Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

This brutal novel offers a minute-by-minute account of an hour during which a school shooting occurs (followed by a closing epilogue at the following midnight). Harrowing first-person narrations reveal the way characters try to understand what is happening, where they are in relation to the emergency, and what they can do to save those they love. Tyler, the gunman, is a former student whose twin sister is among those at school, but even she can’t reach through the wall of pain and fury, built up through flashbacks that show his devolution, that propels him through this bitter morning. The death count is high, but the violence never becomes gratuitous; Nijkamp wisely offers multiple voices that humanize Tyler, even while it is clear that whatever brought him to this single day, he is now monstrous. The occasional sweeping melodrama in the descriptions of hope and community will be easily forgiven, and perhaps even welcome, as readers will need something good to which they can cling as the book ends swiftly after the death of more than one key character. It is to Nijkamp’s credit that this book on an important subject is also readable, gripping, and well balanced.