A very emotional read, and very thought provoking. I work I the education system, and cannot fathom the thoughts and feelings you experience during and after a school shooting. Many times I found myself shaking my head, and then reflecting on what I would do in the situation. Beautifully written. 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Quick Cut: A teen girl struggles to move on in life after she is the survivor of a school shooting that kills her genius twin brother.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Delacorte Press for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's genuinely frightening how much violence has injected it's way into our school system. Between incidents like Columbine and Sandy Hook, it seems as though the pain never ends as it makes its way to a new location. But what happens to the survivors? How does that process look of getting back to the typical? We see that process with the story centered around May and Zach.

May hasn't been the same since that day a classmate came into the band room and killed everyone in sight. Being the sole survivor, she has struggled with angry outbursts ever since. However, after failing to achieve in homeschooling, May is being thrown back into the school system... with everyone else that experienced that day from afar.

Zach's life has been completely upended since his mom took the case of the school shooter. Now being a pariah, he's lost his friends, girlfriend, and any semblance of happiness. Until he meets May and he finds another who understands his pain. Can these two survive the awkward connection they have to one another?

Warning: this book is dark and with good reason. However, even with the topic discussed being so gruesome, the way it is discussed is so smart and realistic. Not only do you see the pain May goes through as a survivor, but you also experience Zach's with how his life is impacted by social outcries that have nothing to do with him.

The topics discussed include depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and even PTSD. Each of these conditions is experienced by at least one character, in all its haunting realism. The journey the characters take to get back to mental health is one important today, one that needs to be seen more often.

Zach and May each have their own burdens from the school shooting. Without saying too much, they also have their own connections to each other. Seeing their personalities clash and at times comfort one another is an inspiring sight to see. In the midst of the pain, they find light that keeps them going (even if it took a little too long to get there).

A slow build to an important topic that needs more exposure today.

My rating: 4 out of 5

An effectively intense, emotional, heart wrenching, mind bending, sad, poignant, depressing debut novel shakes you to the core and making you non-stop sob, walking around with your teary red eyes and running nose.

This is not only about the school shooting, massacre and terror the perpetrator created, innocent victims who unexpectedly lost their lives, this book is about the people WHO ARE LEFT BEHIND. They could be named as “LUCKY ONES” because they didn’t die that day, right? But what if they choose to die slowly instead of instantly like the other victims, lost the most import parts of them at very same day: THEIR HOPE and THEIR LOVE OF LIVING AND CARRYING ON. This is the story of Maya who is left behind and Zach whose life changed forever when his mother decided to be lawyer of the shooter.

Maya survived that day, by hiding in a closet when the shooting started. At the very same day, she lost her friends, her favorite teacher and HER BROTHER. She is not thankful to stay alive because she lost her family who are drifting apart and having hard time to process their grief. She alienated her own friends because of her boiling anger and self-hatred. She’s expelled from her school because of her self-destructive attitudes, dumping her boyfriend. Only Lucy, ex-addict, her loyal friend knows how she feels and tries all she could to keep Maya’s head above water and help her not to get drawn.

Zach didn’t alienate people. They chose to leave him alone because they thought he was the traitor! They blamed him because his mother’s choice to defend the killer. His girlfriend dumps her and starts dating with some of his friends. People stop to talk with him. Only Conor, his only loyal friend pushes him hard to keep his chin up and stay alive against the hostility of his inner circle. He also lost his family. His father never leaves home, doing nothing, hanging out in his pajamas and his mother is never at home, fully focused on her new case. He takes care of his sister who is also traumatized because they’re threatened by vandals, spraying walls of their houses. (Guess, who is the vandal? Bingo! Maya finds a way to reflect her boiling anger.)

Maya and Zach, two victims of different circumstances meet with each other. As soon as both of them learn their identities, Maya gets volatile but at the end she cannot deny her attraction to Zach and surprisingly she starts to share her untold feelings with him that she never shared with anybody, even with Lucy.

But Maya has very big secret that she never shared with anybody and this secret can change everything and open the Pandora box about the truths of the shooting day. When this secret comes out Zach and Maya’s lives will never be the same!

This is beautiful, sad, heavy story breaks your heart several times. The author’s realistic approach and the characters’ inner fights, vulnerabilities because of the circumstances they’ve found themselves, obstacles they had to endure even though they were too young to face them are heart wrenching but objectively told without any exaggeration. I loved the honesty of the words and conclusion of the story.

I love the writing, realism, characters, approach of the author to tell how people give different reactions and handle the grief in different ways.

At some parts, the story was too heavy and suffocating but not because of the writing, it was about the subject choice. It was too much depressing and soul shaking experience for me but I still loved Maya, Zach, Lucy, Connor and the other survivors of this story. It was impossible not to feel for them.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Delacorte Press for sharing this emotional, fantastic ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Liz Larson for an ARC of the Lucky Ones.

This was a deep subject to read. The Lucky ones start with a school shooting. May she was one of the Lucky ones as she was in the closet in the band room when the shooter came in and killed the people in the room. Her twin brother was one of the victims. May lives a year of her life blaming herself for being a survivor she has lost all her friends at school because of the rage that is inside her. Next comes Zach he attends a different school but he looses all his friends because his mom is the attorney defending the shooter.

What Liz Larson tells in this story is something the news media leaves out in these awful events is how the survivors have to do to pick up the pieces of what is left of their life’s to continue to live. How their everyday life is no longer normal. How they have to deal with the mental stability to just survive and how to overcome the greatest lost.

It’s scary to know that this is the world we live in nowadays. Seems like every time we turn on the news somewhere in our world someone is being killed let it be shooting up a school, church and even our own Military bases.

