#NotReadyToDie

5 stars.
This is a heartbreaking novel, about a school shooting through the eyes of a teenage student.

Most of the plot happens in a day, where the emotional agony the characters were going through was making me cry. I have no words for this novel, it was raw, beautiful and sad at the same time.

This story is about a high school shooting that takes place in Canada. The story sets loose in the classroom, from the perspective of our main character Ginny, who when we meet her, is already in protective position under her desk; her favorite boy shot and bleeding & her teacher as well.
She flashes back and forth between her life, her morning, as she desperately tries to reach her mom by text.
It's such a relevant story, especially for us in the US, where school ONCE was a safe refuge for children no matter their home life, but not anymore. Now there are active shooter drills and the anxiety of my generation was the cold war (will we get nuked?) And is now is - will my classmate (teacher, janitor, etc) shoot me or blow up my school?????
The author did a great job of character development, including highlighting Ginny's narrow assumptive views of her fellow classmates. Ginny finds out that people are so much more than we assume they are on the outside - you never know what they've been through, or what they know, or where their heart lies. I think she was trying to show that part of our frustrations and hateful feelings towards one another in society stems from our biases and stereotypes. If we can learn to get to know one another and support one another, perhaps we would have less school shootings? Or at least we could get along better as a society. This book gave lots of food for thought along these lines... I highly recommend it.
This is out in October 2019 by @commondeer_press in Toronto.
Thanks to the publisher and #netgalley for providing an early reader's e-copy.

An incredibly emotional read. The character really caught your heart. Great use of tweets and texts, helping to really feel how slowly time was passing, and making it all feel very real

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Being fairly short I read it all in an afternoon.

The plot moved at a good pace and I liked the social media elements within each chapter. It makes it feel like it is happening in real time. The characters worked well together and showed that you shouldn't stereotype people. It explores relationships with family, friends, mental health and experiences around death. The story is both heartbreaking and endearing.

From reading other reviews and comments I see there is a lot of criticsm for not going further in depth into gun culture or the complexity of the situation, however, it needs to be remembered that this book is marketed for teens and YA. It is a fictional story to pique interest and for the enjoyment of reading, on this basis I don't feel it needs to go into specificities within the story.

4/5.

Excellent novella about a school shooting. The author puts together a very believable group of characters and moves them deftly through the day; some are cowards, some are heroes, and all are realistic in their reactions to being locked in a classroom with a shooter on the other side of the door. I’m anxious to read more by this author.

The cover of #NotReadyToDie caught my attention and the description of this story had me hooked already. This amazing story by Cate Carlyle really hit money because it;s dealing with real life issues. I think everyone should read this emotionally charged book.