A review by book_dragon88
If We Had Known by Elise Juska

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.