Only Child

This unfortunately timely story begins with a mass school shooting, and is narrated by six-year-old Zach Taylor, who survives the carnage, although his ten-year-old brother Andy does not. The rest of the book describes in detail the painful stages of adjustment for each member of the family.

The author makes a courageous choice to portray the affected family in rather unflattering terms, which situates the story more squarely in realism. It also means that the reader must meet the same challenge as one of the characters in the story, i.e., to recognize that even those who are not saintly (but merely human) still experience pain and deserve our compassion.

Andy had ODD, defined by the Mayo Clinic as “a frequent and persistent pattern of show more anger, irritability, arguing, defiance or vindictiveness toward you and other authority figures.” The dad, Jim, wanted Andy to take medication for it, and the mom, Melissa, resisted. But now that Andy is dead, no one seems to remember how bad he was except Zach. As Zach complained after the funeral, no one talked about Andy like they even knew him:

"And so it was like everyone was crying and being sad, but not about the actual Andy, just a version of him that wasn’t the right one. It was like no one was saying good-bye properly to him.”

Melissa, going through grief then anger, has no time or patience for her son who is still living. Jim is not home often at any rate; even prior to the massacre, the marriage had been crumbling, in part because of conflicts over Andy. Zach wakes up screaming during the night from nightmares, wets the bed, and worse. Yet his parents’ attention is mostly elsewhere. Then when Melissa gets carried away with her anger, and “thunderclouds” take over their lives, Zach decides he has to take matters into his own hands.

Discussion: This distressing story shows only one slice of the Hell that families endure after a shooting. There are also families with members who were fired on but didn’t die; victims with injuries so bad they may never fully recover; traumatized people at all levels who lost friends, teachers, and coaches; and the recurring nightmares of those who hid in closets fearing for their lives.

But this is also a story about families in general; about how easy it is for members to lose focus and stop recognizing what should be the most important aspects of their lives. As Zach relays to his parents the messages he learns about happiness from his favorite books, "The Magic Tree House" series: “Pay attention to the small things around you in nature.” “Be curious about things.” “Have sympathy.” And last but not least: “Take care of each other.”

Evaluation: How I wish for a world in which I could describe this plot as “too unrealistic.” Given that it is all too close to weekly occurrences in the U.S. news, those not yet personally touched by one of these gun tragedies will gain insights into what the real-life impact is, especially the effects on children. show less

This is the story of a family, a massacre, a community and grief. [I will not mention specifics as I would not like to spoil it for other readers.]

Narrated by Zach Taylor aged 6, it is his take on the events of one terrible day at the junior school he and his 10 year old brother Andy attend, and how it affects his family members and the wider community in the days, weeks and months that follow. The only thing that is not addressed in the book is the ease with which disturbed individuals can obtain guns in the USA, something we in other countries find extraordinary.

Grief is experienced differently from individual to individual, and the author has captured that brilliantly. Many people do not come together in mutual grief, they are driven show more apart by their pain.

The author allows the reader some glimpses of what his parents and other 'grown-ups' are thinking and doing in the aftermath. Rhiannon Navin has written a wonderful book that deserves to be widely read.

I read it at a single sitting - could not put it down. It is a long time since I found myself on the emotional edge when reading a book, at times aghast, at times horrified, at times angry - and towards the end I was in tears.

BTW I think it was Linda Whitfield of the FB group 'Read Any Good Books Lately' who suggested this book - thanks so much Linda! show less

Every book I read and enjoy emotionally draws me into its story in some form. Whether it is through an increase in adrenaline or a sense of longing, great stories always push my emotional buttons. Yet, it takes a lot for a book to make me cry. After the thousands of books I have read in my lifetime, I would estimate that maybe ten, definitely no more than twenty, books have caused me to shed tears while reading them. Some books have made me feel like crying, but rarely do I cross over into full-on tears. Only Child by Rhiannon Navin is now among the rarest of the rare in that this poignant story about a little boy trying to make sense of his new world after experiencing a school shooting made me cry.

