Intense, beautiful, heartbreaking, relevant. powerful and important. Thank you for this book about survivors that I didn't know I needed to read. Thank you netgalley!

Not for the faint of heart, this book details the aftermath of a school shooting and why someone was spared over another. It will rip your heart out. It feels like an extremely important message to be read.

This is a very emotionally charged story. It will leave you thinking about the characters for days afterward. Liz Lawson has written a story based on a school shooting and what happens after the television crews leave. How lucky are "The Lucky Ones" who survive the shooting, yet wake up every morning after reliving the event in their nightmares. How a single day can polarize a community and leave no one unaffected. Read this book and share it with your friends. It's worth a really heavy discussion at your next book club meeting.

The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson is an expertly executed standalone novel, focusing on survivor's guilt and the repercussions of feeling as though you are responsible for another's demise. I have never read a book like this. It is intense, emotional, soul wrenching, mind shattering, heart piercing, semi-depressing, and a complete sob fest. But it is also INCREDIBLE. It is so smartly written, so perfectly described (almost to the point of being suffocating), so completely unique to today's culture. This book is a POWERHOUSE, and (deservedly so) it is going to make massive media waves come release month. Absolutely everyone needs to read this book. No exceptions.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. This is my honest, unbiased opinion.

This was a really great read! I really enjoyed reading this book, would definitely recommend. This is a good book for all ages.

This is an important book and one of the first ones I've read that successfully takes us into a world broken in the aftermath of a school shooting. I've read several other books that broach the topic of school shootings from various points of view, but this book seems to have found a way to let the reader experience some of the guilt and responsibility of living through a shooting and wondering why. I happen to know someone who was a junior at Columbine back on April 20, 1999. Many, many years later and there are still remnants of emotional scars. Since then there have been literally thousands of students who have lived through school shootings. Mostly, society forgets about them, doesn't really consider them victims. But they are. And this book is a reminder that they are. I recommend The Lucky Ones to everyone. Read it.

May's twin brother, Jordan, was killed last year in a shooting at their high school. Now she's just barely managing to get through each day, her parents are AWOL, and the kids at school treat her like a pariah because she's just so angry that she has managed to push everyone away. Zach's mother is an attorney in charge of defending the shooter, and her taking that case has made his life a living hell. His girlfriend broke up with him, his dad is depressed and spends all day in his room in his pajamas leaving Zach to take care of his little sister, and someone has been painting insults on their garage and leaving threatening letters in their mailbox. May and Zach meet through their only remaining friends, and the two should probably be mortal enemies but somehow they manage to make each other feel more seen than they have in a long while. But will their survivor's guilt and the secrets they both carry destroy the fragile relationship they both desperately need?

This book was really well-written despite the horrifying and heartbreaking subject matter. As the author says in her note, this is the world we live in now where our kids deal with lockdown drills and school violence throughout their childhoods. And while the victims are usually counted as those whose lives were lost, the ones left behind (the "lucky" ones) deal with long-term effects, too. The story is told in a relatable, casual way which is a perfect tone for YA, but it doesn't at all play nice or try to sugarcoat anything. These kids are in PAIN, and that absolutely comes through, but so does the beautiful support that exists for them from friends (Lucy and Connor are the best), school staff, and families (although both sets spend a lot of time majorly sucking before they figure it out here). I also love the hope that comes through by the end and the message that living isn't a betrayal of those who died...it's NOT living that would let them down.

What a sad, strong debut by Liz Lawson!

**Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children's for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.""

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

“The fact is: I’m a SURVIVOR.
I’m the leftover.
The lucky one.
The only one in that room who lived.”

Pulling myself out of this book, the world seems like such a different place to look at. I was sucked in from the very beginning, drawn onto an emotional rollercoaster that kept going, even after the last page. I’m not sure I can fully articulate what this book taught me about grief, loss, human interaction, and our society in today’s gun-violence-filled world.

So what is this book about?

Nearly a year ago, a school shooting occurred at Carter High School and rocked their community and those around them. One kid entered the band room, leaving many dead and one survivor. That survivor is May, and she still can’t wrap her head around the fact that she survived that day when her twin brother, Jordan, did not. A few towns over, Zach is just a normal kid who has had to grow up too fast thanks to his absentee parents. The effects of the shooting have spilled over into his life as well, first when Carter was shut down and half of the school sent to his own, but even worse when his defense attorney mother decides to take the case and defend the shooter. Suddenly, Zach is a pariah and hated by proxy. Both May and Zach are tackling their own demons, and when they meet, they finally feel like someone understands how they feel. But young love can’t cure all things, and sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better and allow the healing to begin.

