Multivoice narrative spanning a specific topic that relates to folks on a national level and those left behind reasoning the why and the hows of it. Not overly violent or traumatic and worth sharing with younger readers.

I was so very excited to read this book, and I'm happy to say it was worth the wait, and then some. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read and review it.

In "The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves" we pick up in the aftermath of a shooting by a humiliated teen. Ricky is lonely, gay, bullied, and recently humiliated by a group of popular boys, one of which he thinks is interested in him. It was all a prank, though, and Ricky takes a dark path of revenge, shooting and killing the leader and injuring his best friend before also killing himself.

The book is centered on several people that were involved in the events before and after the incident. Ricky's mom and sister, Alyssa, both feel loss and extreme guilt over what happened. Alyssa returns to town, pregnant, after escaping it years before. They both wonder what they could have done to prevent such a loss. There's also Alyssa's ex, Corky, who was also a mentor of sorts to Ricky. We also get the perspective of two students, Mark, the one that was injured in the attack and is haunted by the ghost of Ricky appearing to him all the time, and Claire, another student that talked with Ricky and seems to want revenge for what happened, as well. Finally, we get the story of Jeremy, who met Ricky on a gay dating site and talked with him in the months leading up to the incident. We are able to read chat transcripts of Jeremy and Ricky before and even the day of the shooting, as well as Jeremy's story as he finds himself going to the town to do his own investigation of sorts, as he also wonders what he could have done differently.

I really enjoyed the alternate character takes and the author's usage of chat transcripts and emails to tell the story. As sad events like this have become far too typical in our society, we always are left wondering "why?" Could anything be done? Did the victim try to reach out for help? If we had saw signs, could it have been prevented? I'm not sure the book really answers that question, because there really isn't an answer. Everyone is different and sometimes the signs are hidden very well. Still, the story of Ricky Graves here was very interesting to follow and quite sad. James Han Mattson has written a very good book on a tragic topic and I hope to read more from him in the future!