"People aren't just the some 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. "

The Lucky Ones is about two teenagers ~ May and Zach, who are dealing with the aftermath of a school-shooting. May lost her twin brother in a school shooting 11 months back and she can't still accept the fact that she survived when her brother didn't. Zach's mother is the lawyer who defended the shooter who killed May's twin. The story talks about the events that follow after they meet.

This was such a heartfelt and impactful read. I rarely read books which deal with heavy topics but I'm so glad that I picked up The Lucky Ones. School-shootings are one of the deadliest situations that the world has been facing during recent times, which is why books like The Lucky Ones should be read by people from all ages.

Have you guys ever read a book where you wanted to hug the main characters after every single chapter? The Lucky Ones made me feel that way. Zach and May's feelings, their anger and guilt were so perfectly expressed through their respective POVs. No one should be subjected to the level of trauma that Zach and May faced at such a young age, which just shows how unfair the world can be.

I really liked how different relationships that Zach and May shared with other people was portrayed in The Lucky Ones.. Grief wasn't just the only topic that was dealt with it in this book, but we get to see how a single incident can change the course of family relationships and friendships. The book shows that sometimes people with flaws can draw a protective circle around you too. The author did an excellent job of adding depth to the characters which will make me remember them for a
long time.

Definitely recommend reading this book. It's a really important one.

May is a survivor of a school shooting where her twin brother was one of the victims. She is struggling emotionally and mentally but she has a good friend Lucy that tries to help her the best she can. Lucy wants to join a band and begs May to come to her audition. There May meets Zach who she instantly gravitates to. But a few days later May learns that Zach is the son of the lawyer representing David, the school shooter, which brings it’s own issues to Zach. May has to discover what it takes to move past the school shooting without feeling guilt that she survived and to find happiness that she knows her brother would want her to have. Zach has to find happiness despite the torture he has endured at school and home due to his mom’s choice to represent David.
This book was a little too predictable to me. Everything that I thought was going to happen, happened. It was well written in that the story flowed well and it was easy to follow but I feel like some parts of the story could have been developed a little bit more. While this would be a good story to add to my junior high library, I won’t be able to based solely on language. The “f” word is used quite often throughout the book so if that bothers you, this is not a book for you. I get that the author is trying to show the struggles and the darkness of May and Zach but the excessive use of that language was a little too much. As an adult reading this book, this is definitely a YA book that should only be read by YA.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s publishing for an electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review.

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a heart breaking, moving story about the aftermath of a tragedy that has become all too common in America.

May and Zach are dealing with the aftermath of a school shooting from two different angles. May survived a school shooting at Carter High School. She was in the closet of her band room when the shooter came in and killed nine people that were in the room including her twin brother Jordan. She is suffering from Survivor's Guilt. How come she survived? She is confused, scared and depressed. It also doesn't help that her family is falling apart. For so long everything was built around her talented brother and with him gone no one knows what to do.

For Zach it is different. He didn't go to Carter so he wasn't there when the shooting happened. Instead he is trying to deal with the hate he is getting every day at his school because his Mom is a defense attorney and she has chosen to defend the shooter. That has made life hard for Zach and his little sister Gwen. They are both being bullied and he has lost all of his friends including his girlfriend and one of his closest friends. His home life is suffering as well. His Mom is never home leaving him to deal with a depressed Father as well as cleaning up his garage after someone keeps vandalizing it every night.

Into all of this comes May as the kids from Carter had been moved to his school. The moment he sees her something changes for him. As May and Zach are thrown together again and again a friendship is formed and feelings are developed. This is such a beautiful story about love, friendship and survival. I couldn't help but cry while reading this but not just because of the heartache but also because of the friendship.

I want to add that the author noted that at the time she wrote this two students from Parkland and one of the parents from Sandy Hook have committed suicide. Thus proving that the dead are not the only victims.

At the beginning, I wasn’t totally sure I’d like May or Zach. He seemed so… wheedling? I don’t know if that’s really the right description. I found his awkwardness endearing, especially once he began trying to interact with May.

