a special place in his heart for Reggie—impassive and forlorn, monosyllabic but tortured, evasive yet sincere. Shaw's conversion is depicted with revelatory precision, his epiphany realistically subdued and painstakingly gradual (An Editor's Choice).
Robert Kolker - New York Times Book Review


Keen and elegantly raw.... Not just a morality tale but a probe sent into the world of technology.... Richtel draws all the characters with a fine brush, a delicacy that treats misery both respectfully and front-on (One of the 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year).
Christian Science Monitor.


Each page is... irresistible.... A richly detailed and compellingly readable exploration of the "clash" between our brains and the electronic devices that, for many of us, have become essential to "every facet of life."
Minneapolis Star Tribune


Exhaustively researched.... Richtel brings a novelist’s knack for unspooling narrative conflict to bear on Shaw’s real-life drama (A Best Book of the Year).
San Francisco Chronicle


Intensely gripping, compelling, and sobering... A Deadly Wandering gives the potentially lethal risks of the digital age a very human face—one which we can, if we’re honest, readily see in the mirror (A Best Book of the Year).
Winnipeg Free Press


A deadly driving-while-texting car crash illuminates the perils of information overload.... The author’s determination to juice up the science with human interest...feels overdone.... Still...he raises fascinating and troubling issues about the cognitive impact of our technology.
Publishers Weekly


[T]he story of Utah teenager Reggie Shaw, who caused a fatal accident as he texted while driving.... [A] highly accessible and timely work. Readers of popular narrative and scientific nonfiction will certainly find this to be a brisk and important read. —Ben Neal, Richland Lib., Columbia, SC
Library Journal


(Starred review.) A novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter explores with nearly Javert-ian persistenceone of the early cases of traffic fatalities caused by texting while driving.... Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story (A Best Book of the Year).
Kirkus Reviews