The Lucky Ones is a moving look at the aftermath of a high school shooting. May survived a shooting at her school. She hid in a closet, and everyone else in the room was killed, including her twin brother. She's grieving and she's angry, and she doesn't know why she survived.

Zach went to another school and only knew of the shooting as something terrible that happened to people he didn't know. Then his lawyer mother made the choice to defend the shooter, and now he's an outcast at his school. When May enrolls at his school, the two meet and sparks fly despite the weird connection between them.

May is a fantastic character, and I loved her narrative. She's overwhelmed by grief and survivor's guilt, and it comes out in anger. She's a mess, but it's completely understandable. Zach is slightly less compelling as a character, but he's a good foil for May, and their growing connection was really well done. May's journey to healing makes for a compelling story.

This is obviously a sensitive topic, and the book doesn't pull any punches. School shootings are incredibly devastating and seeing the ripple effects of a shooting is really important and effective.

4.5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy.

This book is very powerful. School shootings have become an all too common occurrence in our country. The survivors are left with deep scars that take a very long time to heal. We expect children- CHILDREN- to deal with things that adults don't even understand. This book takes you inside the aftermath of a school shooting. It's raw and gut wrenching. You see things from the perspective of May, whose twin brother was killed in the shooting and also through Zach, whose mother is the defense attorney for the shooter. Zach and May form an unlikely friendship, both victims of their circumstances. I highly recommend this book.

In the after.

Reminds me of 13 reasons why and a few other books about the "after". So many emotions reading this book.

Overall a very good read. Just guard your heart.

May lost her twin brother during a school shooting and is now suffering from survivor's guilt. She acts out and does things that she would not normally. May is angry, very angry. Zach is the son of the attorney defending the school shooter. He catches a lot of flack from his friends and classmates. He is not the one defending the shooter but you would think he was based on people were acting. When a chance meeting puts the May and Zach together, they both have someone they can talk to and not be judged. As the one-year anniversary of the shooting draws near, it is not just the memorial service that is on their minds. With the help of their friends, Zach and May have to figure out a way to survive this part because May was one of the lucky ones. Very emotional book that deals with survivor's guilt, PTSD, alcohol, depression, some language and stalking. Have a tissue at the ready when you get close to the end (I needed two). I will be recommending to students and teachers to read. Thanks to Ms. Lawson Delacorte Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

WOW. This was a tough, heart-wrenching, emotional, but super important and relevant read. I absolutely devoured this book and as someone dealing with complex grief like myself this one really hit home.

I think what worked so well for this story was not that it focused on the shooting at the time it took place but afterwards. After the media packs up and leaves, the bodies are buried, and kids are forced to just pick up the pieces of their life after unimaginable trauma. There are so many hard hitting themes that are included in this story to make it even more of a compelling read. And I am always a sucker for an unlikely friendship with the softest hint of romance.

For a debut I thought this was absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to read more from this author in the future.

I really liked how this book focused on the aftermath of the event and the grief process the main character goes through. What happens to the survivors after such tragic events? After the media stops covering it, they're left to deal with the aftermath and to pick the pieces of their lives back up, in addition to dealing with survivors' guilt.. The book does not go in to too much detail about the gruesome attack on the high school, but relays what happened that horrific day throughout the novel. It is set in the time period at almost the year anniversary of the incident, through the anniversary, and the days following it. The shooter survives and the major trauma that he puts the main character through is vile. The author wrote the book to highlight the need for action on school shootings and help those that survive deal with their grief and realize they're not alone. The stats that she shared afterwards are astounding and something really needs to be done about the sickening school shootings that occur each and every year. Thank you for helping to bring attention to this matter in a realistic way.

Liz Lawson’s The Lucky Ones is a searing new look at the aftereffects of a school shooting and the relationship between two young people with different connections to the shooting. May’s twin brother and six others died while May hid in a nearby closet listening as events unfolded. When May’s school is closed after the tragedy, students are sent to other campuses. At her new school, May meets Zach. Then she discovers that Zach’s mother is the killer’s defense attorney. Told from the alternating viewpoints of May and Zach, The Lucky Ones not only portrays how traumatic events create ripples that affect families and communities, but Lawson also perceptively conveys how actions preceding the traumatic events can shape the aftereffects.

May and Zach are relatively under-the-radar kids who party a little, are tight with a small group of friends, and don’t get along particularly well with their parents. I admire how Lawson avoids the YA trope of making May, Zach, and their friends stereotypes or the stars of their schools. The friends of May and Zach are distinctive, appealing, and crucial to the plot. May and Zach meet through Lucy and Conor, their best friends who play together in a punk band—Proper Noun and the Noun–along with May’s ex-boyfriend Miles. The friends’ social life revolves around the band’s rehearsal and performances.

The shooter, David, is also a character in The Lucky Ones. May knew David before he killed her brother, but he made her uncomfortable, so she avoided him. As David awaits trial, he sends letters to May from jail. May keeps the letters but does not open them until later in the book. When opened, David’s letters reveal the promise of a secret about her dead brother, and I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say there is an intense scene where May comes face to face with her brother’s killer.

