Nothing but Life
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
White Pine Award 2022 — Shortlisted
During a sweltering summer, Dills must come to terms with a horrific crime and the parent he loves who committed it.
Dills and his mom have returned to Hamilton, her hometown, hoping to leave the horrors of Windsor behind. But it’s impossible to escape the echoes of tragedy, and trouble always follows trouble.
When Dills hurts a new classmate, it comes out in court that he was in the Windsor High library when the shooter came in. But he won’t talk about what he saw, what he still sees whenever he closes his eyes. He can’t. He definitely can’t tell anyone that the Windsor Shooter is his stepfather, Jesse, that Jesse can speak into his mind from hundreds of kilometres away, and that Dills still loves him even though he committed an unspeakable crime.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We never would have dreamed that a book that grapples with so much violence could be this sensitive and touching. High-school sophomore Dills is dealing with some major PTSD since his beloved stepfather, a war vet with his own mental struggles, had a psychotic break and shot up Dills’ school. Making a fresh start in a new town is tough, and soon Dills earns himself a summer of community service. Written in the first person, Nothing but Life does an amazing job revealing the fear and vulnerability hiding beneath Dills’ hardened surface—and his journey filled us with hope, especially when it looked like he might even find love along the way. We couldn’t help rooting for Brent van Staalduinen’s troubled protagonist. His story is a great reminder that behind even the toughest teen’s exterior, there’s someone worth rooting for.
