Escaping Opportunity
A brutal and petrifying story of a high school shooting, Marieke Nijkamp begins her debut novel with gunfire. Taking place in a time span of only fifty-four minutes, the novel is told from four different perspectives of four very different students whose lives are all linked to not only the shooter but each other. The four narrators tell their stories in real time as well as in flashbacks as chapters unfold in one to three minutes’ intervals that examine what may have motivated the rampage. Because the novel takes place in under an hour, the violence is almost unceasing, giving the reader few emotional breaks. A harrowing and heartbreaking story of a school shooting, Nijkamp debut novel balances the senseless violence of bombardments with uncommon acts of courage and compassion by a diverse cast of characters.…show more content… Tyler Browne's mother has died, his father drinks, and he's a high school dropout. On the first day of the spring semester, he returns to the school, where nothing ever happens, to exact revenge on anyone who may have bullied him. The four students who narrate the book are: Tyler's sister, Autumn, and her girlfriend Sylvia; his former girlfriend, Claire; and Sylvia's brother, Tomas. Ty is outraged at Autumn and Sylvia's relationship, mourning the loss of Claire, and determined to even the score with