The Lucky Ones has several scenes like this where characters with intense conflicts confront each other, and Lawson effectively delivers the action and drama of those moments. She just as effectively conveys the internal complexity of the characters’ psychological struggles, and those passages are emotional and visceral.

Liz Lawson’s The Lucky Ones may be the just-right book for readers who like impactful realistic fiction, and for those who are into music and bands. Many young readers like books with the alternating-narrator format because it tends to be fast-paced and avoids repetitiveness. Most importantly, school shootings are on the minds of today’s high school students. They think about this issue a lot. The growing YA subgenre of school-shooting novels is testament to how books can help young people process their thoughts and emotions related to this persistent societal problem. Readers drawn to other school shooting books such as Kody Keplinger’s That’s Not What Happened, Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes, or Dave Cullen’s Columbine may also find The Lucky Ones a satisfying read.

The Lucky Ones is an important addition to that tragic collection, but this book’s relevance goes beyond a school shooting context. In this debut novel, Liz Lawson shows that while there are no easy answers to life’s most difficult challenges, and resolution may be slow and closure never completely possible, there is always hope. As May’s mother says near the novel’s end, “All of this—all of us. We will be okay. I promise.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for this review. Opinions below are my own.

May, a high school junior, has survived and simultaneously been destroyed by the school shooting that killed her twin brother, bandmates, and teacher as she sheltered in a closet. Nearly a year later, she's traumatized but taking another swing at school and leaving the house, supported by her best friend Lucy. While May's obsessed with vandalizing the home of the school shooter's lawyer, a chance encounter with Zach, the beaten down son of the same lawyer, at Lucy's band tryout begins to crack May's emotional armor. I rooted so hard for Zach to have something good happen to him--he is so beaten down by his classmates cruelty and the burden of parenting his younger sister.

The raw anger and self-undermining secrecy May used to cope with her PTSD felt very accurately teenaged to me. It's hard to watch her refuse help, but it fits with how lost she is within her world of grieving. While I'm not normally a fan of alternating first person narration, I felt different perspectives were handled with sensitivity--Zach and May have their own really distinct voices, and because each chapter slightly overlaps the previous one in time frame, they flowed pretty seamlessly. I appreciated so much that this book didn't use loads of flashbacks.

Lawson walks a fine line between making May's and Zach's parents genuinely unsympathetic for most of the book, without making them villains or pushing too hard into a happy ending. That was especially nuanced in the case of Zach's mom, lawyer for the school shooter. I think it's meaningful for teens to sometimes recognize that parent's trying/doing their best isn't always good enough while acknowledging that they are trying and can improve. Recommended grades 10+

What an interesting book. I first saw this book on Twitter. Then, I looked on Netgalley, and I found it for request. The MC was relatable and realistic. The book has a strong message, and everyone needs to read it! My attention was held the entire time. Fantastic job Liz!

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review

I wanted to read this book because I knew that I would relate to it in some way. While my school was never shot up, I was robbed at gunpoint back when I worked retail in late 2017. So I felt I could be a good judge on the PTSD factor and dealing with feeling unsafe in a place you once didn’t it.

Well, there is some of that in this book but there’s also this romance that at times, kinda pushes that to the background. Which I didn’t like... I know that sounds stupid coming from me because I love romance but in this story... it’s not bad, just not what I wanted.

The writing is fine and dandy, nothing special but perfectly on par with others in the genre. Now, this is a personal preference, I HATED all the cussing in this book. This is also gonna sound strange but when books don’t have cussing I think they sound too unrealistic but this was just too much. Someone needed to wash their mouths out with soap as my grandma would say. It reminded me of how my younger sister and all her friends who think they’re so cool talk. It’s not classy at all. But some teenagers love to talk that way so it does fit. I just don’t like it.

All in all, a middle of the road book that tried its best to give a good message and show something that far too many young people have to deal with in this day and time. I still recommend for that alone.

Will go live: 4/8/2020

This book hit the nail on the head. We as Americans have begun to live in a culture where sadly school and mass shootings have become normal.
This book dives deep into the well of emotions when it comes to this subject.
This book is in two different POV. A survivor of the shooting Maya and the lawyers son, Zach. This shooting has effected them both so differently. Maya survived but lost friends, a teacher and her brother. Zach, his mother is a lawyer and is defending the shooter, he has been basically cast aside by almost all of his friends for being her son and a “traitor or sympathizer” in there eyes.

This book dives so deep into loss and it is gut wrenching. The inner struggle that many of the characters face and the authenticity of that was done so well.

Triggers - this book is sad and depressing To read. Even though it is brilliantly written and done so well it is a very hard subject matter. But it was done with such finesse I give 5 stars.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in Return for my review.

This is certainly a heavy, hard-hitting book. May is angry, and rightfully so. She survived a school shooting that her brother did not make it through and is haunted by that. This book deals with hard, relevant topics, but I found it hard to connect with, mostly because it was very vulgar. There was a lot of language, so if that’s not your cup of tea I do not recommend. If you’re looking for a book that deals with a heavy topic that needs to be talked about and don’t mind a lot of language, then this is the book for you. Very raw, real, and heartfelt.

