In #NotReadyToDie, Nova Scotia author Cate Carlyle has created a novel on a subject that too often is in the news: school shootings. The author manages to write a heartbreaking story, which is beautiful, poignant yet also sad with the action taking place in one single day. Told in the first person, this short narrative shares the story of a classroom of students, each with dreams, issues and personalities heading back to school after the weekend. The classroom is full of “typical” high school students: the jocks, the cheerleaders, the geeks, and those who merely just want to hide/exist. At the end of the novel, each character will no longer be the same person they were they got up that morning. Some will be heroes, some will become survivors, and all will discover how precious life truly is.The main character in the story is Ginny, a high school senior already dealing with her share of troubles and sadness. The loss of her father has Ginny rebellious and struggling to be strong, not always an easy task for a teen. Her only escape seems to be in the form of self mutilation.The story begins with Ginny hiding under her desk during homeroom period; a shooter has started a rampage at her school. As the active shooter is in the hallway, the class finally realizes this is real; it is not a drill. As the students come to this horrid realization, it becomes obvious that there are shooting victims in their midst. Ginny witnesses her “crush” Owen bleeding from a wound while huddling near his desk; a bullet has entered his leg. The substitute teacher, Miss Jones, who was the first to spring into action, quickly alerts the class, some of whom seem oblivious to what is happening around them; once the door is sealed, and her instructions to the students sink in, she suddenly collapses to the floor, alerting the class that she has been wounded.The narrative is told in first person by Ginny, who becomes the main voice of the story. Ginny is a very strong and determined young lady full of biases and misconceptions about many of her class-mates. For example, Ginny's misconceptions about the cheerleaders that she calls the “Barbies” quickly deteriorate as Ginny bonds with one of the cheerleaders, a girl named Kayla, in an effort to survive. This new friendship helps with keeping the classroom of scared teens calm, hopeful and alive. The students/teens are experiencing a life-changing day, one that could haunt them forever. In order for the class to survive, they must put aside any differences or opinions about each other and work as a team to endure this terrifying moment with one group goal: to live. The students in Homeroom “A” are “not ready to die”; that becomes their mantra as the sounds of gunfire continue in the hallway. The description of the shootings is not overly gruesome or gory; there is the mention of blood, and open wounds, but nothing that would make the reader feel squeamish or uncomfortable. But the author also doesn't minimize the tragedy or whitewash the severity of school shootings either. Cate Carlyle “tells it like it is”.School violence is a serious issue in today's society, and Cate Carlyle's young adult thriller #NotReadyToDie would be an excellent resource for classroom discussions around the topic. #NotReadyToDie may also provide some life lessons as well. Readers will quickly be immersed in Homeroom “A”, and at times the reality of the situation feels as though the reader is also on that floor under a desk. Although #NotReadyToDie's main theme is school violence, this story is also an excellent coming-of-age novel exploring other themes teens today are coping with in the society in which they live on their journey to adulthood: forgiveness, healing, self-mutilation, coming out, etc. Each individual student story in #NotReadyToDie is authentic, the lessons and growth they discover are profound, but ultimately, the characters (and the readers) are changed people at the turning of the last page.#NotReadyToDie should be a required novel in every high school in the country (and public libraries too); it is well written, humbly heartrendering, and reflective of the world teens are living in today.
2019-07-25
A school shooting changes dozens of lives.
Ginny is crouching under a desk in her homeroom, like the rest of her classmates. An unknown shooter attacked right after the start of school, wounding their substitute teacher and Ginny's crush, Owen, and putting the school on lockdown. As the hours pass, the Canadian teens from a town outside Toronto, all apparently white, struggle to cope. The situation makes Ginny, a cutter who began self-harming after her father's death, wish for a razor. But a new friend helps: Kayla, a cheerleader Ginny has always dismissed as a Barbie and who happens to have an uncanny amount of medical knowledge for a teenager who volunteers at a veterans' hospital. Together, they work to keep their fellow students safe until they can be rescued—but will it be in time for the injured? While Ginny's first-person narration and the Twitter posts at the end of each chapter help to build suspense, the plot digressions to Ginny's dead gay uncle, her former best friend, and her stunned realization about a classmate's sexuality dissipate that tension and undercut the seriousness. In addition, the clunky dialogue and short length do not allow the characters to feel like realistic teens. The treatment of sexual orientation in the portrayals of two gay teens, one whom girls try to "convert" while the other is outed by a gay peer, raises troubling questions.
A slight, stilted take on a weighty issue. (Fiction. 12-16)