Only Child is a novel I want to send show more to every senator and every representative in Washington, D.C. because it would make them think twice about only offering “thoughts and prayers” after the almost-daily school shootings we have these days. Zach makes for a compelling narrator. The story he tells would make those politicians understand that gun control is necessary to avoid other children experiencing the same turmoil.

Zach’s world is so simple. He loves his mother and father. He has a love-hate relationship with his brother. He loves his trucks and his books and the little rituals that make his world safe and comfortable. He knows right from wrong, and he understands the importance of feelings. This all makes the confusion and fear in which he now lives all the more disheartening. He is a keen observer but because he does not understand the nuances of adult relationships he remains free of bias and innuendo. All he knows is how something or someone makes him feel; that is more than enough for us to understand the devastation among families affected by such tragedies.

For those concerned about the topic, the shooting happens off-screen. Zach is telling the story, so we only see what he sees and hear what he hears. As such, Only Child is very much an emotional novel, as we experience Zach’s fears in the coat closet and watch him wrestle with the changes in his parents, teacher, and other adults after the event. Later, we see him trying to make sense of his own roiling emotions as everything he knew as safe and familiar changes. However, as Zach is not a witness to any of the shootings, there are no violent scenes about which to worry.

What makes Only Child so powerful a story is the fact that due to his age, Zach is able to cut through all of the bullshit of being an adult to remind you of what is truly important. He can cut through it because he does not recognize it. His simple world allows him to remain focused on the importance of family, love, and support. At many times throughout the story, his reception of words meant to comfort him or put him at ease have the opposite effect. This has the chilling impact of causing you to pause and reconsider every single time you have ever spoken to your child and thought you were relaying love, comfort, and understanding when really your tone of voice and distracted manner said otherwise. Zach reminds us all that we do not give our children enough credit for understanding our world and proof that our children know us more than we realize.

Only Child is profoundly tragic and upsetting but not in the way one would think given the story. The school shooting is simply a catalyst for the rest of his story and its painful beauty. Zach’s continued innocence, especially after every parent’s greatest nightmare, is a testament to his fortitude, physical and mental. It is easy to fall in love with this very special little boy even as he symbolizes hundreds, if not thousands, of siblings across the country forced to endure something he does not fully comprehend let alone understand. Ms. Navin also makes it easy to forget that he is a fictional character, so authentic is his voice and genuine his feelings.

There is not doubt that Ms. Navin carefully crafted Only Child to avoid it becoming yet another school shooting story. Everything about it downplays the event to shine the spotlight on the aftershocks of it. It involves more than one heavy topic but Ms. Navin tells her story with such delicacy that the horror of the event quickly fades into a more muted dismay at the fallout of the tragedy. This care also extends to Zach’s voice, which strikes the right balance between age and wisdom. Even the cover, which I once thought beyond ugly, has meaning. Once you realize what that is, you realize its perfection as the picture that defines the story.

Only Child is more than a story about a family attempting to recover after a tragedy. It is more than the tragedy itself. It is the proverbial mirror held up to society at large to allow us to see our shortcomings within our relationships and interactions with each other. It is the cautionary tale warning us that we are losing the details when we focus on the larger picture and that it is the details where we obtain our happiness and peace. It is a reminder that the children really are our future and that we adults could do well to not only take care of them but learn from them. It is a story of loss and despair and love and hope, and it is so beautiful that it moved me to tears. show less

This story starts on the most horrific day of 6 year old Zach's life - with him hiding in a school cupboard with his teacher and schoolmates, while a gunman stalks the corridors.

Zach subsequently finds out that his 10 year old brother Andy was one of the gunman's victims and his family life is forever changed. While his father buries himself in work, his mother sets out on a campaign to try and get justice for the children who lost their lives which ends up taking precedence over everything else in her world. Meanwhile Zach loses himself in a world of imagination, drawing, and wondering just how to make his parents happy again.

For no particular reason, this is the second book I have read this year that is based around a school show more shooting, and it's something that is an all too regular occurrence in America, where this book is set. This book is narrated from Zach's point of view, which means there is a tone of naivety and the language is obviously very childish. I did find some parts well thought out and well written - for example, Zach's brother Andy had behavioural difficulties which caused arguments and difficulties within the family. However once he died, his parents kept saying what a wonderful boy he was and made them happy every day, which upset Zach because it wasn't always true.

