aylexlove's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/injury detail, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder
kobibliophile's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
elliemay99's review against another edition
2.0
I just feel like nothing really happened? The book was fine but I didn’t really enjoy it, I’m not really sure what message to take away apart from…newsflash school shootings can really mess up kids. The characters despite all having their stories told felt like they lacked depth and the main characters theme throughout was just trauma.
I wouldn’t read this again and I’m also not sure I’d recommend it for any reason hence the rating.
I wouldn’t read this again and I’m also not sure I’d recommend it for any reason hence the rating.
bethanymartin's review against another edition
2.0
Can't figure out exactly why I didn't care for this much, but I think there are kids who will like it
bellanizzy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hannahreadslotsofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
That’s Not What Happened focuses on the aftermath of a fictitious school shooting and how the six survivors are dealing with it three years later. The story is sad, but hopeful at times. It shows an accurate depiction of how people deal with traumatic events and how we all need a little help and support from those around us. It also shows how stories can be blown out of proportion and can be misinterpreted by others and when the record is set straight, many people don’t accept this truth, which results to hate and violence. The book is good, but if you are someone who has gone through a traumatic event, I think this could trigger memories and feelings from that event.
taylorbryant1002's review against another edition
1.0
Have you ever read a book and immediately returned it?
Yeah. It was that bad.
Yeah. It was that bad.
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
School shootings are an all-too-frequent occurrence, as are the stories about the victims and survivors and their heroic/admirable/spiritual lives. This story about how something misheard, and attempts to correct the record, can go very wrong.
My mind went to some of the things that I've heard about some of the people who have died or saved lives and, well, occasionally I've wondered if we're seeing the real person. That's not to say that anyone is lying about their friend/family member, but in death, sometimes, people ignore or hide the bad or questionable.
Anyway, this could provoke some interesting conversations with students about the events and what they'd do.
ARC provided by publisher.
My mind went to some of the things that I've heard about some of the people who have died or saved lives and, well, occasionally I've wondered if we're seeing the real person. That's not to say that anyone is lying about their friend/family member, but in death, sometimes, people ignore or hide the bad or questionable.
Anyway, this could provoke some interesting conversations with students about the events and what they'd do.
ARC provided by publisher.
grace05's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
titanic's review against another edition
1.0
So, let's talk about this book shall we.
This book follows a girl named Lee, who witnessed her best friend Sarah get killed in a school shooting. After her death, Sarah becomes a martyr, supposedly standing up to a shooter and sticking to her religion by saying she 'believes Jesus is watching over her right now.' Which is all fine and dandy, until you realise that the author seems to have taking a large amount of inspiration for this book from what has to be the most (unfortunately, I don't know a better word for it) famous school shooting of them all. Columbine.
During the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, a seventeen year old girl named Rachel Scott was the first victim to die. She was shot four times on the lawn of her school. She did not talk to her shooters. But word went around that she defended her faith, and that's why she died. (It's not confirmed who, or if, someone actually did defend their faith that day, but the two more likely suspects are Cassie Bernall and Valeen Schnurr) but after the shooting, everyone turned Rachel Scott into a martyr, ignoring the facts, the witnesses, and encouraged this myth about Scott.
And this book pretty much copies this event. I was reading this book and noticing so many similarities between the Scott case, and Kody's fictionalised version and a few bits stood out. There was the parents making a book from Sarah's diary entries (You can literally purchase Rachel Scott's diary entries on Amazon), the book potentially becoming a movie (There's a fictional but not told as fictional movie about Rachel Scott's death), and the song written about her (You only have to Google songs about Rachel Scott and a whole list comes up that literally links you to a Spotify album). So I could clearly see that Kody Keplinger was potentially inspired by the Scott case.
But that wasn't my only problem with the book. The main character was insufferable. She constantly talked about having side effects from the shooting (aka PTSD) but the moment someone doesn't want to write a stupid letter about what happened to them on that day, she gets frustrated and mad. It took her 189 pages to realise that not everyone feels comfortable talking about the shooting. Not everyone wants to bring up that day. Three years isn't that long of a time to get over something so horrific, and scarring, yet she pretty much demanded Miles write one and got so angry every time he didn't want to.
Then we come to the most confusing moment I found whilst reading this book (and I probably went into to much detail and that's why I tagged this as spoilers). Let me introduce the characters.
Sarah - Martyr, dead, necklace believed to belong to her but it didn't.
Lee - 1/2 bathroom survivor. Annoying.
Kellie - 1/2 bathroom survivor. Not annoying. The actual owner of the necklace.
[REDACTED] - Shooter.
Scene: School bathroom. All three girls are aware of each other being in the bathroom. Kellie hears gunshots and tells Sarah and Lee to hide, to which they do in THE SAME STALL. Remember this. Kellie then trips, loses her necklace and hides in a different stall. Redacted comes in and shoots at Kellie and she's bleeding on the floor when Redacted notices the necklace, a cross btw, on the floor and is essentially, 'Whose is this? Ew it's ugly, and do you think Jesus is watching over you?' Now after this happened, Sarah and Lee, who if you remembered were together in the same stall, get shot and Sarah dies. RIP. Then Redacted leaves to continue shooting elsewhere.
Now, the confusion comes in, and I'm sorry I know I had a major build up before getting to it, it's worth it I promise, Lee eventually finds out that it was Kellie who was talking to the killer. And she says, and I quote 'I'd never even considered that it might have been Kellie's [necklace], even though she was the only other person in the bathroom with Sarah and me when the shooting happened.' So if she knew it wasn't Sarah who talked to the killer, because she was in the same cubical and literally witnessed her death, why wouldn't her next step go to Kellie? Because she's a goth and doesn't fit the Christian stereotype? If there are only four people in the room, and two of you aren't talking, I'm gonna assume the other two voices I could hear are the two others in the room. Yet the author made this into such a major mind fuck for Lee and for the life of me I can't figure out why.
