(2.5 / 5)

A school shooting at a high school in Canada is shown from the perspective of one of the students. She's forced to think past her perceptions of other students to do the best she can to help others trapped in the classroom with her.

I didn't find very many redeeming qualities about this book. My favorite thing about the book was the way that each chapter ended with a tweet from various sources--usually either the local news station or one of the students in the school. I liked reading the updates as time went on (and missed them when they weren't there), though I wished I could see reactions from the characters to some of them. They were mostly removed from the narrative. The writing was clear and easy to follow. And I liked the relationship between the narrator, Ginny, and her mom. That's the extent of my positive notes. These are the main reasons I gave the book 2.5 stars.

There was a secondary main character named Kayla who, frankly, would have made a much better main character. She was compassionate, brave, forgiving, and had knowledge of medicine. I don't mean to say side characters can't be better at anything than the main character, of course, but in contrast, Ginny was judgemental, a bit harsh, and too often focused on the entirely wrong things during this crisis. The main character doesn't have to be the "best," but for a story to land well, it certainly helps for the reader to be able to identify with the MC...and I just didn't. Ginny spends the entire book calling Kayla by an insulting nickname, but it's okay, because she says it "with love" after the two start to become friends. Just...no. There are other things that happen with Ginny that either don't make sense to her character or are pretty big personality flaws.

And speaking of characters, the book is so full of cliches. In the classroom during the lockdown, there are only 3 main groups of people identified: jocks, cheerleaders, and nerds. I get the over-simplification of background characters in a setting like this, but maybe go against the trend of those commonly used groups? The main person who acts selfishly and is disliked by the MCs is a jock. Maybe change it up, make him something less cliched.

This might count as a spoiler, so be warned, but one specific thing that really bugged me was later in the book, Ginny makes a comment about one of the other students that leads Kayla to tell her maybe she should work on not judging people so much. After initially snarking back to Kayla about this comment, she admits to the reader that Kayla had been right (yeah, we know...considering that you have been calling Kayla, who is supposedly becoming your friend now, "Barbie" since the beginning of the book). Then later, when talking about the "jerk jock", we're told that Ginny prides herself on having a pretty good feel for people. Except she's spent half the book finding out that she's misjudged at least 3 different people in her class. But since we all agree that the jerk jock is a bad guy, I guess we'll let that little contradiction slide.

Here are a few other stray thoughts: From my limited knowledge, I'm pretty sure most school shootings are a lot shorter than the time it went on for in this book. The shooter weirdly taunted this classroom, which I never really understood. There wasn't much suspense for me, considering the final chapter title, the book's POV and tense, and the fact that I wasn't really connected to the MC (note: I am not at all saying that I didn't care if she died, especially considering the subject matter of this book). Finally, I don't think it would have bothered me to not be told the motivations behind the shooting if the students hadn't speculated on it so much along the way. Because of that, I did find myself wanting to know, which we don't find out. I know that the motivations aren't always clear in real life either, but this is fiction, so I would have hoped for at least a more definitive speculation from someone in authority by the end.

The subject of a school shooting intrigued me, which is why I chose to read this book. Though I know there are other books like this out there, I haven't read any. However, so much of the characterization was just so off to me, I had a difficult time finding it very much of an exploration into the minds of students in this terrible situation. I don't think I can come up with any types of readers I would specifically recommend this book to. It was short, so I really should have read it much more quickly than I did, but instead found myself stopping and going back to my other book that I was really enjoying, and it's not because of the difficult subject, but because...it just didn't hold my attention very well.

Thank you to Netgalley and Common Deer Press for providing me a copy of this book to review. ( )

There’s very little I can say about this book. The plot doesn’t seem to focus on anything specific and I’m having a hard time remembering anything about the flat-as-a-pancake characters. I do remember the bucketload of cliches the author tried to dump into the story, including a pretty-girl “Barbie” that turns out to be nice and probably the only smart one in the bunch.

Other than that, there’s also the typical romance YA trope of characters worrying more about their love life than the life-or-death situation. The main character is more concerned with her crush and prom than the bleeding kids around her. Let’s not forget that one of the students, during a SCHOOL SHOOTING, just decides to take a nap under the desk, or how some students were tweeting about winning a football game on Friday, during a SCHOOL SHOOTING.

I have to add, there was a gun drawn in my own high school during my sophomore year. Thankfully another student was able to grab the gun and toss it away and no shots were fired, but I remember the chaos and panic. This book is on the edge of being offensive to that experience. ( )

This book was not what I expected. It was a total let down for me. The main character was more selfish then anything, more concerned about prom and just criticizing everyone in the class.

The subject matter of the novel is all too real, because unfortunately it's sad to say, school shoots have become a norm for us, however this novel wasn't realistic at all. I felt like it was a missed opportunity that could have been bigger and better.

This is my honest opinion.

Rating 1 ( )