A review by kellyhager
If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings by Loren Kleinman, Amye Archer
This is a harrowing and at times overwhelming anthology featuring people most affected by school shootings (survivors and parents of victims, but some teachers and a few others, including doctors. A couple were related to the shooters). It is not an easy read, but it is an important one.
The last shooting mentioned (the book goes in reverse chronological order) is the shooting at the University of Texas in the 1960s that left 16 people dead. It's this horrific event, obviously, and the next most recent shooting was in the 1980s. And then, of course, they became a lot more commonplace.
I haven't even heard of a handful of these shootings, and I would like to say how completely horrifying that is---that these shootings occur frequently enough that they aren't even covered, necessarily.
While these accounts convey fear and anger, there's also a sense of hope throughout, that eventually these shootings will stop. Several people mention the Parkland teenagers as being a real catalyst for change. We'll see what happens when they're all old enough to vote (when all the kids who grew up with active shooter drills are all old enough to vote).
This is so necessary and I hope it was cathartic for the people who contributed. I also am hoping that the editors are doing well; it was clear that working on this book was traumatizing for them, too. That's something that's not discussed, the idea of secondhand trauma.
Highly recommended.
The last shooting mentioned (the book goes in reverse chronological order) is the shooting at the University of Texas in the 1960s that left 16 people dead. It's this horrific event, obviously, and the next most recent shooting was in the 1980s. And then, of course, they became a lot more commonplace.
I haven't even heard of a handful of these shootings, and I would like to say how completely horrifying that is---that these shootings occur frequently enough that they aren't even covered, necessarily.
While these accounts convey fear and anger, there's also a sense of hope throughout, that eventually these shootings will stop. Several people mention the Parkland teenagers as being a real catalyst for change. We'll see what happens when they're all old enough to vote (when all the kids who grew up with active shooter drills are all old enough to vote).
This is so necessary and I hope it was cathartic for the people who contributed. I also am hoping that the editors are doing well; it was clear that working on this book was traumatizing for them, too. That's something that's not discussed, the idea of secondhand trauma.
Highly recommended.