Regina (Gr8Smokies) reviewed on 7/12/2012 + 98 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

This book takes place in Broken Branch, Iowa--a small town with a small school. On the day before Spring Break, a gunman walks into the school, enters a classroom, and holds the teacher and students hostage.

The story is told from 6 (if I remember correctly) points of view--the mother of students at the school who is recovering from an accident in Arizona, her father, who is estranged from her, her oldest child, a police officer, a teacher, and a police officer at the school. Some of these characters are more interesting than others. I found myself more interested in the teacher's viewpoint and the child's. Through the telling, you learn about the complicated family dynamics that exist among the main family.

Being a schoolteacher myself who has experienced a lockdown (although nothing even remotely as scary as a gunman at my school--thank God!), I was more fascinated by the way that the community tried to cope with the children being held hostage, as well as the bravery the teacher displayed.

This is NOT a story about bullied teens or disaffected youth shooting up a school. It is more of a mystery about who the shooter is (he is not revealed until very late in the book). There are no Columbine style multiple shootings either.

I enjoyed this more than I liked Gudenkauf's last book and I was kept turning the pages to see who the shooter was. Enjoyable.

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