This was an intense, and extremely emotional read. The Lucky Ones is Liz Lawsons debut novel, but I never would have guessed it if I hadn’t known.

The Lucky Ones follows the story of May, who is dealing with the aftermath of a school shooting that took her twin brothers life along with five other students and a teacher. And Zach, who’s mother who has taken on the case, and defense, of the person responsible for the shooting.

This story is not an easy one, but it is most definitely an important one. I think that Liz Lawson has done an amazing job of portraying the aftermath of something this horrendous, and what May is going through. And even Zach, with having to deal with his own mother taking on the defense of someone who has committed such an atrocious act, and the repercussions that that has brought to Zach and his family’s life.
When Zach and Mays lives collide, it starts a journey of self discovery, pain, healing, friendship, and love. Even in the midst of so much heartbreak and pain. It’s not an easy path for either of them. They both have so much to work through. But they find a little light in the darkness with each other.

This book made me cry, a lot. It had me feeling it all. This story is so important, especially in todays times. What May, and even Zach, are left to deal with in the aftermath of the shooting is nothing less than tragic. It's a story of so much fear and pain, but also one of hope.

I really appreciated the very real portrayal of teenagers in this book. A lot of Young Adult books try to make teens in books seem way more innocent than reality. Liz Lawson did a great job of showing what teenagers are really like. It’s hard enough being a teen, all the hormones, trying to figure yourself out, let alone trying to deal with a tragedy like this on top of it all. It’s rough. And she showed the reality of that. And that makes this story so much more real while reading, along with everything else.

Absolutely fantastic debut. I really loved The Lucky Ones. I loved Liz Lawsons writing. This book was heart wrenching, and painful. But it was also full of love, friendship, and hope.

This book was intense, emotional, and heartbreaking. May is the survivor of a school shooting, returning to a new school, and having to try to fit back in. She soon meets the son of the shooter's lawyer, and learns to accept what has happened. This book handled the topic very seriously, but I did not enjoy it as much as This Is How It Ends.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley.

Amazing story of a heartbreaking situation. I loved how you can see many sides of lives affected by such a catastrophic event. Amazingly written and haunting.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

May lost her twin brother eleven months ago, when a school shooting killed him and she's angry, lost, upset and she struggles to move on, dealing with PTSD and accepting her new reality. Zach's life was turned upside down by the shooting too, but not because he lost someone, but because his mother decided to defend the shooter, upsetting everything. Friends abandoned him, his girlfriend dumped him, he and his family are object of bullying and only one friend still remains with him. It's thanks to him, so needy and demanding, that Zach meets May at the same band practice one day. Both of them will have to learn how to deal with rage, anger, grief and survive.

The lucky ones is heartbreaking, heartwrenching and intense. It deals with so many important themes, like a school massacre, survival, grief, rage, loss, how to move on, how to keep living after such an horrible tragedy. It's the debut book of Liz Lawson and I was really impressed by the story. Told by two POVs, May's and Zach's, they are both "victims" of the same shooting (even if, of course, in different way) and they are really relatable in their feelings and actions. May feels that none could ever understand what she's been through and she's full of rage and pain, while Zach, because of his mother's choice, is alone and avoided.
This book is a story about grief and pain, rage and anger, guilt, struggles, moving on, survival and it's skillfully written.
It hits the reader because the story is realistic, it could be a story we read from newspaper, because, unfortunately, things like that happen and the survivors have to live and survive without their loved ones.

I'm on the fence about The Lucky Ones. Although I did enjoy it, I expected something more emotional. I don't know what it was but it just missed the mark. Don't get me wrong, it was a powerful story, but I just didn't feel it like I expected to. It does make me sad to think how this is possibly someone's life. That is really hard to swallow and all I could think about when I was reading. All in all a good read, just not as fantastic as I hoped.

