Oliver Loving has been kept alive by machines since the night of a school shooting a decade before, left in a completely paralytic state. When a new test shows some brain activity, hope is offered to his family. Over the years they have fallen apart from one another but the chance to have a new start brings them together, to Oliver's bedside.
Reading this in the wake of yet another US school shooting, the subject matter feels incredibly and sadly current. The townspeople still wonder why the shooter, who committed suicide after killing four and injuring Oliver, did such a terrible thing. Some will want this book to have answered the bigger question - why are school shootings so commonplace in America. That really isn't the purpose of the novel at all - this is about the aftermath of a tragic event seen through the eyes of a particular family.
Over the course of the novel some answers were uncovered but the strength of this book is in the Loving family. There are some terribly sad moments, but I felt that the book finished on a hopeful note.
Reading this in the wake of yet another US school shooting, the subject matter feels incredibly and sadly current. The townspeople still wonder why the shooter, who committed suicide after killing four and injuring Oliver, did such a terrible thing. Some will want this book to have answered the bigger question - why are school shootings so commonplace in America. That really isn't the purpose of the novel at all - this is about the aftermath of a tragic event seen through the eyes of a particular family.
Over the course of the novel some answers were uncovered but the strength of this book is in the Loving family. There are some terribly sad moments, but I felt that the book finished on a hopeful note.