Publisher's Summary:
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?
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Hopkins again does what she does best--blending her style of prose and verse to tackle tough topics in a harsh world. With the rise of both gun violence and racial tensions the author endeavors to explore the lives of several interconnected characters:
Rand & Cami - Still teenagers, but married with a young toddler. Rand works himself to death to provide for his family, but a dark secret from his past drives his need for revenge. Cami loves her family but feels as if she's been cheated out of her youth. She has some dangerous secrets of her own.
Grace - Rand's step sister, deftly opposed to guns since her father was murdered during a drive-by shooting.
Noelle - Grace's sometime best friend and Cami's sister, who sustained a brain injury and other prolonged effects from the same shooting that killed Grace's father.
Daniel - Half Honduran, Daniel is homeless following the death of his father and the deportation of his mother. He has been the victim of a racially motivated beating lead by Tim and Silas. Needing to feel wanted, Daniel is depressed and too emotionally attached to Grace.
Tim - Daniel's half brother and member of a white supremacist group. He hates his brother.
Silas - obsessed with Grace and disturbed by his mother's new Jewish boyfriend as well as Grace's half Honduran boyfriend, Daniel. He belongs to a white supremacist group
Ashlyn - one of the only female members of the white supremacist group. She's also from a violent background, currently living with an aunt because her father is in prison for murdering her mother.
Hopkins begins the novel with a horrific accident caused by gun violence and paranoia. It is this act and the subsequent sale of a gun to an unidentified character which drives the remaining narration. Each of the other characters has the means and motive for possessing this gun. As the story concludes, reader's learn just how violence, guns, and hatred impact these character's lives. However, the story's climax is shocking and oh so sad.
The pacing of the novel feels slow at times and the characters are not as magnetic per se as those from Identical, Tricks, or Impulse. However, this is a topic relevant to our society today and needs to be explores so that teen readers and older can have a meaningful discussion about choices and consequences.
Final rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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