I liked a lot of things about May. She’s so obviously deeply wounded and prickly/angry as a result. I guess I just didn’t understand her choices at first. She was brave enough to vandalize property, but too scared to tell someone she was being harassed. I found that a little hard to reconcile at first.

Ultimately, as I got more and more drawn into the book and the healing process of both May and Zach, I couldn’t help rooting for them and hoping they’d find a happily-ever-after, or at least, have a breakthrough that opened the possibility of a happy ending.

THE LUCKY ONES is a journey through grief. Some parts hit hard, landing some pretty sharp punches straight to your heart. Other parts can’t help but inspire hope. I think that was my favorite part– that though the story gets dark as May revisits what happened, there’s hope.

Readers who enjoyed WILD AND CROOKED by Leah Thomas or GLASS GIRL by Laura Anderson Kurk should check out THE LUCKY ONES.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

THE LUCKY ONES is a beautiful story about the aftermath of a school shooting and the effect it has on May. May wasn't always the most likable character, but I think it made her very real and understandable. Her relationship with Zach is rough and heart-wrenching, but that's what made it so wonderful.

Also, I definitely cried so that made it an instant 5 star read for me!

This book made me cry and I rarely cry while reading. The book is told from the perspective of a teen who survived a school shooting and struggling in the aftermath. It is a very emotional book that everyone needs to read.

The Lucky Ones is an emotional book about grief, guilt, and friendship. Tackling survivor's guilt, The Lucky Ones is emotional and heart wrenching. It reminds us that grief is a process, one that re surges and never truly feels like it's over. It also reminds us that everyone processes guilt differently. The characters in The Lucky Ones are where the book truly shines and it was hard for me to pick which is my favorite. May is in so much pain, struggling with issues of guilt and the way the world seems to have kept turning despite the hole inside of her. She's also full of so much anger, anger at the world for what happened, and anger at herself. Whereas Zach is trying to balance the ways he feels like the only one keeping his family functioning. His mother's decision to give the shooter a fair trial has turned him into an Outsider and has changed the way others see his family. They're complex and allowed to make mistakes, to grapple with forgiveness, and to figure out their own friendship.

This is a story about a survivor of a school shooting (May) and an unlikely friendship with the son of the mother who is representing the shooter in his legal battles. May lost her twin brother in the shooting among other friends and teachers. She has many emotions from survivors guilt to blame to sadness and she is struggling to get through each day due to her grief. It is a difficult read at times, but a recommended read. Too often we are seeing school shootings, it's become a reality of our lives. I do like that this one was focusing on the aftermath and not so much the events leading up to and during the shooting. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Lucky Ones is a book that deals with a fairly serious subject: surviving a school shooting.

May is a girl who hid in a closet while the killer eradicated everybody in her band class, including her twin brother Jordan. I don't really like her at first. She's selfish and mean. Even prior to the shooting, it's doubtful that she would have been everybody's sweetheart, but now, she's wrapped up in dealing with the trauma of surviving.

Zach is more likeable, but he has a different problem--his mom is defending the killer, and it caused most of his friends to abandon him. His mom is away most of the time, working, while his dad is depressed and isn't really present, even though they live in the same house. He's more likeable, although he's under tremendous stress.

When they both are drug to their friends' band audition, they seem to have a connection at first. Then, they find out who the other one is, and it causes a lot of problems that need to be resolved. As they work through their problems, including dealing with guilt over things they have no control over, they develop as people. May, who seems unlikable at first, begins to reclaim her life back. Although the book focuses on May and Zach and their developing relationship, several of the people around them develop as characters too.

The Lucky Ones is a serious book that deals with the difficult topic of school shootings. I thought it was good. This is definitely not a light book or a romcom, so I would recommend reading this book for a time when your heart can deal with it. It's not a book that will leave you in cathartic tears, but it may make you think. It was good, but you'll definitely want to read it at a time when you can handle difficult topics--which may or may not be in the middle of a pandemic.

