How We Ricochet is a timely YA piece about a family dealing with the aftermath of being present at a mass shooting at a mall. This mother and two daughters are going about their lives and suddenly they are forced to face their own mortality. This leaves them each spinning in wildly different directions. Mom becomes an anti-gun activist, Joy becomes a complete shut-in masking her fears with substances and Betty, our main character, finds herself drawn to the brother of the shooter. Each are trying to understand what happened, why them and how to cope with grief and survivor’s guilt. I thought this was really well thought out, we saw lots of different perspectives of coping with fear and grief as well as some teen angst and adult denial. I really loved the three different perspectives because they each were equal measures rational and irrational.
This is a quick read but certainly not an easy one. I want to say today’s teens live in a different world but frankly Columbine happened when I was in high school and that was literally decades ago, so unfortunately, the world feels like it’s just repeating itself over and over leaving more victims of grief. This one will definitely tug on your heart and give you plenty to think about.
Thanks to Harper Teen for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.
How do you deal with grief?
openmypages 