4.5/5 stars

This book is incredibly moving. It deals with so many emotions about grief and displaced guilt. It moved me so much cried. If you want something that will move you emotionally, I highly recommend this book. I honestly feel like this did a great job in bringing to life the grief of losing someone and hanging on to the fact that things were not perfect and that sometimes it's not so easy to move on. Now while I myself have not been through a traumatic experience but I connected personally to May (the female lead) because of feeling the loss of someone close to me. I feel like some of the side characters were extremely annoying because most of them expected the May to just get over it, be normal and live. Overall a very moving book and relatable characters that make this book so much more.

This book is heavy but beautiful and hard to read. I questioned some of the adults' decisions, but I understand what the author was trying to do. I was surprised that May was never advised that she may need more intense treatment or that the family needs treatment, which I wanted to be more prevalent in the story. However, I really did love this book and it really touched me.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book SHOOK me. It talks about the aftermath of a school shooting and how May and Zach deal. I wish the story had gone on a little longer. Also, the language was pretty explicit.

In The Lucky Ones, May is a survivor of a shooter at her school that took the lives of 7 people including her twin brother.
Zach on the other hand is the son of the lawyer who is defending the murderer.
The two characters meet at this difficult stage in their lives as they try to deal with their parents, the people at school, and seek emotional support from each other.
The book was very easy to read but is not for everyone. In my opinion, the main character May was horrible with everyone, it was understandable that she suffers from PTSD and gone through horrible things after her brother died, but May is 60% of the book being manipulative and aggressive with everyone to a point that I got tired of reading the same thing in every page.
3 stars for me
thanks to Random House Children's Delacorte Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review

This was a painful, beautiful book about grief, anger, and the aftermath of trauma and violence.

May is the survivor of a high school shooting – the only person in her classroom to have survived. Among the victims, she lost her twin brother, and she's haunted by their last conversations and the unkind way she left things with him.

She's angry, and she's isolated, and she wants someone to hurt.

Zach, a boy at her new school, seems to be the only person she wants to connect with; but he's the son of the defense attorney who is standing up for the shooter who killed May's brother.

Like May, Zach is isolated and angry. He's mad at his mother for defending a shooter. He's mad at his former friends for abandoning him in light of his mother's job. Zach and May shouldn't be friends, and yet they seem to be bound together, in anger, and isolation, and grief.

I thought that this was a beautiful, nuanced read. It tackles grief and trauma, without seeming to exploit or focus on the highschool shooting. It's more about the aftermath than the shooting itself (though all content warnings do still apply). The book also addresses our public obsession with tragedy and grief porn, managing to create a meaningful story connecting to a too-common experience and fear, without turning real tragedy into high-stakes entertainment.

My only issue with the book is that I would have wished to see more diversity in the characters. I know that high school shootings are perpetuated almost entirely by white guys, but I think this element could have remained true while painting a more diverse body of students.

I really appreciate that this author did not try to make the lead character likable, which happens so often, especially with female leads. As if we are expected to be pleasant FOR other people. I mean, that seems like a no-brainer, as it’s a book about a school shooting and the aftermath thereof (or really just the after). But, I really appreciate how utterly real and awful she was because that is how she felt and will feel for, like, EVER! And if a book can be graded based solely on how deeply I wept, then it’s definitely a great one. Disappointing parents, absent parents, school violence, bullies, my gawd this book. It’s such an ouch and such an important read all at once. What guts it took to write this book, Ms. Lawson. Good on ya. 😢💜

THE LUCKY ONES was well-written and thoughtful, but never quite reached its full potential. The subject matter is very ambitious, and there just isn't enough room for nuance when the setting is really just a backdrop for high school romance.

It's after midnight and there's school tomorrow Michelle teller had motion sensor lights so they have to be careful about sneaking around. I didnt care for the cussing.I couldn't get interested.

