Review Detail

As a teacher, this book scared the hell out of me. This is a constant fear when you work in a school, and it's even scarier because I've known kids like Tyler. That "nothing left to lose" attitude, the "everything was great until one event that, in retrospect as a 90-year-old would have been minor but as a teen seems world-ending, occurred" concept, and the drop-out who comes back (wait, no. That last one has never happened even once). So, in short, Tyler? Terrifying.

I also felt this book handled the social media aspects very well, although the Jay and Kevin thing I didn't really get. Were they ever actually introduced as non-digital people? I had an e-galley, so I couldn't flip back to see if we ever actually met either of them. But Mei's blog was touching, the conversation between CJ and her brother (or rather, his end of it) was well-done, and the coverage of the media being the heartless creatures who feed on tragedy was accurate and sad. Judging by her name (I haven't looked it up. Sorry), this woman is Scandinavian (update: she's Dutch), which means she lived through that awful island shooting in Norway. It was hard enough for those of us outside of Scandinavia, I can't imagine if it's your countrymen being slain like that. Except I can, I really and unfortunately can, many many times over.

I liked the multiple character POV, as this was the perfect story for that structure. I especially liked Tomas and Sylv's POVs, as I felt they handled sibling dynamics, redemption (Tomas being the screw-up turned hero), and teen relationships very well. Sylv and Autumn's relationship was sweet, and I felt that we're getting there on acceptance of non-hetero couples in schools. We're not there yet, and certainly not in Alabama, but progress is happening. This book had the forced checklist-style diversity that I usually find completely inorganic, and it still felt unnatural in the non-urban parts of Alabama, but in this context it seemed to work. Having the Arab (Afghan?) kid be a hero was awesome, the devotion to family of the Latino students was realistic, the disabilities were handled well, and the clique diversity was pretty accurate to a school that size as well. I also know she is a part of DiversifYA, so it makes sense that her debut novel would be stuffed to the brim with diverse characters.

I read this book in 4 hours, so it must be good. There were some kinks that a debut author always has, but she has a promising ability with characters and plot flow (never a dull moment!). I recommend this to teens and teachers, but I think it will be (stupidly) banned in some places because of the homosexual characters and the violence. Because why let our children read books about something they could actually live through and people they will meet and interact with? Let's keep them in a protective bubble until they're 18 and then thrust them out into the world completely unprepared...