By: Marieke Nijkamp
“Terror is our strongest force because we’re only afraid when we have something to lose – our lives, our loves… our dignity.”
This book was really good, but also really hard to read. At 10:00am, the principal of a school finishes their speech, then by 10:05am, there’s shooting. The doors to the auditorium are locked. Over the next 54 minutes, people are scared, people are hurt, people are trying to help, people are trying to get help, and people die.
The book focuses around four students who have to confront fears, and be brave. This topic is very difficult to read. I have children and this is one of my greatest fears. I remember so vividly Columbine. What the author does here is give 4 different points of view while the incident is occurring.
There were many victims in this book, so it would be hard for the author to give a back story to each and every one. However, I would have liked more of a back story into some of the characters and why Tyler choose one person over another. I guess what it boils down to, is that while we do get some background on Tyler, I would have really liked a final chapter from his point of view.
This author successfully creates so much tension and fear for the reader. While this particular book is a work of fiction, it’s so easy to place yourself inside the scenes as these incidents are like an epidemic. I was scared right along with the other students and teachers.
I did read this pretty fast because I did like it. Like I said above, I think the thing we needed was to tap inside Tyler’s mind a little bit more.
If you’re interested in reading this book, you can find it here.
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