Now I guess I should mention some of the bits I liked, which were not a lot. I liked that the main character was Asexual, although I hated how she got with Miles in the end. It seemed to just erase her sexual preferences (not saying that all Asexuals don't have relationships, it just felt like the author wanted to be appealing to the LGBT+ community whilst also pandering to the readers who enjoy girl falls in love with boy next door troupes). I liked that one of the main characters Denny was blind and black, and he was probably the best bits of the book. Especially when Glitter his guide dog was involved. His parts were just way more interesting, everything else in this book I seemed to read with a groaning, monotone voice but his had some oomph to it.
And so that concludes my very messy, and not proof read, review. It's probably terrible but in my opinion, so is this book so they're very deserving of each other. Have fun, and if you've read this far I'm sorry but that's what, three or four minutes you're not getting back of your life. They belong to me now. Unlucky.
This book follows a girl named Lee, who witnessed her best friend Sarah get killed in a school shooting. After her death, Sarah becomes a martyr, supposedly standing up to a shooter and sticking to her religion by saying she 'believes Jesus is watching over her right now.' Which is all fine and dandy, until you realise that the author seems to have taking a large amount of inspiration for this book from what has to be the most (unfortunately, I don't know a better word for it) famous school shooting of them all. Columbine.
During the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, a seventeen year old girl named Rachel Scott was the first victim to die. She was shot four times on the lawn of her school. She did not talk to her shooters. But word went around that she defended her faith, and that's why she died. (It's not confirmed who, or if, someone actually did defend their faith that day, but the two more likely suspects are Cassie Bernall and Valeen Schnurr) but after the shooting, everyone turned Rachel Scott into a martyr, ignoring the facts, the witnesses, and encouraged this myth about Scott.
And this book pretty much copies this event. I was reading this book and noticing so many similarities between the Scott case, and Kody's fictionalised version and a few bits stood out. There was the parents making a book from Sarah's diary entries (You can literally purchase Rachel Scott's diary entries on Amazon), the book potentially becoming a movie (There's a fictional but not told as fictional movie about Rachel Scott's death), and the song written about her (You only have to Google songs about Rachel Scott and a whole list comes up that literally links you to a Spotify album). So I could clearly see that Kody Keplinger was potentially inspired by the Scott case.
But that wasn't my only problem with the book. The main character was insufferable. She constantly talked about having side effects from the shooting (aka PTSD) but the moment someone doesn't want to write a stupid letter about what happened to them on that day, she gets frustrated and mad. It took her 189 pages to realise that not everyone feels comfortable talking about the shooting. Not everyone wants to bring up that day. Three years isn't that long of a time to get over something so horrific, and scarring, yet she pretty much demanded Miles write one and got so angry every time he didn't want to.
Then we come to the most confusing moment I found whilst reading this book (and I probably went into to much detail and that's why I tagged this as spoilers). Let me introduce the characters.
Sarah - Martyr, dead, necklace believed to belong to her but it didn't.
Lee - 1/2 bathroom survivor. Annoying.
Kellie - 1/2 bathroom survivor. Not annoying. The actual owner of the necklace.
[REDACTED] - Shooter.
Scene: School bathroom. All three girls are aware of each other being in the bathroom. Kellie hears gunshots and tells Sarah and Lee to hide, to which they do in THE SAME STALL. Remember this. Kellie then trips, loses her necklace and hides in a different stall. Redacted comes in and shoots at Kellie and she's bleeding on the floor when Redacted notices the necklace, a cross btw, on the floor and is essentially, 'Whose is this? Ew it's ugly, and do you think Jesus is watching over you?' Now after this happened, Sarah and Lee, who if you remembered were together in the same stall, get shot and Sarah dies. RIP. Then Redacted leaves to continue shooting elsewhere.
Now, the confusion comes in, and I'm sorry I know I had a major build up before getting to it, it's worth it I promise, Lee eventually finds out that it was Kellie who was talking to the killer. And she says, and I quote 'I'd never even considered that it might have been Kellie's [necklace], even though she was the only other person in the bathroom with Sarah and me when the shooting happened.' So if she knew it wasn't Sarah who talked to the killer, because she was in the same cubical and literally witnessed her death, why wouldn't her next step go to Kellie? Because she's a goth and doesn't fit the Christian stereotype? If there are only four people in the room, and two of you aren't talking, I'm gonna assume the other two voices I could hear are the two others in the room. Yet the author made this into such a major mind fuck for Lee and for the life of me I can't figure out why.
Now I guess I should mention some of the bits I liked, which were not a lot. I liked that the main character was Asexual, although I hated how she got with Miles in the end. It seemed to just erase her sexual preferences (not saying that all Asexuals don't have relationships, it just felt like the author wanted to be appealing to the LGBT+ community whilst also pandering to the readers who enjoy girl falls in love with boy next door troupes). I liked that one of the main characters Denny was blind and black, and he was probably the best bits of the book. Especially when Glitter his guide dog was involved. His parts were just way more interesting, everything else in this book I seemed to read with a groaning, monotone voice but his had some oomph to it.
And so that concludes my very messy, and not proof read, review. It's probably terrible but in my opinion, so is this book so they're very deserving of each other. Have fun, and if you've read this far I'm sorry but that's what, three or four minutes you're not getting back of your life. They belong to me now. Unlucky.