Excellent read! Covers heavy topic in a beautiful way. I didn’t want to put this book down. I am excitedly telling everyone I know about this book.

This book was just gut wrenching to the extreme. My heart bled for May to have lost her twin in such a way and having her struggle with her guilt over surviving and finding Zach. Finding a way to be happy again with Zach is lovely and a joy to read.

This was a beautifully written debut by Liz Lawson. It tackles the all too common tragedy of school shootings, and the survivor’s guilt that comes along with being one of the so called “lucky ones” who survives. May channels all her anger and grief toward the shooter’s defense attorney until she inadvertently falls for her son, Zach. Once she becomes aware of who Zach’s mother is May realizes how much her actions have hurt him and his sister, who are not to blame for their mother’s actions. May’s anger and pain are so gut-wrenching and real that the reader can’t help but feel what she’s feeling. While heartbreaking, there is also hope.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson will hit you in the feels, not in a warm fuzzy way but in a very sad reality way. The Lucky ones tackles what it’s like to be a survivor of a school shooting and what it’s like dealing with the loss of a loved one, the grief of other lives lost, and how to keep going. This is a must read.

Thank you to Random House Children’s (Delacorte Press) via NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warning, Trigger Warning, Trigger Warning!! I cannot state that enough. This book was intense. I cried so much during it that I almost gave myself a sinus infection! It's been a week since I finished this book, and I still feel it. My heart absolutely aches for the characters and what they are going through. This is such a powerful read.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Content and trigger warnings include: School shootings, PTSD, panic attack, depression, alcoholism, death of a relative, blood

May McGintee lost her twin brother eleven months prior to the events of this book in a school shooting perpetrated by a classmate. Zach is a classmate in the school she transfers too, who also happens to be the shooter’s lawyer. They meet at band practice one night and an unexpected friendship forms.

Though the shooting is important in the set-up, it is the depiction of the aftermath from two points of view which really make this book unique. This book does a beautiful job depicting PTSD with a protagonist who is decidedly not okay. May has been let down by all the adults in her life and lost her favorite teacher and her brother in a horrific event. She’s angry. She acts out. She has less than favorable things said to those around her. The way her processing of her loss really stood out to me.

Zach’s perspective had been handled so compassionately. One of the things that really worked for me as a whole in this book was the thread of children not being held to their parents mistakes. No one handles anything appropriately, and it is so achingly human. This disappointment felt by the children is almost a character in and of itself. Lawson beautiful and heart-wrenchingly navigates all the facets, from individual disappointments to May’s rightful rage at the system which did nothing to address her specific trauma.

My heart still aches after finishing, but I couldn’t put it down. It is a powerful read full of grief, rage, and, most importantly, hope and healing.

One of the books I finished recently was the Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson- thank you so much to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review an early copy of this book!

The Lucky Ones 5/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads: May is a survivor. But she doesn't feel like one. She feels angry. And lost. And alone. Eleven months after the school shooting that killed her twin brother, May still doesn't know why she was the only one to walk out of the band room that day. No one gets what she went through--no one saw and heard what she did. No one can possibly understand how it feels to be her.
Zach lost his old life when his mother decided to defend the shooter. His girlfriend dumped him, his friends bailed, and now he spends his time hanging out with his little sister...and the one faithful friend who stuck around. His best friend is needy and demanding, but he won't let Zach disappear into himself. Which is how Zach ends up at band practice that night. The same night May goes with her best friend to audition for a new band.
Which is how May meets Zach. And how Zach meets May. And how both might figure out that surviving could be an option after all.

Oh man... this book was heavy. And so, so good. I graduated high school back in 2011, and at that point in time, the only big school shootings that had happened were Columbine and Virginia Tech, but we did have at least one lockdown drill every year. I can't imagine what life is like for people in school now where school shootings are so normalized and you never know what's going to happen when you walk in those doors. I loved this book so much because I feel like we as outsiders are always so concerned with shooting when they happen and in the weeks afterwards, but what about in the months afterwards? This book takes place about 11 months after the shooting, and I loved that it showed that even though it's been some time, people aren't ok and that is super normal. I tore through the book so fast and I loved all of the characters and how everything they were going through seemed so real.

The Lucky Ones comes out on April 7th, so make sure you pick it up if you can!

May is the lone survivor of a school shooting in a band room. Her twin brother was one of the people killed. A year later May is still angry and experiencing panic attacks. Her anger has led her to vandalizing the shooter's lawyer's house during that year. She meets and develops a relationship with the lawyer's son, Zach. Zach has also had a bad year with most of his friends turning their backs on him since his mom took the case. I thought the author did a great job conveying the feelings and thoughts of May and Zach. She describes typical teenage awkwardness and thoughts along with the added feelings of anger and ostracism. I think kids in high school would enjoy this book immensely.