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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
3.5/5 stars!
CW: school shootings, gun violence, death, murder, PTSD, stalking
I at a young age participated in a classic nerd activity known as "Battle of the Books". I don't know if this is a universal book reader term, or if it's like a Canada thing so I'll explain. You essentially memorize book titles, their summaries, authors and other books the author has written, and go head to head against other schools for a competition to the death.
One category that was always focused on was the Red Maple nominees, which is basically the YA fiction award in Canada. As this book was one of the nominations, it went around EVERYWHERE. The book had like a one-year hold list(which was stupid since the voting was in like a month from the time my school library got it)
Therefore since my patience and attention span lasts longer than the time it took me to write to this point( I kid you not, I went pee right after I wrote the first sentence in the second paragraph-- tmi, yeah ok I see that...)I shrugged this book off and told myself it was probably shit and that no one liked it anyway. Well, guess what? Not a single person I knew disliked this book when they read it. And so that's the story of how my stubborn petty ass failed to read a book for four years because I couldn't read a book after the crowd as my twelve-year-old self, that was BRUTAL.
So, when I saw this at my high school library(where ironically fewer people are reading-- however somewhat understandable since we're all crying into our homework instead) I could access this book quite easily. Now I didn't LOVE it, but in this book's defence, I think I would've loved this book a lot more 4 years ago, but alas I share the realization I talk about a lot in my reviews; my reading tastes have changed because I'm getting old and cranky ;(
To start positively, I actually enjoyed the cast of characters a lot. We have Isabella; the Asian adopted "It Girl" who isn't as happy with her life as one would think, Alice a girl who has to live her life perfectly and maturely to take care of her younger autistic brother Noah, Xander a boy with a tensioned past with Isabella because of his stalker-like behaviour, and Hogan the "bad kid" who's behaviour is mostly resulted from trauma in his past. I can't personally speak for the autism representation(you could probably find an own-voices review if necessary)-- but personally, it felt well-done and non-forced. Noah was actually one of my favourite characters. His autism was something that added deeply the story and how the other characters interacted with him was really interesting.
These characters are surprisingly well fleshed out. Their inter-relationships with each other and well developed and their reaction to this trauma is unique, and realistic to their characters. They are multi-faceted and are definitely not one dimensional.
To add, multi-media books that are unconventional are rarely my cup of tea. I like your simple normal story but this book's media helped develop the story and the characters. For example, we have text messages, journal entries, letters, homework, and worksheets that added so much to the story and characters.
Unfortunately the book was not without fault; specifically the "twist"-- notice the quotations, because it was barely a twist. It fed into the stereotypes that exist with school shooters and it honestly angered me. I wish it could've been someone else, to just further represent that people are not one-dimensional and their thoughts are often SO different from their dialogue and look. What this book did, failed to show that, and fed into this belief that school shooters all look and are exactly the same. With these such strong and amazing characters I was expecting it to be ANYONE else but it wasn't :(
The book also added so suddenly. I wish we could've seen so much more of how this event affected our main characters and the rest of the student body and faculty. School shootings are not simply about the event itself, but how we recover after the fact and I think we didn't get enough to see of that.
I also wish we had seen the effect that gun violence itself had on the community. This book notably takes place in Canada(I think specifically some non-descript place in Ontario). A huge topic of discussion in the US regarding school shootings and even shootings, in general, is the prevalence of guns and the easy access that both minors and general public have, and this is one of the biggest reasons to blame for the spikes of shootings in the US. What can we say for a country where gun use is restricted and normally well controlled? Living in Canada for my whole life, I have never witnessed or heard of a mass shooting in Canada in my lifetime and shootings I have heard of(e.g. the Parliament Shootings 2014) are often small and few and far in between. The only mass school shooting I've heard of is the Polytechnic Massacre at U of Montreal, but that happened in the 1980s. The story often referenced that it's setting was Canada so the lack of this conversation and topic to be discussed was a bit disappointing for me.
Overall, I enjoyed Shooter, but I think it fell flat for me in certain respects. I would still recommend it if you are looking for a good book about school shootings.
CW: school shootings, gun violence, death, murder, PTSD, stalking
I at a young age participated in a classic nerd activity known as "Battle of the Books". I don't know if this is a universal book reader term, or if it's like a Canada thing so I'll explain. You essentially memorize book titles, their summaries, authors and other books the author has written, and go head to head against other schools for a competition to the death.
One category that was always focused on was the Red Maple nominees, which is basically the YA fiction award in Canada. As this book was one of the nominations, it went around EVERYWHERE. The book had like a one-year hold list(which was stupid since the voting was in like a month from the time my school library got it)
Therefore since my patience and attention span lasts longer than the time it took me to write to this point( I kid you not, I went pee right after I wrote the first sentence in the second paragraph-- tmi, yeah ok I see that...)I shrugged this book off and told myself it was probably shit and that no one liked it anyway. Well, guess what? Not a single person I knew disliked this book when they read it. And so that's the story of how my stubborn petty ass failed to read a book for four years because I couldn't read a book after the crowd as my twelve-year-old self, that was BRUTAL.
So, when I saw this at my high school library(where ironically fewer people are reading-- however somewhat understandable since we're all crying into our homework instead) I could access this book quite easily. Now I didn't LOVE it, but in this book's defence, I think I would've loved this book a lot more 4 years ago, but alas I share the realization I talk about a lot in my reviews; my reading tastes have changed because I'm getting old and cranky ;(
To start positively, I actually enjoyed the cast of characters a lot. We have Isabella; the Asian adopted "It Girl" who isn't as happy with her life as one would think, Alice a girl who has to live her life perfectly and maturely to take care of her younger autistic brother Noah, Xander a boy with a tensioned past with Isabella because of his stalker-like behaviour, and Hogan the "bad kid" who's behaviour is mostly resulted from trauma in his past. I can't personally speak for the autism representation(you could probably find an own-voices review if necessary)-- but personally, it felt well-done and non-forced. Noah was actually one of my favourite characters. His autism was something that added deeply the story and how the other characters interacted with him was really interesting.
