miss_cat's review against another edition
2.0
I wouldn't say it was bad, but... I was definitely waiting for the book to start getting good. The storyline read a bit like a rejected Oscar nominee's screenplay. I don't know that it took the main subject that seriously, just more of a jumping off point for other plotlines. Also, I'm an idiot so the varied narrator angle was a bit jarring for me, lol.
katherine_f16's review against another edition
5.0
This is a book that touched me because, like the main character, I have found grading student writing to be a heavy and emotionally taxing task. What if we make the wrong call? Are we then the ones that must bear that responsibility? What is the line between what should be red flagged and what is not? Before you read this book, it's important to understand it's not a book about a shooting. That happens "off stage." This is a book about the people who are touched by the shooting, those who held responsibility to "say something," and our human urge to point a finger of blame at someone. I thought it was well done.
jolles's review against another edition
3.0
I thought the premise of this book was unique and that's mostly what kept my sustained attention. While the mass-shooter story has been done and re-done in numerous genres, particularly YA, I think that Juska's focalization of the perspectives of the main characters did a really artful job of exploring the contours of these types of national tragedies and how they play out on a more micro scale. The book was a pretty captivating read and I found myself weirdly invested in Maggie--particularly in the descriptions of her life as a professor and how she views her relationship to her students. With that said, I feel like the book ended really abruptly and kind of sloppily. I was glad that there wasn't a happy ending--the cynic in me appreciates it when there isn't this forced tying up of loose ends, but I found the relationship between Luke and Anna rather trite and found the last ~40 pages devoid of the same verve with which the novel began. Overall it was an enjoyable, somewhat breezy read.
book_dragon88's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A shooting in a mall in a small town; four dead plus the shooter. An act of senseless violence you hear so many times about in the US that it almost doesn’t register. But what if the shooter was your student?
That’s what happens to Maggie Daley, one of the two main characters of this book. She had Nathan Dugan in her class four years before and thought him detached, aloof, even weird. Did she miss something? Could she have done more for him? Could she have prevented this tragedy?
And then there’s Maggie’s daughter Anna - scared, sensitive to a fault, recovering from anorexia and an anxiety disorder. She can’t stop thinking about the shooting, can’t stop thinking about being trapped, can’t escape the notoriety thrust upon her mother by another ex-student’s Facebook post. Will she hold on or will she slip back into her illness?
This book was well-written and engaging, told from the perspectives of a number of characters, many of them well-rounded and interesting to get to know. I also liked how the author chose to focus not on the shooter or his victims but on the rest of the community. After all, victims and perpetrators don’t live in a vacuum and one person’s actions touch multitudes. And when things like these happen, it’s easy to wonder if we missed something, if we should have seen it coming, if there was a bend in the road, a tiny, insignificant moment that pushed someone over the edge.
Anna’s storyline was also very interesting and I thought it portrayed fairly faithfully how easy it is to slip back into unhealthy habits, how your mind can turn into your enemy, and your thoughts can haunt you at all hours. However, it almost felt detached from the main storyline, or at times attached to it in a way that felt forced, and that’s the reason why I am not giving it a full 4 stars.
Still, it was definitely a good read and one I recommend.
terib's review against another edition
3.0
I can’t say it was bad but it seemed superficial. And lots of convenient twists with characters.
sus7's review against another edition
2.0
I think this book is well written, but that the story was told from too many viewpoints. I struggled to finish it.
elmgregg's review against another edition
3.0
An underrated book about what happens when your life gets wrapped up in the actions of a mass shooter. I loved hearing and identifying with Maggie, the teacher who found herself the victim of media scrutiny when a former student becomes a troubled teen, entering a mall as an active shooter. It makes you wonder how many red flags you have missed from the people you have contact with, and how you would handle it.
sharonfalduto's review
3.0
A tale of a mass shooting--or, really, the tale of the people left in its wake. Should the shooter's college professor have seen a warning sign in a paper? What about a classmate? how does this affect others? Told from multiple perspectives, this is a very interesting story about a very now topic.
atreenamedjulia's review
4.0
I don’t read a lot of “grownup” or “serious literature.” I tend to stick to my genre fiction like sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and mysteries. I’m glad I actually stepped out of my wheelhouse for this one.
This book was captivating. I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in three days which sounds slow but for me is basically as fast as I can read a book lately.
I loved that it handled such a hard topic with grace. It gave me insight to so many things like what it must be like to have anxiety or an eating disorder or how the mother of a mass shooter might feel about their children. It doesn’t blame anyone even if characters blame themselves. It doesn’t make hard political judgments. It just paints an elegant picture of the aftermath of such events.
My one complaint was the ending. It felt a little abrupt but it’s a hard story to end. I understand. Still I’m glad I read it and was satisfied with my read. Maybe I’m biased because I met the author at a book signing or because like her and the main character I used to teach but I truly think this is a worthwhile read. This is good fiction, folks
This book was captivating. I couldn’t put it down. I finished it in three days which sounds slow but for me is basically as fast as I can read a book lately.
I loved that it handled such a hard topic with grace. It gave me insight to so many things like what it must be like to have anxiety or an eating disorder or how the mother of a mass shooter might feel about their children. It doesn’t blame anyone even if characters blame themselves. It doesn’t make hard political judgments. It just paints an elegant picture of the aftermath of such events.
My one complaint was the ending. It felt a little abrupt but it’s a hard story to end. I understand. Still I’m glad I read it and was satisfied with my read. Maybe I’m biased because I met the author at a book signing or because like her and the main character I used to teach but I truly think this is a worthwhile read. This is good fiction, folks