A year later, May is the survivor of a school shooting that her brother Jordan didn’t survive. Zach’s mother is a defense attorney defending the shooter. Somehow, both broken, May and Zach are drawn to each other as they each try to slowly heal.
While this book starts off as just another YA with a pair of angsty teens, it becomes much more than that as their relationship develops and they both struggle to try to live through the past, not quite able to make that work.
Sometimes, when I’m in a reading rut or just not able to focus – hello four weeks of quarantine and counting – I like to slip some YA into my rotation. This one was particularly powerful in terms of the stress teens face just by going to school each day, even forgetting the normal crap most teens have to deal with. Having two young kids myself, whether they’ll have firsthand experience with a school shooting is always in the back of my mind as something to be worried about, and I feel that the author did a respectful and honest job in handling such a difficult topic.
Disclaimer: I received an e-galley of this book from Delacorte Press and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. It did not influence my opinion.