There were other parts of the book which I didn't enjoy so much - sometimes Zach's childlike narration got slightly tedious and as a result of him being the sole narrator, I felt that some aspects of the story and some characters weren't explored in as much depth as they could have been. I appreciate that it was only telling the story from one point of view, but I would have loved to have heard more from the parents of the gunman, or maybe the teacher who helped saved Zach and other pupils.

Overall it was readable and there was plenty to like, but somehow it fell short of the mark for me. show less

Extremely topical and well-written book about school shootings in USA, as seen through the eye of a Grade 2 boy in the vein of Boy in Striped Pyjamas. The first page is brilliant with Zach describing his teacher's coffee breath as he hides in a cupboard with the rest of his class. Tragic tale in which Zach's brother is killed in the shooting which leads to a family in crisis - Zach retreating to hide in his brother's cupboard, a mother who wants to sue the parents of the shooter and a father who's extra-martial affair with the mother of one of his killed son's classmates comes to light when the mother kills herself. Gut -wrenching in parts, it looks at the guilt Zach feels over not particularly liking his brother and also the way the show more family kind of ignores him and his grief after the shooting. show less

Oh my word, Only Child completely captured my heart; I felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest, given CPR and put back in again leaving scars that will remind me of this beautiful book for the rest of my life.

Written from the perspective of a six year old boy who experiences the devastating event itself and the heart-breaking aftermath of a primary school shooting, Zach is a voice that I will never forget. I felt my heart squeeze as Zach talked about the sky crying and I almost felt as if I had to be strong for him, as I struggled to hold back the tears that kept threatening to fall. I don't want to write anything about the story as it could spoil it for others but I will say that Only Child is a book that is very hard to show more put down and impossible to forget.

I was reminded of the stages of grief as I read about Zach's story and saw how the adults around him were behaving. From the shock of the initial event to the anger as the parents look for someone to blame and the final acceptance as life goes on. I compared grief for an adult against grief for a child and although we think children are resilient and quick to bounce back, I think it was good to show Zach's denial and anger coming through. It's also a stark reminder that little ears hear a lot more than we realise.

I was so completely invested in Zach's story that I felt every single emotion with the characters in the book. I felt that Zach had a lot to teach us about acceptance and forgiveness but also that it's ok to be upset and angry. Zach's unique voice, so honest through his innocence, is written completely flawlessly making this a very special book indeed.

Only Child is an absolutely stunning book and I am completely astounded that this is Rhiannon Navin's debut novel. It's exceptional, outstanding, extraordinary, astounding...in fact it's all of the adjectives I can possibly think of and more! Only Child is definitely one of my top picks of 2018; even the coldest heart won't fail to be moved by this perfect novel of loss, hope and everything in between.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less

