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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Trigger warnings: school shooting, violence, mentions of death, agression against an autistic character
4 ⭐️
This is a story about stereotypical teens: the queen bee, the dangerous guy nobody wants to cross, the loner, the invisible girl and the high needs boy who can become violent at a moment's notice. Except they aren't exactly stereotypes: the queen bee has to work harder than anyone else to keep up with expectations, the dangerous guy constantly hears the voice of his dead brother bullying him, the loner doesn't understand social situations, the invisible girl will always put the needs of her brother before hers, and the high needs boy isn't violent, he's autistic.
A lot of this novel is about the characters and who they really are vs how others see them. Which is probably why the first half seems so slow. You don't really feel the urgency of the shooter in the school until the halfway mark or so. You get attached to the characters, but every once in a while you turn a page and it's the countdown and you remember they're supposed to be in grave danger, but you don't really feel any of it.
But then, it really becomes a race against time. Because not only is there a shoot in the school, one of those characters know him personally. And even worse, the little group discover his plan is far more sinister than shooting up random people.
You can tell Caroline Pignat did her research and that she works in a school. This book was well planned, the characters fleshed out and the action resembling a real school shooting situation. Even the newspaper article and the picture of the grave at the end are close to reality.
Like any book about a school shooting, it's not an easy read. The shooter is named, he's an actual character with a plan and a mind that we get to see a peek of through his "friend's" story. I wouldn't recommend it to victims of school shootings. But it's a damn good book and you should read it if you're alright with the topic.
4 ⭐️
This is a story about stereotypical teens: the queen bee, the dangerous guy nobody wants to cross, the loner, the invisible girl and the high needs boy who can become violent at a moment's notice. Except they aren't exactly stereotypes: the queen bee has to work harder than anyone else to keep up with expectations, the dangerous guy constantly hears the voice of his dead brother bullying him, the loner doesn't understand social situations, the invisible girl will always put the needs of her brother before hers, and the high needs boy isn't violent, he's autistic.
A lot of this novel is about the characters and who they really are vs how others see them. Which is probably why the first half seems so slow. You don't really feel the urgency of the shooter in the school until the halfway mark or so. You get attached to the characters, but every once in a while you turn a page and it's the countdown and you remember they're supposed to be in grave danger, but you don't really feel any of it.
But then, it really becomes a race against time. Because not only is there a shoot in the school, one of those characters know him personally. And even worse, the little group discover his plan is far more sinister than shooting up random people.
You can tell Caroline Pignat did her research and that she works in a school. This book was well planned, the characters fleshed out and the action resembling a real school shooting situation. Even the newspaper article and the picture of the grave at the end are close to reality.
Like any book about a school shooting, it's not an easy read. The shooter is named, he's an actual character with a plan and a mind that we get to see a peek of through his "friend's" story. I wouldn't recommend it to victims of school shootings. But it's a damn good book and you should read it if you're alright with the topic.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
POPSUGAR 2018 READING CHALLENGE: A book by a local author
Caroline Kepnes grew up in my hometown and still lives there and works as a teacher. So it was pretty great to read a book that so obviously takes place in a high school in that city. Some of the characters are in a course called "Writer's Craft", and I took that course in high school, myself. The characters are talking about getting accepted to different university programs, and they're all Canadian universities. One character even got rejected from the university I attend. So the local factor won this book some points in my book.
I did enjoy this, but I think it's inaccurate to say that this book is about a school shooting. Instead, the shooter and the lockdown act as the mechanisms to get these five characters in a bathroom together, who would otherwise likely never all be in the same room. So it's a bit a bit of a character study in that sense. And it worked. The characters were all very interesting in their own ways. We get narration from all of them, as well as some text messages and class assignments and the like. One criticism I have is that the narrative voices were not very distinct. It was easy to forget who was narrating a given chapter. Still, it was interesting to learn a little bit more of each of the characters as the story went on, and there was even a sweet little romance that started to blossom.
One final complaint is that I think this story could have gone deeper, especially when it came to the shooter. His motivations were never super clear to me. And given the fact that school shootings are so common (particularly in the United States), I think the author could have portrayed the shooter more accurately, instead of as a boy who idolizes supervillains and committed increasingly escalating pranks until a shooting was the next logical step.
So if you read this book, read it for the 5 main characters, their back stories, and their interactions.
Caroline Kepnes grew up in my hometown and still lives there and works as a teacher. So it was pretty great to read a book that so obviously takes place in a high school in that city. Some of the characters are in a course called "Writer's Craft", and I took that course in high school, myself. The characters are talking about getting accepted to different university programs, and they're all Canadian universities. One character even got rejected from the university I attend. So the local factor won this book some points in my book.
I did enjoy this, but I think it's inaccurate to say that this book is about a school shooting. Instead, the shooter and the lockdown act as the mechanisms to get these five characters in a bathroom together, who would otherwise likely never all be in the same room. So it's a bit a bit of a character study in that sense. And it worked. The characters were all very interesting in their own ways. We get narration from all of them, as well as some text messages and class assignments and the like. One criticism I have is that the narrative voices were not very distinct. It was easy to forget who was narrating a given chapter. Still, it was interesting to learn a little bit more of each of the characters as the story went on, and there was even a sweet little romance that started to blossom.
One final complaint is that I think this story could have gone deeper, especially when it came to the shooter. His motivations were never super clear to me. And given the fact that school shootings are so common (particularly in the United States), I think the author could have portrayed the shooter more accurately, instead of as a boy who idolizes supervillains and committed increasingly escalating pranks until a shooting was the next logical step.
So if you read this book, read it for the 5 main characters, their back stories, and their interactions.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not my cup of tea, but then again I just don't like books that are overly realistic
I won this book at an author event last year, but held off reading it until I was done with school (for maybe obvious reasons). I read the entire thing today in one sitting. I really enjoyed all of the different characters, and how unique all of their stories and voices were. It added another layer of realism to me that it took place in Ottawa, especially with how rural the school was. I feel very lucky to have won this book as well as meet the author!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was okay. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t have that wow factor. I felt that the students did not act like they were in a serious lockdown even after they learned it was. The book describes itself as a “modern-day Breakfast Club” but it certainly was not. The characters that were supposed to be unique and different were disturbing and odd. This is not he way a lockdown would happen and this is certainly not how security works at a school. Events like these are hard to write and only highly skilled authors can write and digest the properly. This just wasn’t the case. It was a good story but it wasn’t accurate and it just didn’t capture the reader’s attention the way it should have.
I LOVED IT! It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time, and the writing was too detailed, and I would definitely recommend it. Read the rest of my review on www.wordpress.com/readingonastar
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes