May is left shouldering mental blame for many of the rifts in the relationships she’s had, both before and after the shooting on top of this.
May’s brother was considered the family’s “golden child” with May having feelings of fading into the background and guilt over things she said and did before her twin’s death.
May’s parents are torn because of the loss of their son and layers of conflict that developed in the aftermath of that. Zach seemed to understand more of where his father was, I don’t think the narrative supported that realization as much as it could’ve.) For a book that explores so many mental health issues, that wasn’t a fair run. It was honestly poor presentation that only really got explored towards the end of the book. (Yet, I don’t feel this book did a good job of showing Zach’s father’s depression and handling with the care it really deserved. For instance, Zach’s mom is absent due to the case and Zach’s burden is more taking care of his sister, cleaning up their vandalized house, shouldering responsibilities that his father can’t address because of ongoing depression. I think this speaks well to teens who may feel isolated in the aftermath of a traumatic event, and often don’t feel like people get where they’re coming from, even it may be having to pick up the pieces for parents who aren’t around as much as they should be. I go back and forth with my opinion on this book in the aftermath because I felt the experience pulled me in with showing both teens working through circumstances where they’re put in difficult positions by people who don’t understand the depth of what they’re going through. (I’m a twin myself, so this gutted me on several levels.) But “The Lucky Ones” presents a dual story with May’s experience being on one end of the spectrum, while Zach’s tumultuous experience after his mother takes the case in defending the shooter is on the other. It definitely hurt for me to read, considering it’s largely about a young woman grieving the loss of her twin after a horrible school shooting in which she was the only survivor. Liz Lawson’s “The Lucky Ones” is a book with its heart in the right place, one I appreciated but with some caveats.
0 kommentar(er)