This story starts with Miss Russell, first-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary School, hiding her pupils in the classroom closet and exhorting them to remain still and silent because there is a gunman in the school. The children haven’t seen him but they can hear the POP … POP… POP of the gun as the he seeks out his targets. Six-year-old Zach is squashed up next to his teacher, so close he can smell the coffee on her breath: he is feeling very scared. When a policeman finally arrives to say it is all over and to lead the class through the school corridors to safety of the local church, he tells the children not to look behind them – but Zach does look and sees people lying on the floor, surrounded by lots of blood. He doesn’t show more feel safe until his mother arrives at the church but, after hugging him, her first question is “where’s your brother?” Zach feels bad because he had no idea where 10-year-old Andy was, he hadn’t even thought about him. When his father arrives, Zach and his mother go to the hospital to see if Andy has been taken there whilst his father remains in the church in case Andy turns up. When he later joins them at the hospital, it is to share the shocking news that Andy was one of the children who had been killed.
Through the voice of Zach this moving story deals with the after effects on him and his family of the shooting and of the death of Andy. It soon becomes clear that Zach’s relationship with his brother had not been easy. Although very bright and excellent at sports, Andy had suffered from ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) and this meant that he was frequently bad-tempered, flew into rages most days and was often unkind to Zach, so Zach had cause to be wary of him. Andy’s challenging behaviour also meant that, all too often, his parents often argued about how best to deal with him and paid more attention to him than they did to well-behaved Zach. Hardly surprising then that, in the immediate aftermath of his brother’s death, Zach feels relief at his brother’s absence. Maybe home would now become a more peaceful place, with both parents able to show more interest in him and all his activities.
However, it soon becomes clear that, as his parents struggle with their own grief, Zach receives less, rather than more, attention and is left to cope on his own with the effects the shooting has had on him, his growing realisation that his brother is never coming back and his guilt that he had initially felt pleased that Andy has gone. He begins to find solace in the secret “safe place” he creates for himself in Andy’s closet, a place he would never have been allowed into in the past. In there he paints blocks of colour onto individual pieces of paper and sticks them onto the walls. These represent his wide and confusing range of feelings and being able to look at them helps him to start to understand them. He also takes solace in reading books out loud to his brother, gradually feeling a closer connection to him; he begins to forgive Andy his hurtful behaviour and to wish that he had understood his brother better. However, feeling increasingly isolated by the lack of any meaningful attention from his parents, he also starts to wet the bed and to have tantrums.
This story captures, in a very effective and heart-wrenching way, the struggles experienced by a young child when faced with such a violent death. It captures the confusion of a little boy trying to make sense of a world in which nothing is the same, where even his parents seem to have become different people. Through Zach’s innocent voice the reader is drawn into the very literal, black and white thinking of a six-year-old, an age when adult hypocrisy is recognised but not understood. For instance, at the funeral service Zach hates the fact that suddenly, the brother who had caused such trouble in the family, is now being described in glowing terms! His difficult and confusing journey through the early months of grief is very well-captured but doesn’t make for easy reading.
His parents, Melissa and Jim, are not unkind people but are drawing further and further apart as they struggle, in very different ways, with their own grief. Melissa, once she emerges from the drugged state in which she was kept in the immediate aftermath of Andy’s death, is focused on seeking retribution from the gunman’s parents, whom she blames for not having prevented the massacre. Jim, who initially does seem to try to offer support, eventually takes refuge in the routine of his job, although it becomes clear that this is a defence he has used in the past when avoiding conflict about how to manage Andy’s behaviour. His parents’ reactions leave Zach feeling unsupported and struggling to cope alone with his grief, his shame about starting to wet the bed and his violent, out of control feelings. There were moments when his increasing desperation felt almost unbearable and I felt like shouting at the parents, reminding them that they had another son, one who was still alive! However, the descriptions of their behaviour capture their struggles to come to terms with their elder son’s death and, most of the time, tempered my anger with them. There is no handbook for parents on how to deal with the death of a child, especially in such shocking circumstances. It was all too easy to be critical of Zach’s parents but none of us can possibly know how we would react in such a devastating situation, especially when there has been such a degree of ambivalence and tension in the relationship with the person who has died.
By using Zach’s innocent but, in many ways, uncompromising voice the author was able to explore how easy it is to lose sight of what is important in relationships and how adults can all too easily find ways to defend themselves against facing a loss which feels almost unbearable. For much of the time I think she managed to evoke an authentic and convincing voice, but there were moments when I had to suspend disbelief at some of the sophisticated metaphors and abstract thinking she attributed to him! However, this didn’t really reduce the overall impact of her sensitive, moving and thought-provoking story-telling and she certainly conveyed a very loud reminder that we need to remember to listen to children!
Although the final resolution felt just a bit too neat and overly-sentimental, it did reflect the fact that grief can become all-consuming, resulting in a lack of recognition of the feelings of others but that once people start listening to each other, it is possible to cope with grief and the mourning process in a more positive way. The hurt doesn’t disappear, but it can feel more bearable if it is shared.
This is an impressive debut novel from Rhiannon Nevin and would make an excellent choice for reading groups. show less