Maya's twin brother died that day. Smoke in the air, ears ringing from the sound of bullets, the blank expressions from her classmates left motionless on the floor, and her brother. Oh god, her brother. He isn't moving either. He never moved again. Maya is the only one left alive that day. She wished she'd died instead. Zach is not a victim of the shooting, but his mother's a defense attorney, and her job is to represent the school shooter. For this, his classmates revile him, his friends abandon him, and now he is all alone. Then one day, his friend drags him out to band practice, and Maya is there too. Brought together by separate yet shared pain stemming from the same event, Maya and Zach must learn to forgive others and themselves in order to live. Will they?

The Lucky Ones is a triumph for Liz Lawson as she chronicles the torment of survivors and the shrapnel of repercussions for bystanders after horrific violence rips a hole in schools and communities. Tackling sensitive and troubling issues for American youth in an age where the classroom no longer feels safe, the emotions and struggles Maya and Zach go through feel real. I believe this book is an important read, because the children of today worry about the safety of their learning environment. I loved the characters through all their pain, their thoughts, and their friendships. While this book can be hard to read in parts, and may be triggering for some, it is worth the journey. When violence tears through communities, it always leaves a gaping hole in the hearts of so many people, and I feel like The Lucky Ones did a very good job of approximating the impact of this type of event. Read it, the sooner the better.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting when I downloaded The Lucky Ones, but what I do know is that my heart broke in little pieces at some points while reading this book. This story hurts, is angsty as hell and makes you want to scream in frustration. Just because of this, if you don’t like thorny novels that deal with death, depression and guilt, I think you should keep your distance with this one. Although I would have liked the author to use another type of prose, perhaps a more lyrical, more metaphorical one to give the characters’ emotions even more resonance, I cannot deny that this book has something special.

I wanted to be there to see that May was able to stick her head out of the water and finally breathe. I wanted to be there to hug Zach for the maturity with which he embodies a role that was not meant for him. I guess I sympathised a LOT with both characters and that always makes me enjoy my reads at a different level. Ironically, meeting May and Zach has been a wonderful and sad experience. I admire both of them for fighting, for getting out of bed every morning despite the pain, but with each page that passes in this book you see that they have so many things to say, so many thoughts buried deep in their hearts ... And it's horrible. It’s unfair.

I liked that the author didn’t try to sugar-coat the reality that she presents to us. In this book there is a boy who murdered several people. A protagonist who’s tired of being the girl who survived. There are students who think that she is crazy and dramatic. There’s a boy who no longer recognises his parents. There’s hatred and prejudices and hypocrisy and wonderful friends and painful memories and loads of guilt and so much more. The reader has to understand all of this, has to feel it in order to appreciate the change in May and Zach.

There is a love story in The Lucky Ones, but it is extremely subtle. It is not intended to be the centre of attention whatsoever. In fact, I believe it is there to help us see the most vulnerable and innocent side of these kids who are drowning in their own anger. This is a beautiful novel.

Heartbreaking!!

Be warned because this book is very intense and is a heartbreaking read centered on a school shooting. May hid in a closet in the band room when it all started leaving her teacher, her band mates and her brother to be gunned down. Now she is dealing with the aftermath and how it’s affecting her.

Zach’s mother is defending the shooter and has now lost his girlfriend and all the others he thought of as friends except for Connor. His family has fallen apart because of his mom’s choice.

May is angry and lashing out. With her friend Lucy by her side May is struggling with being one of the “lucky ones” who survived. With being on totally different ends of the spectrum Zach is the only one that May has confided in. Their struggles are real and will rip your heart out.

This is not for everyone but if you are willing to put yourself out there this is a fantastically heart wrenching book that you can’t put down.

A wonderful and deep story between two people! I loved being inside these characters’ heads and feeling what they did. A must read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson follows May, a survivor of a school shooting, and Zach, the son of the woman defending the shooter. Both dealing with their own issues surrounding their parents, their family, and the ramifications of the shooting, they find each other. Both are angry, at themselves and at others.

I liked a lot about this book, including the plot and the characters. However, I struggled with the writing as the dual perspective felt a bit unnecessary at points. I also felt that Zach and May were almost too similar and very similar things kept happening to them both. I struggled with this book once I realized they were nearly the same people. I would've liked a bit more differentiation in their characters.

