Reviews

If We Had Known by Elise Juska

canadianbookworm's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2024/01/if-we-had-known.html

kdurham2's review

4.0

Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

A book that is about a few tough issues, but because the author confronts them so honestly with fantastic characters the book doesn't feel too heavy. A shooting happens at a mall in this small college town and this book doesn't focus on the actual event, but the moments after and the years before. I think the author really put an emphasis on how people need a place to point their fingers for the blame and the finger can go in many different directions.

The main focus of the book is on a professor that the shooter had for freshman English and a paper he wrote. With the incident in everyone's mind this paper looks a little more like a warning of something possible happening in the future. And because of that she is blamed for not sending out warning signals and this sends her world into a tailspin. On top of that she has a daughter who lives with anxiety and all of these will affect her also and it is interesting to read from her perspective also.

ceroon56's review

4.0

So glad I spotted this on the shelf at the local library. I remembered how much I enjoyed “The Blessings” and I knew I had to give this one a read. The concept is so powerful and as a former college instructor my self, I could relate to the main character. College students are in such a vulnerable space in their lives and teachers can sometimes be the most important adult they interact with. It’s so easy to connect with the strong students, and can be so easy to let the weak students fall by the wayside.

annieruokayy's review

4.0

I LOVED this book! The aftermath of a mall shooting told from different points. It definitely was a gripping story and kept my attention. I didn’t want to put it down!

miss_cat's review against another edition

2.0

I wouldn't say it was bad, but... I was definitely waiting for the book to start getting good. The storyline read a bit like a rejected Oscar nominee's screenplay. I don't know that it took the main subject that seriously, just more of a jumping off point for other plotlines. Also, I'm an idiot so the varied narrator angle was a bit jarring for me, lol.

katherine_f16's review against another edition

5.0

This is a book that touched me because, like the main character, I have found grading student writing to be a heavy and emotionally taxing task. What if we make the wrong call? Are we then the ones that must bear that responsibility? What is the line between what should be red flagged and what is not? Before you read this book, it's important to understand it's not a book about a shooting. That happens "off stage." This is a book about the people who are touched by the shooting, those who held responsibility to "say something," and our human urge to point a finger of blame at someone. I thought it was well done.

jolles's review against another edition

3.0

I thought the premise of this book was unique and that's mostly what kept my sustained attention. While the mass-shooter story has been done and re-done in numerous genres, particularly YA, I think that Juska's focalization of the perspectives of the main characters did a really artful job of exploring the contours of these types of national tragedies and how they play out on a more micro scale. The book was a pretty captivating read and I found myself weirdly invested in Maggie--particularly in the descriptions of her life as a professor and how she views her relationship to her students. With that said, I feel like the book ended really abruptly and kind of sloppily. I was glad that there wasn't a happy ending--the cynic in me appreciates it when there isn't this forced tying up of loose ends, but I found the relationship between Luke and Anna rather trite and found the last ~40 pages devoid of the same verve with which the novel began. Overall it was an enjoyable, somewhat breezy read.

book_dragon88's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A shooting in a mall in a small town; four dead plus the shooter. An act of senseless violence you hear so many times about in the US that it almost doesn’t register. But what if the shooter was your student?

That’s what happens to Maggie Daley, one of the two main characters of this book. She had Nathan Dugan in her class four years before and thought him detached, aloof, even weird. Did she miss something? Could she have done more for him? Could she have prevented this tragedy?

And then there’s Maggie’s daughter Anna - scared, sensitive to a fault, recovering from anorexia and an anxiety disorder. She can’t stop thinking about the shooting, can’t stop thinking about being trapped, can’t escape the notoriety thrust upon her mother by another ex-student’s Facebook post. Will she hold on or will she slip back into her illness?

This book was well-written and engaging, told from the perspectives of a number of characters, many of them well-rounded and interesting to get to know. I also liked how the author chose to focus not on the shooter or his victims but on the rest of the community. After all, victims and perpetrators don’t live in a vacuum and one person’s actions touch multitudes. And when things like these happen, it’s easy to wonder if we missed something, if we should have seen it coming, if there was a bend in the road, a tiny, insignificant moment that pushed someone over the edge.

Anna’s storyline was also very interesting and I thought it portrayed fairly faithfully how easy it is to slip back into unhealthy habits, how your mind can turn into your enemy, and your thoughts can haunt you at all hours. However, it almost felt detached from the main storyline, or at times attached to it in a way that felt forced, and that’s the reason why I am not giving it a full 4 stars.

Still, it was definitely a good read and one I recommend.

 

terib's review against another edition

3.0

I can’t say it was bad but it seemed superficial. And lots of convenient twists with characters.

barbycianc's review

dark inspiring medium-paced

4.0