“The Lucky Ones” by Liz Lawson is intense. It is emotional .It is dark. This story is about school shootings and those left behind to deal with the aftermath. The raw emotions that the characters went through include feelings of anger, sadness, guilt and more. I am not going to lie or sugarcoat things. This book was heavy…but it is also powerful. I cried while reading it. I love the author’s writing style. She handled this topic very delicately although the panic attack scenes could have been handled just a little differently. The subject is a tough one, but it Is sadly one of our realities. All in all, I do not want to say that I enjoyed this book because it is not one of those books that you “ enjoy”. Enjoy would be the wrong word in my opinion. I appreciated this book. Looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

The Lucky Ones is so much more than I expected. It’s all the things that you don’t see played on the news over and over. It’s not focused on the shooter or just what happened that day. It’s the real stuff that people deal with and have to live with every single day after tragedy. The characters are so real and I feel for all of them! I could go on and on but I think it’s better that you do yourself a favor and just read this one.

The Lucky Ones is a gut wrenching and moving story about moving through trauma and loss and dealing with grief. It’s not an easy read and broke my heart. It had moments though. Moments that had me hopeful. I’m so impressed this is a debut novel.

Though this story deals with the aftermath of the ones left behind, the "lucky ones", after a school shooting, it doesn't go into a tremendous amount of detail of the shooting event itself. Instead, this story deals more with the guilt, depression, anger and hatred that the main character, May, feels towards the shooter a year after the devastating effects that tore through their high school.

May's twin brother, along with 6 others were killed by a classmate who opened fire in their school band building. Now, someone in their town has chosen to become the defense attorney for the shooter.

May is a ticking time bomb filled with all kinds of anger and hurt. She vandalizes the attorney's home with hurtful words. Though illegal, she feels it's her way of bringing justice to the one thing she feels in control of.

Then there's Zach, the son of the defense attorney for the shooter. May now goes to the same high school as him - though she doesn't realize that until after they develop a friendship. He has been ostracized by classmates because of the decision of his mother. His father is pretty much non-existent due to his own issues and so Zach also deals with an unhealthy amount of anger mostly directed towards his parents.

Yet in all of their individual struggles and grief, Zach and May connect and find a friendship that helps bring them out of their anger and hurt. Until the realization of who Zach is comes to light.

The most touching part of this story to me came from the author's notes at the end. Be sure to read that! This particular quote from Liz in her author's notes was perhaps my favorite part of the whole book:

"I wrote The Lucky Ones for those who have gone through horrific events like these, and for those who fear that they might endure a similar fate someday. For those who have made their way through painful, heartbreaking times and managed to find their way through to the other side. May's story is one of pain and fear and loss, but also one of hope. Without hope, we are lost."

Favorite Quotes:

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.

"I hope you can remember that people aren't just the sum of their mistakes. The world isn't black-and-white - the best thing you can do for yourself is to look at the spaces between those poles, to see that extremes aren't useful to anyone."

She wishes she had stopped pushing Jordan, only thinking of the future and his potential, and instead seen who he was as a person and appreciate the present.

Language Rating: 2 (medium)

Mature Content Rating: 2 (medium)

Final Rating: 3.5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

I don't think I've ever come across a novel like this. I don't really remember ever seeing one that dealt with the aftermath of a school shooting.

While some of the major plot points are a bit predictable (maybe I'm just a cynical adult), this book is powerful. May and Zach are both dealing with SO MUCH. It's wonderful to see both sides of this. While you would immediately think May is going through and has lost so much more, this book shows you that loss is different, people process differently, and things can become very, very big.

Thank you Delacorte for the arc! What a phenomenal debut! Lawson’s prose sparkled and broke my heart in all the best ways. Will absolutely be recommending to everyone I see!

I just couldn’t put down. It was incredibly raw and honest. The Lucky Ones is Liz’s debut novel and an incredible story about May who is a survivor in a school shooting. This book deals with a lot of important themes and features some twists that make the plot so good but doesn’t stray away from the reality of the story that is being told . I would highly recommend picking up a copy of this book.