Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

21 reviews

grace_vangorder13's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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asparklingzombie's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

All of the characters are well-rounded and behave like real people, and for that I call the characters loveable; I feel like a lot of YA novels I've read often misfire when they attempt this degree of realism, but I think Keplinger pulls it off. There are no special quirks to make the characters particularly memorable, but I think that's fine given the serious subject the novel covers, so I won't be harshly judging that here.

The novel focuses on the survivors' present-day timeline, three to four years after the school shooting that changed their lives. Lee decides to collect letters from the five other survivors to combat the narrative that will be published by her deceased best friend's parents, which martyrizes her death by way of her defending her faith. The plot offers a snapshot into the post-shooting lives of each survivor while adding their perspective to the horrific event.

There aren't any surprising twists, and Keplinger chooses to handle the traumatic event tastefully rather than to dramatize, so if you're looking for a dark, thrilling read, this isn't going to be your novel. However, if you like a simple plot with mellow pacing that examines the impact a school shooting has on its survivors and its town, this will be more your tea.

There is a lot of thought and care put into the novel's pages and how the story would be presented. The sentence flow is solid with enough description to paint the scene and get the themes across, without becoming long-winded. Overall, this is one of the better YA novels I've read that have come out within the past decade.
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delaneylacerte4's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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rose34's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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synkdive's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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darcihanson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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taylors_literature's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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stacy_27_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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serene216's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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lakinlindsey's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book made me sob dealing with its themes of trauma, grief, guilt, and taking control of your own narrative. This book has some cool stuff to say of how important is the truth in the end. Is it better to give people that lost loved ones a sense of comfort? Or to be true to who people actually were? I Fall somewhere between where I think it’s fine to let people believe what they want but not at the cost of hurting someone else like in this book with Kellie. However, a favorite theme of mine from this book is Lee discussing how she hates that once people are dead they’re put on a pedestal and people refuse to be truthful about their flaws. This dehumanizes them and is unfair to their memory and to people still alive. That’s always been something I dislike as well. Last but not least I thought the book was building to a dark turn with Miles and I’m very glad that wasn’t the case in the end. This was a good, but triggering read so beware.
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