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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really hated this book. I felt it totally lacked authenticity. I had to force myself to keep reading. I love K.A. Holt's books, so I was really surprised in the worst kind of way when I read this. It lacked urgency, my heart was NOT in my throat, and I couldn't believe she made an absolutely horrific situation seem like a joke over and over again. This book was a big disappointment for me.
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This story, told in a series of texts and app notifications, jumps into the uncomfortable waters of an active intruder in a school. As a teacher and a parent, it pulled at my heart and my head as I thought about how sadly accurate this is.
I really wanted to like this book. Obviously school lock downs are a reality for this target age group, so I was curious to see how this book would touch on the subject but it really fell flat for me.
I personally didn't love the text messaging format, but it was clever on the author's part to include notification blurbs from apps and such throughout the narrative. It just was lacking in substance. Ava, the main character, literally did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do in a lock down, which didn't add anything to the story for me except frustration.
Overall, I'm sad to say this was such a miss. The banter between friends was fun and we got pieces of other topics like divorce, but it just wasn't what I had hoped for.
I personally didn't love the text messaging format, but it was clever on the author's part to include notification blurbs from apps and such throughout the narrative. It just was lacking in substance. Ava, the main character, literally did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do in a lock down, which didn't add anything to the story for me except frustration.
Overall, I'm sad to say this was such a miss. The banter between friends was fun and we got pieces of other topics like divorce, but it just wasn't what I had hoped for.
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
fast-paced
emotional
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
While I like the idea of this book and it engaged me immediately, I do understand the overwhelming criticism of it. Ava, our main character, finds herself in trouble when a lockdown drill starts and she’s out in the hallway.
Ava manages to get into a classroom, and her best friend Char’s little brother Diego is in the room and has an asthma attack. Ava ventures out of the lockdown classroom in search of an inhaler to save Diego, guided by the help of her classmates via a school app.
Obviously lockdowns are an incredibly real and unfortunate event in our society right now. I think kids would relate to the feelings expressed by Ava and her classmates, but it may be risky encouraging kids to be heroes in a serious lockdown situation. Personally, I was a kid who would have been happy to NOT be a hero, but I also empathize with Ava’s dilemma. I’m torn on recommending this book, especially to the age group this book is recommended to (I saw 8-12 years old and while I think the writing style supports that age group, the characters are middle schoolers) but I did like it.
Obviously lockdowns are an incredibly real and unfortunate event in our society right now. I think kids would relate to the feelings expressed by Ava and her classmates, but it may be risky encouraging kids to be heroes in a serious lockdown situation. Personally, I was a kid who would have been happy to NOT be a hero, but I also empathize with Ava’s dilemma. I’m torn on recommending this book, especially to the age group this book is recommended to (I saw 8-12 years old and while I think the writing style supports that age group, the characters are middle schoolers) but I did like it.