Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Publication Date: January 5, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads | Book Depository
10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05
Someone starts shooting.
Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.
This book gutted me in a quiet and unexpected way.
The actual
story is told over the span of 54 minutes, yet there is so much history
encompassed in these pages; the kind of history that speaks to what kind fo
town Opportunity is, the legacy of its families, and, of course, the intimate
lives of the narrators of this event. There are multiple POVs but it was never
confusing and I felt like I was not only able to get to know each character but
really connect with them. By the end of the book, felt regret, mournful, and
relief alongside them- a rare feat for any author to accomplish, especially in
such a short amount of pages. I’ll be honest, I’m usually quite picky about
books that have a lot of flashbacks but this one pulled it off amazingly well.
I really enjoyed this story, not only because it was
gripping in a horrifying can’t-look-away kind of way. The author did a great
job fleshing out all of the characters and I wanted to applaud the different
representations she included to give a true multifaceted view of how all of
this came to happen.
There are tough themes in the book like bullying, abuse, and
sexual assault and by the end there is so much regret and heartbreak. This book
is dark, diverse, maybe controversial, and hauntingly real. A powerful debut by
Marieke Nijkamp, and one that has me looking forward to her future works.
