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carolineinthelibrary's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t even want to say what this book is about because it would be so easy to just keep going and spoil the whole thing but know that you need to read this book. Tom Leveen understands the complicated, multifaceted world of being a teen so beautifully. Hearing him talk about this book and the world we live in just made it that much better for me. The twists hit me so hard and made me want to reread the book so badly (something I never do). Highly, highly recommend if you’re a fan of YA lit or you’re just a human in general.
slove990's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mass/school shootings
tabatha_shipley's review against another edition
5.0
What would drive a person to open fire on a group of people seemingly at random? Could the action have been stopped?
I knew, based on what I choose to do for a living, that this would be a tough one to read. I read it anyway. It was so much more than I expected. I can't remember the last time a book brought me to tears; I don't cry. I literally had to put this one down to cry MORE THAN ONCE.
This book is SO important. This book is, unfortunately, relevant. This book is AMAZING.
This is a keeper. I'm putting it on the shelf. I'm reading it again. I'm telling you all to READ IT. I don't care what genre you normally read. READ THIS.
5 smiles because it's the max I give around here. A wink because WHOA. A tear, which you know is rare if you follow the blog. This book has it all.
I knew, based on what I choose to do for a living, that this would be a tough one to read. I read it anyway. It was so much more than I expected. I can't remember the last time a book brought me to tears; I don't cry. I literally had to put this one down to cry MORE THAN ONCE.
This book is SO important. This book is, unfortunately, relevant. This book is AMAZING.
This is a keeper. I'm putting it on the shelf. I'm reading it again. I'm telling you all to READ IT. I don't care what genre you normally read. READ THIS.
5 smiles because it's the max I give around here. A wink because WHOA. A tear, which you know is rare if you follow the blog. This book has it all.
michelle_pink_polka_dot's review against another edition
3.0
I decided to read this book well before I knew that it was going to be coming out right as another horrific school shooting took place in America. It seems like that might be the best time to read a book like this because it gives you insight into the issue. But honestly?? It felt emotionally harder to read this book as my mind kept drifting towards real-life events, and I just felt sad and empty.
Real-life situations aside, the book itself was good. I'm a big Tom Leveen fan, having read and loved [b:Party|6251198|Party|Tom Leveen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320459345s/6251198.jpg|6434073] and [b:Zero|10869590|Zero|Tom Leveen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333577993s/10869590.jpg|15784841], so I was really hyped to see he had a new book coming out. He's definitely a fan of the multiple perspectives, and I think this time he went a tad too far. I had trouble keeping them straight and I didn't think the voices sounded all that different from each other. Or different enough anyway. A lot of the teens in this book were younger (9th grade), and I did appreciate that they came off as young.
There were a lot of issues in this book, but unlike the too many perspectives, this made the book stronger. One of the characters is a cutter, one has a mom that is an addict, and one has parents that just don't "get" him. There's a suicide attempt, drug use, bullying, naked pictures, and sports & school pressures. It all kind of made for a pressure cooker that leads to a horrifying event.
The hardest part: You guys, we read from the school shooter's perspective during this book and it is HARD. You get to know him and his thoughts and feelings, and you're probably not going to hate him. I wouldn't say this book sympathizes with the shooter, but I would say that it makes it clear that it's all complicated. People who do bad things aren't always bad through and through, and some of them are people that are in a lot of pain. But being that this book came out so close to a major incident, it was hard for me to find myself having positive feelings of any sort towards someone who hurts innocent people.
My favorite parts: I loved Cadence and her ability to be positive and want to help people. I loved the friendship she forged with 2 troubled boys-- and they were better for it. I loved her ability to flit from group to group and brush it off when people made her feel unwanted. She was a shining star in this book. I also really liked the play aspect and wish that they actually got to put on Hamlet. It was cool to see how something like an after-school activity can be the thing to help someone who might be feeling lost.
OVERALL: This was a tough one. It's timely, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it's different for everybody. I love Tom Leveen's ability to tell a story through multiple people, but I was wishing there were fewer characters in this book. I did like reading about all the different backgrounds and issues each character was going through though. I cautiously recommend, but be mentally ready for this before you dive in.
My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books
Real-life situations aside, the book itself was good. I'm a big Tom Leveen fan, having read and loved [b:Party|6251198|Party|Tom Leveen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320459345s/6251198.jpg|6434073] and [b:Zero|10869590|Zero|Tom Leveen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333577993s/10869590.jpg|15784841], so I was really hyped to see he had a new book coming out. He's definitely a fan of the multiple perspectives, and I think this time he went a tad too far. I had trouble keeping them straight and I didn't think the voices sounded all that different from each other. Or different enough anyway. A lot of the teens in this book were younger (9th grade), and I did appreciate that they came off as young.
There were a lot of issues in this book, but unlike the too many perspectives, this made the book stronger. One of the characters is a cutter, one has a mom that is an addict, and one has parents that just don't "get" him. There's a suicide attempt, drug use, bullying, naked pictures, and sports & school pressures. It all kind of made for a pressure cooker that leads to a horrifying event.
