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A review by siobhancollierauthor
Once and for All by Sarah Dessen
5.0
I didn’t cry at this book like I did for a lot of Sarah’s other books, but that doesn’t diminish the impact of this story. Especially when it focuses on a topic that’s long been contested in America: school shootings.
Dessen does well not to get political or discuss the wrongs or rights of the situation. The shooter never gets a name, all the focus is on how a shooting in New Jersey could affect a girls states away in Lakeview, and it gives heart to all those scenes we see on the news, aspects of what it’s like to live on past such atrocities. She works this well into the narrative of weddings and what goes on behind the scenes, all mixed in with her trademark elements - including past characters, a setting familiar to her novels, a girl realising something fundamental in her life when she’s on the brink of college - which makes this story just as good as Just Listen or Lock And Key
Dessen does well not to get political or discuss the wrongs or rights of the situation. The shooter never gets a name, all the focus is on how a shooting in New Jersey could affect a girls states away in Lakeview, and it gives heart to all those scenes we see on the news, aspects of what it’s like to live on past such atrocities. She works this well into the narrative of weddings and what goes on behind the scenes, all mixed in with her trademark elements - including past characters, a setting familiar to her novels, a girl realising something fundamental in her life when she’s on the brink of college - which makes this story just as good as Just Listen or Lock And Key