This story, by nature, is a deeply emotional and raw journey from beginning to end. Dealing with intense grief after losing her brother, survivor’s guilt, and more guilt of her own over how she left her relationship with her brother, our main character May is in a very dark and scary place. Anger has become a constant companion for May as she pushes back against professional help, family, and friends. If readers are looking for a touching journey from grief to healing that is full of hugs, therapy, and reaching milestones, they will not find it here. This book takes a hold of May’s darknesses and runs with it, pulling readers into her anger and guilt until it becomes a living thing. For some, this journey could be triggering.

In our other main character, Zach, we find a different kind of emotional journey. After his mother takes the case to defend the shooter, his friends, girlfriend, and community as a whole turns on him, subjecting him to harassment, vandalism of his home, and pushing him to isolation. Like May, his life has shrunk to a few (okay, one) good friends and senior year verifiably sucks. But then Zach meets May, and he thinks that maybe it’ll suck a little less with her. She should hate him (his mom is her enemy, after all), but she can’t and soon a friendship-to-maybe-more begins. They understand each other in a lot of ways, and support each other in others. Yet where other books may have taken this and run with it to a happily ever after of healing, Lawson knows better. What makes this book so great is that it never pretends that this young, teenage romance could fix the deep and raw trauma that our characters, namely May, have experienced.

Lawson takes May’s trauma and lets it speak for itself, showing a realistic and personal experience with PTSD that is surely happening to hundreds of thousands of Americans. In the Author’s Note at the end, Lawson addresses our nation’s gun violence epidemic head-on, yet it is the story and May’s experience that makes the most impact. As readers dive deeper into May’s story, they get to experience the real ways that her trauma has paralyzed her, from panic attacks in crowded places, fear of loud noises, flashbacks, and the inability to complete mundane daily tasks with ease. A very specific PSTD is being experienced by school shooting survivors in our country, and May’s story gives a look into just how debilitating it can be to move on with your life.

Yet this story doesn’t just stay on this one topic. As we go deeper into the story, Lawson addresses some issues and questions that flesh the story out and make the reader think. We see the affects that absentee parents have on children, we see characters that have struggled with addiction and others that have suffered from depression. We see what it means to let people in, even when it feels like the last thing you want to do. We see that grief can be selfish and messy and mean, and that it’s okay and not okay all at the same time. But mostly, we see that while there is no one road to healing, none of those roads can be walked alone.

If I’m being honest, I found myself angry at this book at times because I wanted it to fit in a box. Why was May being so stubborn and not letting people help her? Why couldn’t she see reason and start her healing when she’s been given so many opportunities? But Lawson makes it clear that this book isn’t about making readers comfortable with May’s journey, Zach’s journey, or anything else in the book. It’s meant to be messy and real and in doing so, it speaks volumes about journey that the next generation is going through as they grow up to fear school.

Reminder: trigger warning for gun violence, depression, PTSD, and bullying.

Do you like to cry? Well, then I have the perfect book for you! OMG this book. I knew what I was getting into after reading the synopsis for The Lucky Ones, but still...the sobs. This deals with an issue that I wish wasn't a problem anymore: school shootings. But it does so in an interesting and unique way. Let's get to the review!

May and Zach are our main characters and they are bonded in a way neither of them are aware of.

May is the survivor of a school shooting. She lost her twin brother in that shooting. Since that day, she visits the house of the defense attorney who is representing the shooter. She vandalizes it and leaves scathing letters in the mailbox.

She also happens to be finally going back to school after being away for months. But she's not going back to the school where it all happened. The administration decided it was better for the kids to go to a school where a school shooting didn't happen (ya think?!). 

May is not looking forward to going back and seeing everyone who bring up memories  of her brother. But her friend, Lucy tries to support her despite her less-than-friendly demeanor (can you blame her??)

Zach is the defense attorney's son. He doesn't understand why his mother is defending a monster and with his dad falling further into depression and his mom working long hours, it's up to him to take care of himself and his little sister. And that doesn't even get into the problems at school. Everyone knows his mom is defending a school shooter and it leaves him almost friendless. If it wasn't for his friend, Connor, sticking around, he'd have no one.

