Reviews

That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

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pastelsux's review against another edition

5.0

Real rating: 4.5 stars.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, and it was a truly frustrating, anger-inducing, exhausting read, but not in a bad way. I already pretty much knew the plot, since the book obviously draws a lot of inspiration from the rumors that surrounded Cassie Bernall’s death and Valeen Schnurr’s survivorship after the Columbine shooting. But man, I wasn’t expecting this book to be as good as it was, especially at portraying mental illness and how difficult it is to survive something tragic. I wish they’d expanded on Denny a bit more, but overall I just really liked this book a lot. But I am sad that “school shooting YA” has become a bonafide genre now with books like this, The Lucky Ones, and Hate List. I hate that it’s become so normalized that it’s an entire genre that schoolchildren the same age as the characters are latching on to because no adults will listen or take their fear seriously.

ellethefantasyqueen's review against another edition

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3.0

Please check trigger warnings before reading this book <3 This was a hard read. It follows the main character trying to reveal to people what really happened in those final moments. It is definitely distressing and a lot of the characters did show similar reactions to people in real life. I think it succeeded at what it set out to accomplish but I wouldn't be likely to read this sort of book again due to the emotive material that hits too close to real life for me, nothing negative about the book.

peytonquar's review against another edition

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slow-paced

odeno's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

shona_harding's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mouwuol's review against another edition

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3.0

more disturbing than I thought it would be. It really dived into the horrors of surviving a school shooting. It does go into detail of the event which is going to give me nightmares tonight but I liked how much detail it went into!
Truly a disturbing read and it makes my heart hurt for all victims who have been killed and had their life cut short while at a place they felt safe at.

I didn't like some characters, they kind of took me out of the story a bit. I didn't like all the coincidences, it just wasn't realistic. I didn't like the romance but I loved the asexual rep!