The hardest part: You guys, we read from the school shooter's perspective during this book and it is HARD. You get to know him and his thoughts and feelings, and you're probably not going to hate him. I wouldn't say this book sympathizes with the shooter, but I would say that it makes it clear that it's all complicated. People who do bad things aren't always bad through and through, and some of them are people that are in a lot of pain. But being that this book came out so close to a major incident, it was hard for me to find myself having positive feelings of any sort towards someone who hurts innocent people.
My favorite parts: I loved Cadence and her ability to be positive and want to help people. I loved the friendship she forged with 2 troubled boys-- and they were better for it. I loved her ability to flit from group to group and brush it off when people made her feel unwanted. She was a shining star in this book. I also really liked the play aspect and wish that they actually got to put on Hamlet. It was cool to see how something like an after-school activity can be the thing to help someone who might be feeling lost.
OVERALL: This was a tough one. It's timely, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it's different for everybody. I love Tom Leveen's ability to tell a story through multiple people, but I was wishing there were fewer characters in this book. I did like reading about all the different backgrounds and issues each character was going through though. I cautiously recommend, but be mentally ready for this before you dive in.
My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books
snowbenton's review against another edition
4.0
Leveen does a great job of building his characters and giving them unique voices. It just felt too predictable, too stereotypical. But maybe that's just because gun violence is so ubiquitous these days.
imaginetruth's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Drug abuse, and Self harm
tamchronin's review against another edition
5.0
So. I finished this at about 2pm. It's been a good four hours. And I am still recovering.
I'm not going to give any spoilers. Instead, I'm just going to say that you should read it. Like all of Tom Leveen's works, this is a page-turner I couldn't put down, and time completely passed unnoticed while I was absorbed in the lives of the kids, and my own memories of what it was like to be that age.
It's a timely book, which once upon a time would have been remarkable since the subject matter is a school shooting. Now, it's just a sad commentary on society that no matter when this book had come out, there'd be a mass murder, a school shooting, fresh in our mass consciousness.
It's easy to be trite and preach down to kids when trying to teach a less on to teenagers in prose form. I've seen so many of those I hesitate to read YA novels about social issues, but Tom has never let me down. It's not about the lesson. He writes with compassion and a real feeling of "been there, done that, and listened to people who are in the trenches right now." He treats teenagers like human beings, not "characters" in his books. They're real. They're flawed. They're me. They're you. They're all of us. And we're all hurting, and all groping in the dark for someone to cling to, someone to save us, or someone to help. And that's what I love about his YA novels, every last one of them.
And that's why this one killed me. It hurt so much to read, but I've needed a catharsis since the last shooting on Valentine's day, and this book delivered.
Read it. Trust me. You want this book.
I'm not going to give any spoilers. Instead, I'm just going to say that you should read it. Like all of Tom Leveen's works, this is a page-turner I couldn't put down, and time completely passed unnoticed while I was absorbed in the lives of the kids, and my own memories of what it was like to be that age.
It's a timely book, which once upon a time would have been remarkable since the subject matter is a school shooting. Now, it's just a sad commentary on society that no matter when this book had come out, there'd be a mass murder, a school shooting, fresh in our mass consciousness.
It's easy to be trite and preach down to kids when trying to teach a less on to teenagers in prose form. I've seen so many of those I hesitate to read YA novels about social issues, but Tom has never let me down. It's not about the lesson. He writes with compassion and a real feeling of "been there, done that, and listened to people who are in the trenches right now." He treats teenagers like human beings, not "characters" in his books. They're real. They're flawed. They're me. They're you. They're all of us. And we're all hurting, and all groping in the dark for someone to cling to, someone to save us, or someone to help. And that's what I love about his YA novels, every last one of them.
And that's why this one killed me. It hurt so much to read, but I've needed a catharsis since the last shooting on Valentine's day, and this book delivered.
Read it. Trust me. You want this book.
sarahdworjan's review against another edition
2.0
Hard to tell if this book was making fun of itself or not. Either way, I think the author needs help.
acdom's review against another edition
5.0
I finished Mercy Rule almost a week ago and it's taken me that time to articulate my feelings about it. This book is Tom Leveen doing what Tom Leveen does best: writing in multiple voices about things that matter, not just to teenagers, but to everyone.
As a teacher, I try to avoid books about school shootings. There's no good that comes from me reading about kids dying. But this book was worth the stress and tears. The story is told from multiple perspectives, both students and teachers. Leveen has done a masterful job at providing reasons to empathize with each of the characters in their own way, even as the story barrels toward the inevitable violence. I have had every one of these students in class sometime in the last 14 years, and I worried about each one of them and what their outcome would be. I was hooked until the very end, and even when I finished, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I'm still going to avoid school shooting books, but I also am still going to recommend this wholeheartedly.
As a teacher, I try to avoid books about school shootings. There's no good that comes from me reading about kids dying. But this book was worth the stress and tears. The story is told from multiple perspectives, both students and teachers. Leveen has done a masterful job at providing reasons to empathize with each of the characters in their own way, even as the story barrels toward the inevitable violence. I have had every one of these students in class sometime in the last 14 years, and I worried about each one of them and what their outcome would be. I was hooked until the very end, and even when I finished, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
I'm still going to avoid school shooting books, but I also am still going to recommend this wholeheartedly.