What I really enjoy in a contemporary novel, is one that will hit me in every feel and cause me unique amounts of pain. The Lucky Ones premise sounds like it easily fits this bill, what happens when you're the one who survives, and you lose someone you love dearly? Sadly, it didn't really hit all of the right notes with me. I did enjoy the read, and the subject was certainly one that is massively important, but there was something lacking.

The trauma element of the story seemed to be handled very well, and felt sadly true to reality. I could definitely appreciate the general premise of the book, because its true that once the media has sucked you dry they just leave you to try and digest what has happened, in all the various ways that your life has changed. There were a few moments that did make my heart hurt a little, but not of the gut punches I was hoping for.

I totally understand why the characters weren't hugely likeable, but I just couldn't really stand either of them, so didn't always enjoy reading from their perspectives. There is a real trend in YA books, where characters not communicating with each other is the basis of the entire plot, and that was truly the case here. Both May and Zach had at least one amazing friend, who they just chose to keep using and pushing away, which made me so frustrated. I also just couldn't appreciate how much they both looked down on their parents, who were trying to deal with the same stuff they were, whilst also trying to work to keep a roof over their kids heads.

I felt quite glad once I'd made it to the end of this one, so I didn't really feel as though I could give it more than three stars. I can however imagine that it may appeal more to its intended audience.

This one really surprised me! It was sad and gut wrenching and normally I don’t really go for that kind of story. But I could not put this book down. The story was touching, the characters were relatable, and I felt like the novel was written incredibly well. This seems like a really important book for high schoolers to read because of the world we’re living in with shootings and horrible things happening all around us. I would highly recommend this novel to readers of YA and contemporary fiction. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for sending this novel my way in exchange for an honest review.

A year later, May is the survivor of a school shooting that her brother Jordan didn't survive. Zach's mother is a.defense attorney defending the shooter. Somehow, both broken, the two are drawn to each other as they each try to slowly heal.

While this book starts off as one with another set of angsty teens, it becomes much more than that as their relationship develops and they both struggle to try to live through the past, not quite able to make that work.

Sometimes, when I'm in a reading rut or just not able to focus - hello four weeks of quarantine and counting - I like to slip in some YA. This one was particularly powerful in terms of the stress teens face just by going to school each day, even forgetting the normal crap most teens have to deal with. Having two young kids myself, whether they'll have firsthand experience with a school shooting is always in the back of my mind as something to be worried about, and I feel that the author did a respectful and honest job in handling such a difficult topic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. It had not influenced my opinion

What an incredible, moving story. I’m still just caught up in this book and I feel like I will be for a while yet to come. I often find myself drawn to stories of people healing from tragedy as they can be so encouraging to me. The Lucky Ones really narrows in on one of my favorite variants: two broken people learning how to heal with each other.
Six months after a school shooting that claimed the life of May’s twin brother and 7 others, May is still a wreck. She blames herself and is just so angry about everything.
Zach is the pariah of the school as his mother is the lawyer defending the shooter. Never mind that he hates her choice or that her decision has made him the target of hate and their home the site of vandalism. Zach’s at the point where he feels like the only one who gets that this all isn’t his fault is his best friend Connor and his younger sister. May feels isolated even from the other family and friends of the victims because she had been in the closet of the room when it happened. The thing that really warmed me to the book was how they both connected with each other; the ways in which they related to one another.
This was an emotional and moving book that took on heavy issues concerning mental health, family dynamics, and school shootings. And yet, it had this beautiful light center that was Zach and May finding each other and this sweet relationship that bloomed between them even in the midst of complicated circumstances and fraught emotions. It felt real and natural, full of the awkwardness of teenagers and struggling with the right thing to say and I just loved it.
The Lucky Ones was a poignant and touching read all about the messy side of grief and dealing with the aftermath of that. I am so glad I got the chance to read this and I very much recommend it!

