How We Ricochet
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
For readers of This Is How It Ends and All the Bright Places, How We Ricochet , an emotional YA contemporary novel, takes an intimate and unflinching look into the devastating consequences of a mass shooting for one girl and her close-knit family, from Faith Gardner, acclaimed author of Girl on the Line.
It seems sometimes a charade that we continue celebrating in the face of relentless tragedy.
How dare we? But then . . . what else is there to do?
Betty’s mom needed new pants for her job.
That was why Betty was at the mall with her mom and sister when the shooting started.
Afterward, in this gripping survivor story, nothing is the same.
There are no easy answers to be found in the wake of gun violence, and Betty’s search for them leads her to Michael, the brother of the shooter. But this path only shows Betty one thing: that everything she thought she knew—about herself, about the world around her—can change in a heartbeat.
A moving, powerful journey of life after tragedy, How We Ricochet is a fearless and necessary story about healing for our time that will resonate with readers everywhere.
One moment, they were shopping for pants. The next, their lives were shattered—and Betty is left to pick up the pieces.
An Unlikely Connection: Betty’s search for answers leads her to the one person who might understand: Michael, the brother of the boy who pulled the trigger.A Family’s Trauma: As her mom channels her anger into activism and her sister, Joy, retreats into herself, Betty feels more alone than ever in the aftermath.PTSD and Grief: An unflinching look at the psychological wounds left by tragedy and the difficult, nonlinear path toward healing.Teen Social Issues Fiction: Perfect for readers of All the Bright Places, this powerful novel tackles tough topics with honesty and heart, exploring the devastating ripple effects of a mass shooting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gardner (Girl on the Line) portrays complex, vulnerable characters navigating the aftermath of gun violence in this emotionally charged novel. On the day of a Bay Area mall shooting, 18-year-old Betty is helpless to do anything, awaiting the fate of her mother and older sister Joy, who are trapped inside the same store as the shooter. Though physically unharmed, the cued-white family is left untethered by the experience. Betty's mother becomes a fierce advocate for gun control, compromising her relationship with her daughters; Joy, 21, refuses to leave their Berkeley apartment and develops a reliance on alcohol and prescription medication; and Betty, compelled to learn more about the shooter and why he died by suicide in front of Joy after the incident, seeks out his half-white, half-Indian American brother Michael, 17, a former classmate. As their unlikely friendship develops, stirring unexpected feelings in Betty, and tension within the family builds to a dramatic climax, Betty struggles to come to terms with "how dangerous the world really is." Though the story is told from Betty's point of view, her mother's fury and her sister's terror are as palpable as Betty's burning desire to understand why the event happened and whether it was preventable. Ages 13–up.