He's also dealing with "someone" defacing his house and trying to make sure his sister isn't affected by it all.

How do these May and Zach meet?

May's friend, Lucy, is a badass musician and takes May with her to audition for a new band. And the singer in the band just so happens to be Connor, Zach's best friend. So Zach and May meet at the audition and it's clear from the moment they first speak that there's a spark. They also end up having an awful drama class together

But, as you can probably guess, their relationship is no cake walk.

Zach is the first one to realize who May is and why it might not be a good idea for her to know who he is. But when their drama teacher says his last name during class, she comes to the horrifying conclusion that she's been vandalizing Zach's house all this time and that he's been lying by omission to her

But this story is much more than just Zach and May's relationship.

May is going through a lot internally and at home. Without her twin, she feels like there's an empty space in her life. Her parents don't speak to her and are barely home and she's also so completely depressed and angry, she finds it hard to function. It's difficult to really get across her inner turmoil. She feels like she's lacking and a huge disappointment to most people.

Zach is dealing with a similar isolation, but in a different way. He didn't lose a sibling, but his parents are often absent. And with his mom's choices, he lost his friends and his girlfriend (she's dating his former friend...).

Ok, let's get into it. This book. It's digs so deep into these two character's emotions it almost feels like you know them personally by the end. I read books for characters and The Lucky Ones is very character driven and extremely well-written. And yes, of course it's dark, but there are some light moments as well. 

The friendships are often where those light moment happen. Connor never gives up on Zach and Lucy (along with a few others) never give up on May. The way May's friends fight through her depression and anger made me sooooo happy.

And bookworms...there's a scene in a bookstore with May and Zach and it's EVERYTHING! Don't let the darkness surrounding these characters make you think there aren't sweet moments as well. If anyone deserves a nice, happy moment, it's these two.

The Lucky Ones is (sadly) a book that needed to be written. It represents an experience too many people have gone through and Liz Lawson did a wonderful job showing all the emotions a survivor of a tragedy might feel and experience. I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars. If you're looking for a book that covers an all too real issue or simply want to read an emotional YA novel, please read this book. 

The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson comes out April 7,2020

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House/Delacorte Press for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a tough read. Trigger warning, it deals with a school shooting and the survivors. Its a very emotional read.
We meet Maya who hid in a closet during the shooting but she lost friends, she lost her favorite teacher and her brother. Because she survived she is filled with anger and self hate and even becomes self destructive to herself.

Zach has a different tale. His mother has decided to represent the shooter. His loses friends because of her decision. the two of them come together and begin to bond in only a way surviors can.

Such a very heavy and heartbreaking book. Thank you so much NetGalley for sharing this book

One of the finest examples of voice I've read and a gripping, heart-wrenching look at the aftermath of trauma, THE LUCKY ONES takes us inside a community struggling to rebuild after a school shooting. Lawson tackles issues of grief and healing as she introduces us to a staggeringly human protagonist floundering in her own guilt and rage after losing her twin brother to a shooting she survived. Our other protagonist, the stunningly kind and lost Zach, is playing parent to his younger sister and muddling his way through the aftermath in a different context: his mother is the shooter's lawyer. Debilitatingly poignant and piercing, THE LUCKY ONES is at once a love letter to all those who have been "lucky" enough to survive and an embrace to families suffering with loss.

This book is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!

Liz Lawson has done an amazing job at capturing the raw emotion of the aftermath of a school shooting and how there are so many different sides to the pain that it causes and the ways it changes lives.

The most poignant thing about this book is how as readers empathize with both May and Zach there still is a sort of distance from the realness of events. But May and Zach's story has been the story of so many young people throughout recent history.

My hope is that this book hits a nerve and gets a dialogue started about how this type of tragedy (and all the aftermath) can be prevented in the first place.

Bravo to Liz Lawson for giving us the Lucky Ones.

WOW I loved this book. I have read many different novels about school shootings this past year from several different points of view. The thing is there are so many different people involved and so many points of view that a novel about this type of situation can be written from that the possibilities are sadly endless. This one was really good. May survived a school shooting in which her brother and 6 others were killed. The book takes place 11 month later and it seems as thought everyone has moved on in their own way except for her. It appears that way on the outside anyways, but that isn't really true. Her family is just a shell of what is was before without her twin brother. After being home schooled, she reenrolls in the school where her former schools classmates were sent after her other school as closed post-shooting. It is hard for her because she is not used to crowds or loud noises or people in general. She tries but keeps hitting roadblocks and has a lot of anger much of which is directed at the attorney defending the shooter who is in prison. At school, she meets Zach, the only person who makes her laugh or feel comfortable at all. This is the story of two lost sad souls people finding each other and somehow managing to lean on each other in spite of so much anger and pain. Definitely do not miss this book! Thanks to NG for the ARC!!!

