How We Ricochet by Faith Gardner

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, nothing is the same.

There are no easy answers to be found, 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 an unflinching and necessary story for our time that will resonate with readers everywhere.

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I said this recently about another book, and I'm saying it again now; some books are very difficult to review, because they are so good, it feels pointless trying to explain how good they are. This is one of those books.

Faith has made some unusual choices, which help the story stand out. We don't see the shooting; the book picks up in the aftermath, and though there's a flashback, it's all from Betty's point of view, and she never gets close enough to see what's happening. We get a few bits of information from her sister and mother, but nothing substantial. We never even learn exactly why the gunman did it; he was angry at a clerk, and while we can fill in the gaps, we're not told why.

The other choice that stands out is that neither her mother nor sister are injured in the shooting. In current terms, they are 'lucky'. They were not hurt. That doesn't stop any of them from suffering in various ways. I ... well, I can't say I 'loved' or 'enjoyed' it, but the fact that all three women reacted in completely different ways felt very true to life. No one experiences anything the same way as anyone else, so why would we not all react differently as well? The gunman's brother and mother are also reacting in different ways, and that's a perspective we very rarely get in any kind of real way.

I loved the maybe love interest/maybe friend interest, and Antonio is awesome as well.

This was hard to read in spots. But I definitely recommend it. I think this needs to be in classrooms and libraries and bedrooms all over the country and beyond.

How We Ricochet publishes on the 24th May, 2022. I was fiven a free copy and I'm giving an honest review.