Shooter by Caroline Pignat

Caroline Pignat is one of Darcy's favourite authors (she actually got to attend a writing workshop with Caroline earlier this year) who is actually based in Ottawa and is a high school teacher here. She writes books aimed at teens and teens love them. This one was released while I was doing my placement in a high school library and it was in high demand. Darcy read it then, but later bought the book at a meet and greet with the author at a local Chapters store. She's been on my case to read it ever since so I took the opportunity during my summer vacation to give it a read.

Anyone in my age group knows and loves the movie The Breakfast Club. We loved watching those five students trapped together in Saturday detention, starting the day as strangers and ending the day as friends. The situations they faced forced them to see beyond high school labels to the real people inside.

Shooter operates in much the same way. 5 students are trapped in the boys' bathroom during a school lockdown. Each student speaks in their own unique voice (poetry, prose, text messages, writing journals) and they combine to tell the story of what happens that day in their school. There's Alice, a lonely writer who is a caregiver to her older brother, Noah, who has autism. Hogan is a former football player who is always in trouble after the death of his older brother. Isabelle is the student council president and always feels pressured to present a perfect image to the other students and her parents. The final student is Xander, a social misfit who sees the world better through the lens of his camera and needs to do "social autopsies" on conversations after they happen so he can understand what transpired.

At the beginning they assume the lockdown is a drill, or simply related to a series of pranks that have been happening at the school in recent weeks. Things change when Isabelle receives a text from her friend locked down in the office that this isn't a drill or a prank, there is a shooter in the school.

These five students need to understand each other (and more about themselves) in order to get through. Maybe there is more to perfect Isabelle than she lets on. Hogan's painful past has damaged him in ways he can't get past. Alice feels a huge responsibility for Noah and may have to put her own dreams aside to help care for him. Xander is trying to fit in in a world he doesn't understand and the one friend he thought he had leads him on a dangerous path. These students look to each other and into themselves to learn how to work together to survive.

I loved reading this book and I highly recommend it for anyone, but especially any teens you may have in your life. My library doesn't currently own a copy of this book, but I'll be getting one during this school year. Please look into Caroline's work and support this fantastic local author! Here is a link to a review I did of Egghead a few years ago.