These characters are surprisingly well fleshed out. Their inter-relationships with each other and well developed and their reaction to this trauma is unique, and realistic to their characters. They are multi-faceted and are definitely not one dimensional.
To add, multi-media books that are unconventional are rarely my cup of tea. I like your simple normal story but this book's media helped develop the story and the characters. For example, we have text messages, journal entries, letters, homework, and worksheets that added so much to the story and characters.
Unfortunately the book was not without fault; specifically the "twist"-- notice the quotations, because it was barely a twist. It fed into the stereotypes that exist with school shooters and it honestly angered me. I wish it could've been someone else, to just further represent that people are not one-dimensional and their thoughts are often SO different from their dialogue and look. What this book did, failed to show that, and fed into this belief that school shooters all look and are exactly the same. With these such strong and amazing characters I was expecting it to be ANYONE else but it wasn't :(
The book also added so suddenly. I wish we could've seen so much more of how this event affected our main characters and the rest of the student body and faculty. School shootings are not simply about the event itself, but how we recover after the fact and I think we didn't get enough to see of that.
I also wish we had seen the effect that gun violence itself had on the community. This book notably takes place in Canada(I think specifically some non-descript place in Ontario). A huge topic of discussion in the US regarding school shootings and even shootings, in general, is the prevalence of guns and the easy access that both minors and general public have, and this is one of the biggest reasons to blame for the spikes of shootings in the US. What can we say for a country where gun use is restricted and normally well controlled? Living in Canada for my whole life, I have never witnessed or heard of a mass shooting in Canada in my lifetime and shootings I have heard of(e.g. the Parliament Shootings 2014) are often small and few and far in between. The only mass school shooting I've heard of is the Polytechnic Massacre at U of Montreal, but that happened in the 1980s. The story often referenced that it's setting was Canada so the lack of this conversation and topic to be discussed was a bit disappointing for me.
Overall, I enjoyed Shooter, but I think it fell flat for me in certain respects. I would still recommend it if you are looking for a good book about school shootings.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
*I received a free advanced readers copy from a goodreads give away*
This dark story was beautifully told, and the depth of the character development was very impressive, they all seemed complex without becoming unrealistic. All teen issues seemed to be encompassed in this book from social awkwardness to the reality of teen depression, and a range of other mental health issues, and all of them were handled with surprising grace, especially considering the length of the novel and how jam packed it is. Its suspenseful, and emotional and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a thrilling contemporary or psychology.
This dark story was beautifully told, and the depth of the character development was very impressive, they all seemed complex without becoming unrealistic. All teen issues seemed to be encompassed in this book from social awkwardness to the reality of teen depression, and a range of other mental health issues, and all of them were handled with surprising grace, especially considering the length of the novel and how jam packed it is. Its suspenseful, and emotional and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a thrilling contemporary or psychology.
This book was absolutely capturing, a completely underrated book in my opinion! Fast paced, way better than some school tragedy literature I've read. If you haven't read it yet, please do. It's amazing, Caroline Pignat does some amazing writing.
2/5
It was okay, but the characters were a bit bland and typical. Not really suspenseful and shocking as the book should've been. And the backstory of the students just seemed boring as well, not a fast and interesting read.
It was okay, but the characters were a bit bland and typical. Not really suspenseful and shocking as the book should've been. And the backstory of the students just seemed boring as well, not a fast and interesting read.
“Shooter” follows four teenagers who are locked in the boys’ bathroom at their high school because there is a shooter on the school grounds. These teenagers are together for less than an hour, but learn more about each other in that time than they have their entire lives.
I loved “Shooter” because I found it raw, exciting, face-paced, and emotional. The clock is ticking down to the final moments and not only to the teenagers have to cope with each other, but they also slowly reveal the real intentions of the shooter. It is compelling and, at times, heartbreaking. Just writing this review makes me want to get the book and start reading it all over again.
The characters do follow general young adult fiction tropes, but their stories are still compelling and relatable. I found that each character had at least one aspect that made them stand out from their stereotypes and become more interesting. The ending was strong, with great allusions to what happened that were confirmed a couple of pages later in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and cannot wait to share it with others.
I loved “Shooter” because I found it raw, exciting, face-paced, and emotional. The clock is ticking down to the final moments and not only to the teenagers have to cope with each other, but they also slowly reveal the real intentions of the shooter. It is compelling and, at times, heartbreaking. Just writing this review makes me want to get the book and start reading it all over again.
The characters do follow general young adult fiction tropes, but their stories are still compelling and relatable. I found that each character had at least one aspect that made them stand out from their stereotypes and become more interesting. The ending was strong, with great allusions to what happened that were confirmed a couple of pages later in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and cannot wait to share it with others.
A little confused with why maxwell did that stuff, but overall, it was good
honestly the only reason I didn’t give this five stars was bc it took me a bit to really get into the story. However by the mid point I was hooked. I feel like all the storylines were played out nicely and made sense. And in the end it all worked out in the ways it was meant to. And through each characters final big moments they were able to develop immensely. Give this book a chance!
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders
For what it’s worth I liked the point of view switching and how the use of journal entries, text messages, along with real life talking play the part in the story. At first reading it hits too close to home, but then it started to get into a very Hollywood ending. Making it to unbelievable. It was very average for me.