3.75 stars

I hate that a book about school shooting has to exist and be considered contemporary realistic fiction, but I am grateful that there are authors who are willing to take it on and explore the complex experiences that survivors of these horrific incidents face.

The novel alternates between the perspectives of May, whose twin brother Jordan was a victim of a school shooting, and Zach, whose mother is the attorney representing the shooter. Both characters are developed, intriguing, and - as expected - highly emotional. For very different reasons, they are both dealing with some terrible issues.

There is a lot to like about this novel if one can get in the head space to read about this topic. It isn't easy. The one aspect I did not love is the romance component. I found this distracting and would so much rather have seen a friendship develop.

This is a tough subject and a sad read, but for what it is, it's well devised.

Upper YA for sure. I wouldn’t give to freshmen or younger. Lots of cursing and too many uses of the word “lame” and “psycho”...the author’s note isn’t enough.

BUT—important story and lovingly told. Grief is strange and real and smacks you in the face and so does this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2990086761

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This book hits hard.

The Lucky Ones is the story of two teens in the aftermath of a school shooting: May, whose twin, Jordan, was killed in the shooting, and the other, Zach, whose mother is the defense attorney for the shooter. May and Zach's voices tell the story of how a tragedy of this magnitude impacts the whole community. How it impacts relationships and infects every minute detail of existence. This book is raw and emotional and so, so timely and important. I think it deserves a lot of recognition for the topics that it grapples with and depicts so unflinchingly and yet with such sincerity and care.
I'm glad that the author chose to include pre and post notes, as well as resources at the end of the version of the book I had, so that readers can process this book on their own terms.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Last year, May's brother was killed in a school shooting. A school shooting that she has survivor's guilt about and anger toward anyone defending the killer. Zach's mom is the killer's lawyer. His family is constantly harassed and he has lost the majority of his friend's due to his mom taking the killer's case. When May and Zach meet, they aren't sure they have much in common. However, as they get to know each other, all of that changes.

This is a very timely book, and well-written. I recommend it to anyone interested!

The Lucky Ones is about May and Zach and how a horrendous event transformed their lives. For May, she lost her twin brother Jordan. For Zach his mother decided to be the defense lawyer for the boy who committed the horrible crime. May is full of anger, anger towards everything and everyone. Towards people who mourn in public, who want to talk about it with her, and as the story progresses it escalates. One way she liberates that anger is by spray painting messages and leaving nasty notes on the defense lawyers house, who also happens to be, you got it Zach’s house. Thus, more conflict is introduced because sooner or later, it’s going to have to be confronted.

The writer did an excellent job of defining the characters. It’s told from dual POV and the reader at no point is wondering who is narrating because the voices are well developed. It’s a poignant story. Written towards current events, and the fallout from surviving through one. I especially appreciated that the author didn’t try to relive that whole scene. It’s all from May’s POV and the reader understands why she’s dealing with this guilt of being the only who survived that day.

That said, I did not particularly like May as a character. Like at all. She wasn’t likeable. You feel for her, absolutely. And the reader mourns with her to a degree but that was my biggest dislike. Zach too, his personality was just kind of meh. The way the teenagers interacted with one another and spoke felt forced, not natural at all. I work with teens, and they don’t speak like this.

Overall, I definitely think this story is one that needs to be told.

Liz Lawson does an incredible job of showing the messy after effects of what a school shooting does to the "lucky ones" left behind in this heartbreaking and poignant debut. Both May and Zach's lives are equally torn apart by the actions of the shooter, although both of them have distinctly different relationships to him. One of the things that struck me the most was how Lawson showed how most families are thrown into the chaos of the mass shooting's consequences even while already dealing with the issues previously facing the families. One thing is clear, when mass shootings happen, no one gets away untouched.

A gripping read from beginning to end.

It was difficult for me to read, and I mean that in the very best sense given that this is terrible and difficult subject matter. It's raw and unflinching -- a book that tears the scabs off of grief, anger, helplessness, guilt, in the wake of a horrific event.