Deciding to read this book was a conscious choice to be emotionally devastated.

With that being said, this book is a dark tapestry of real-life perspectives of school shooting victims and loved ones, and it goes straight to the core of a situation that most of us can't even imagine. Told in devastating detail, I devoured the stories of teachers, mothers, friends, and victims overnight. I couldn't put this down, not because I was enjoying the story, but because it felt dishonoring not to forge forward.

Should you read the description and still choose this book, you know, on a basic level, what you are getting yourself into. It is just as terrifying, shocking, and heartbreaking as you would expect. I would not read this a second time, simply because it is so heavy. However, I would recommend this to someone interested in the topic.

Well... wow...
I don’t often say this (and if I did, I probably never meant it), but this book is terrifying. I can usually handle strong, triggering subject matter, but when it’s fiction, or fantasy, or sci-fi, and ‘If I Don’t Make It, I Love You’ is the all-too-real world we live in as Americans, which makes it that much more difficult to stomach.
It’s a tough book to get through, if only for how deeply emotional and powerful and moving and horrifying and heartbreaking some of these stories are: survivors, friends, or family of victims— I mean, when you hear a parent talking about the loss of their child, it’s never easy. This book is just a harsh truth; a reminder that change needs to happen. The fact that school shootings have become this sick sort of norm in the United States upsets me deeply, but the message here is also one of hope for a better world, where gun reform prevents more stories like these in the coming years.