May is the survivor of a shootout at school. She survived because she was looking for a music stand in a closet in the band room. She heard the gun shooting and students begging, yelling and the band teacher saying “ shoot me, not them.” May heard the shooting stopped but could not leave the closet. She knew her twin, Jordan had been killed. She couldn’t face it. She had therapy after the funeral but it didn’t help — she wouldn’t answer any questions. She was kicked out of school due to her anger which caused fights. The school where the students were killed was closed. May was allowed to go to the new school as long as she behaves. She is still so upset after a year. Why? She only had one friend, Lucy which helped her keep from fighting. As time goes by she meets a guy named Zach. They become friends. When she finds out his mother is defending the student who did the killing, she can’t believe it. Zach can’t believe that May was the one who spray-painted his family garage door. Will they still be friends?

It’s a novel of survival and hope after a loved one’s death. It’s what happens to a family trying to cope with the loss. It’s about the lucky ones that survive after a school shooting. It shows the damage the shooters do. It is not a simple novel.

Even nearly 4 months later, I praise The Lucky Ones the most for is its real and raw depiction of grief, misery, and reluctant hope. Liz Lawson does an outstanding job of character development in this book. Despite my incredible fortune to have never had to live through an active shooter situation, I could feel every emotion our main characters, May and Zach, felt.

May’s terror during the shooting. Her grief and regret for surviving it.

Zach’s anger and disgust for his mom and her choice to defend the shooter. His anxiety about who’s going to walk out of his life next, and holding on dearly to those who say they won’t.

Honestly, there is so much to say about this book that the following list is completely non-exhaustive. Nevertheless, here are five topics/situations that The Lucky Ones explores in a remarkable way.

#1: Survivor’s guilt
As the synopsis notes, May is the only survivor of the band room shooting. She struggles with inconceivable guilt throughout the book for being so, and she frequently asks herself why she got to live, but everyone else didn’t. Her agonizing over the what-ifs/should've/could've made for a really emotional reading experience.

“I didn’t deserve a future. Now here I am, in my undeserved future, without Jordan.”

#2: Realistic representation of trauma symptoms
One of the things that made the character's emotions so poignant and vivid is the trauma-induced actions they take. For example, May frequently tries to isolate herself, goes nonverbal, experiences bouts of anger at herself and others, displays aggression/violence, and intentionally participates in reckless behavior. Zach also shows similar trauma symptoms such as anger/aggression and anxiety.

These actions are done without explanation, but you as a reader know that they are born from unexpressed internal turmoil. The Lucky Ones does a remarkable job at showing trauma rather than explaining trauma.

#3: Exploiting/romanticizing victim trauma
Situations of trauma romanticization happen in passing throughout the book, but I still think it’s important to note. Here’s a great quote:

“And when school reopened school, everyone wanted to be my friend all of a sudden—people who’d never talked to me before would come up to me in the halls all, ‘May, are you okay, how are you doing, blah blah blah’—like they wanted to feed off what happened to me, make it more their own. It was disgusting.”

#4: Broken family dynamics
Both of our main characters have households that have been damaged in some aspect as a result of the shooting. For May, her household is obviously now one smaller, and the void of Jordan’s absence forges distance between her and her parents.

“I didn’t realize it until he was gone, but he was the glue holding us all together.”

Likewise, Zach’s household is damaged by his mother’s job. Zach frequently lashes out at her for ruining their lives for legally defending someone he feels is indefensible. Zach’s father is also dealing with clinical depression and is physically present in the house, but not mentally/emotionally.

#5: Reluctant resilience
What I love the most about the ending of The Lucky Ones is the fact that there is no resolution. May’s trauma is not magically gone and Zach’s family isn’t magically fixed. However, even though there’s no end wrapped in a pretty bow, there is a concluding sentiment of reluctant resilience. May begins to feel inklings of hope for recovery. Zach takes small steps to repair his relationship with his parents.

It was really inspiring to see these characters begin at rock bottom and slowly but surely begin crawling out of the trench. In all, The Lucky Ones is a fantastic realistic fiction novel about tragedy and loss, but also recovery and resilience.