ARC, 428 pagesRelease Date: September 4, 2018Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Read from: September 6-8,2018Stand-aloneSource: TxLATW: Racism, Racist Slurs, Gun Violence
For fans of: Novels in Verse, Banned Books, Contemporary
Someone will shoot. And someone will die.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins tackles gun violence and white supremacy in this compelling and complex novel.
People kill people. Guns just make it easier.
A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?
One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I saw this book on display at TxLA, I grabbed it. Where I work, my teens love her work and I thought it would make a good prize for them. But the I decided to crack it open and read it. For the most part it was good, but I ended up with way more than I bargained for.
I know in the synopsis it mentions characters who are apart of a white nationalist group, but some of the events in the book were just too much for me. The racial slurs and "hunting" trips kept making me uncomfortable. Very few things make me uncomfortable in books, but this is one of them. I do not like hearing/reading about hate crimes, and that's mostly what one of the characters thrived off. I also don't feel like September was the right month to release this one with it being so close to Hispanic Heritage Month.
The rest of the book was ok, I liked the way she tied everyone together at the end, and I liked the way it delivered the message, but I just don't agree with having that character being that much of the plot. I just couldn't get over it and it made me disinterested in the rest of the book.
DNF @ pg. 230