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A review by sde
How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
3.0
It took me a while to get into this book and figure out what exactly was going on. I enjoyed the second half of this book more than the first for this reason. (And it is a short book!) I'm sure the fact that a school shooting happened in Santa Fe, Texas while I was reading the book hurt my enthusiasm for the book as well.
The author is good at getting his message across in a few words. We all get incensed about mass shootings and use the events for our own political ends, no matter the side, but do we really think about what it does to the people actually involved or care about them otherwise?
"Because people kept getting murdered in places where murder isn't supposed to happen, the president announced he was going to take a tour of the massacre sites. . . The politicians loved small towns. They thought all we did was sit around eating apple pie and waving flags in our churches. They didn't like to think about everyone taking opiates and working bad jobs and living in a constant state of fear. Their love for Main Street, USA, was malignant. We were dying and they were getting rich off of it while they praised us for our resilience."
And the main character talking to a reporter looking for how the event made the town stronger:
"'Do bullets make you stronger?' I said. 'Do you think it's better to get shot or not get shot?". . . 'Listen,' Artis said. 'People don't want stories about how sad people are. They want uplift. They want to feel better.'"
This book had a lot of holes and confusing parts. But the author is talented, and I think his skill will develop over time. I would read future books he writes.
The author is good at getting his message across in a few words. We all get incensed about mass shootings and use the events for our own political ends, no matter the side, but do we really think about what it does to the people actually involved or care about them otherwise?
"Because people kept getting murdered in places where murder isn't supposed to happen, the president announced he was going to take a tour of the massacre sites. . . The politicians loved small towns. They thought all we did was sit around eating apple pie and waving flags in our churches. They didn't like to think about everyone taking opiates and working bad jobs and living in a constant state of fear. Their love for Main Street, USA, was malignant. We were dying and they were getting rich off of it while they praised us for our resilience."
And the main character talking to a reporter looking for how the event made the town stronger:
"'Do bullets make you stronger?' I said. 'Do you think it's better to get shot or not get shot?". . . 'Listen,' Artis said. 'People don't want stories about how sad people are. They want uplift. They want to feel better.'"
This book had a lot of holes and confusing parts. But the author is talented, and I think his skill will develop over time. I would read future books he writes.