This book. 😭 Such a heavy topic. This was both an amazing and difficult read.

Well written about an important topic. A must read - even though I struggled through it at times.

4 star rating for this deep gem.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this early in exchange for an honest review!

I honestly don't know how to even talk about this book. It was dark and a lot to take in. You definitely have to be in the right mindset to read this, but it didn't disappoint on bit. It was a hard story to ready, but absolutely worth it.

This was a careful treatment of the subject of school shootings and how each member of a family night react in its wake, and for years after. I particularly appreciated how realistic it was rather than syrup-ed up for the reading audience. You can only hold on to your pain and self-imposed guilt for so long before it eats you piece by piece until you fall apart, and that's what it took for this main character to start healing--that and finding people who cared for her.

This incredibly powerful, moving book focuses on the aftermath of a tragedy. Too often books focus on what leads up to the tragedy and not the aftermath. This book’s powerful text helps high schoolers process grief, anxiety, relationships with family, and even school. Definitely a book to inspire thoughtful discussion.

Thoughtful, showing multiple perspectives in the wake of an all-too-common tragedy. Good writing, and a story many teens will be looking for. I personally feel it was a little too indulgent, but I think it's good to have on library shelves since it will resonate with many.

This is one of my most highly anticipated 2020 reads, and it did not disappoint. This is a nuanced, moving, and thoughtful exploration of grief, a call to action against school shootings, and a blossom of hope. I can't wait to recommend it to all my students.

The parallel stories of May and Zach show how important dealing with grief and love and life is and how important it is to keep good friends by your side. May is a survivor, a lucky one, who makes it out of the band room alive during a school shooting. Now, a year later, she finally joins the general population at a new school while she deals with her emotions and tries to move on from the grief she feels of losing her twin brother. Zach, who is a recluse in his own way, meets May and their instant connection allows them to explore feelings neither one has dealt with in a year. However, a commonality will test their relationship and there’s no guarantee that they’ll come out on the other side dealing with their feelings all while maintaining a friendship. Lawson writes an important story from a different perspective, and the emotions are raw and real throughout.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Grab some tissues, and get ready cry.
This was a very heavy story, but with everything going on in the world today, also something that is, sadly, relatable. Between May and Zach, their stories touch your heart and make you sad for the circumstances surrounding them.

(It had a lot of typos, which hopefully will be fixed before release)

Trigger warnings, of course, gun violence, shootings, and everything along those lines.

This book made me cry multiple times I found myself feeling so bad for the characters and the things they went through and that school shootings are happening way too much in the world today and I feel bad for people in schools this one is still sticking with me after reading it

WOW! Set aside some time and grab some tissues! I read The Lucky Ones in one sitting and cried multiple times. The story is told in alternating chapters by two narrators who are connected to a school shooting. May survived a shooting at her school but lost her twin in the attack. A year later she is struggling to put her life back together. Zach is also struggling but for a different reason. His mom is the lawyer defending the shooter, and he has been shunned by his peers because of it. The book focuses on the aftermath and consequences and how the different characters are dealing with the horrific act. I liked that this takes place a year after the event so that we see the long-lasting effects, not just what the media reports. It is an emotional roller coaster, but that helps the reader connect with the characters and their feelings. I can't wait to share this with students! I received and advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley #TheLuckyOnes

I took my time with this book the main reason being that I’m a “lucky one” I picked this book because I knew it would be cathartic for me and it was! The emotions, the feelings all of it real all of it relevant and all of it hard to deal with!

Lawson did a beautiful job at capturing the thoughts and feelings of “survivors guilt” the lonely feeling and trying to figure out the why! Though this book was tough for me to get through in one sitting and I shed a million tears I will say it is a definite must read and one that will stay with me in my heart for years to come!

The Lucky Ones is a story I think everyone should read. May and Zach are two characters your hear will break for. This story and me hooked from the first chapter, Great heartbreaking book.

This book was definitely one of the better books I have read recently. I enjoyed the entire plot but also it made the reader very introspective. In this case, the perpetrator of a horrible act said he did it because the main character, May, had said something once about hating one of the victims. Taking on that guilt even though it's completely normal to feel harsh feelings but not normal to act on them, is something many young people struggle with. I feel like this will be a big YA hit. Can't wait to see it's success.

A book about the aftermath of a school shooting that is well written and emotionally raw. May and Zach are characters on two different sides of the story facing the effects of a post-school shooting world and I felt that their experiences in the book were real. It's an emotionally draining scenario and I thought the author did a great job of conveying the depth of what the characters were experiencing. May's character is angry and has given up living except for in anger. Zach is just trying to navigate life with others taking his mother's decision out on him. This book is about the reality of guilt and trying to heal from something gut wrenching and tragic.

May's anger is palpable, it is DRIPPING off the page. She is full of survivor's guilt and has no idea. She's full of stress and emotions that she can't name, and anger is the easiest emotion to access--it's not the truest. Will she figure that out by the end, or is her anger going to rip her apart for good, and ruin her friendships and relationship with Zach?

The author's note at the end is an entire new set of tears itself. If you think you've gotten out of crying, you're in trouble, because these few pages had me SOBBING.

Told from two POVs, The Lucky Ones tells the story two students in the aftermath of a school shooting. May, whose brother was killed, and Zach, whose mother is defending the shooter.
Gutting from the first page, The Lucky Ones is an unflinching look at the relentless grief we heap upon ourselves when we feel responsible (directly or indirectly) for the harm we've brought upon those we love. Liz Lawson takes what could've been a straightforward story about sorrow and digs deeper, creating a story of survivor's remorse unlike any I've read before. The voice grabs you from the beginning, and it's so emotionally impacting, you can't put it down, this will resonate with so many readers.