Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This book follows May, a teenage girl who is recovering from a traumatic event and learning to find herself again. TW: school shooting, depression, anxiety.
I’m rating this book 3 stars because although it kept me interested, I didn’t feel anything with the characters. I wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters and I don’t feel like the characters had any connection with each other either. It felt like it was only brushing the surface of some really heavy topics and I was kind of left with a feeling of incompleteness. It was one of those books that ended and I was like, “Wait what? It’s over?”. It didn’t feel like it was wrapped up very well. I could’ve used at least three more chapters to wrap everything up.
I didn’t feel a spark from the main love interests. It felt like the author forced them to be together but there was no real chemistry. I didn’t love Zach. He was sweet and all, but he had insta love and when he got mad at May I was annoyed. The background characters (minus Lucy) were not strong or interesting. There was a lot of potential for this book but I wanted more from it. I wanted it to go into more detail about everything. The characters, the relationships, the self-growth, the resolution.

This book is so beautiful and so sad and so heartbreaking, maddening, rip-your-insides-out-and-change-them-into-something-new. It's raw and visceral and unflinching in its examination of PTSD and survival after a school shooting. May is relatable despite going through something millions can't even imagine. Her pain is real and leaps off the page. Everyone needs to read this book.

I really liked this book. It grappled with important issues and did so in the most graceful of ways. Liz Lawson is truly an author I intend to read more of and I can't wait for her sophomore novel. Full review is to come!

Liz Lawson is such an incredible author and I loved her debut. She tackled a hard topic and made it something that I felt made me better for it. I loved reading this novel and cannot wait to see what Lawson writes next.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this one, but man I found myself unable to put it down. And I cried the whole last 10-15% of the book so many feels.

Liz Lawson took to writing her first novel a year after the Parkland school shooting, which she makes note of in her author's note at the end of the book. Her research is apparent throughout the novel, though, as she highlights in her note other school shootings and the trauma that teenagers and the leftovers are forced to endure post-shooting.

The Lucky Ones follows two alternating narrators, May, a school shooting survivor who lost her twin brother, and Zach, the son of the lawyer who chose to represent the shooter in court. Both narrators feel as though their lives are other, as though no one understands them, and as though nothing could ever be the same. Both have families who don't understand them, and are at a loss for how to make it through the day to day struggle that has become their lives.

I'll be honest in that I have read other books that focus on the after effects of school shootings, This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp, for example. And something that Lawson does that I highly respect is that she makes it realistic. I don't know if Liz Lawson ever had to suffer through a school shooting, but the way she writes about it is raw and real. It's genuine. It's abrasive.

May is suffering. She survived the shooting by hiding in a closet, and she blames herself for letting the rest of them die. And to top it all off, the shooter has been trying to contact her for the past year from jail. He wants to talk to her. He feels connected to her. But all May can think about is why he let her live.

Readers follow May through her breakdowns. She passes out, she panics, she has anxiety, and she lashes out at everyone around her. She feels neglected and alone. She pushes people away. She needs time to herself. She's real.

Lawson paints this horrific incident in a realistic tone. It's a young adult novel, and there are strong themes of friendship and romance, but it's not the main focus. Instead, she drives home the importance of one's own identity and finding oneself after going through one of the most tragic events anyone should ever experience. This story is about survival. It's about recovery. And it's about grief.

While it might not be my absolute favorite book, Liz Lawson's debut novel The Lucky Ones is worth reading, especially with the increasing rate of school shootings that are running rampant in our country today.

*a thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an arc*

I enjoyed this book and would rate it 4.5 stars! The book is told from the perspective of two characters. May, whose twin brother died in a school shooting the previous year, and Zach, whose mother (a lawyer) took the shooter's case. Trigger warnings for violence, death, guns, PTSD, depression (mentioned), and all the wonderful things that occur when your country lets anyone get a gun! :| Of course, you should still look up the warnings on your own because surprise surprise it can get kinda dark. Despite this, it was still really enjoyable! It had a perfect amount of angst and I actually enjoyed the romance, which is a lot to say coming from me! Overall, really well written and would recommend!

I get what this book was trying to do. But there were things in this book...that were just not okay. The parents in this book or lack thereof...like I get that that were dealing with tragedy as well...but that does not mean you can stop being a parent to your other children #TheLuckyOnes #NetGalley

I knew The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson would be an emotional read and that's exactly what I got.
A wonderful debut novel by Liz Lawson.

What a punch in the gut this book was. I absolutely adored it. I couldn't believe this was the author's first book - she handled the topic with so much care and balance, a stunning debut. Highly recommend.

I really liked reading from the perspective of survivors rather than reading the actions as they happened, its definitely an interesting perspective. The author did a decent job of showing people working through trauma while also blaming themselves for things that were out of their control. It isn't the best book I've read, but worth reading for the message.

This book drained me in its last chapters, especially when one of the main characters hits rock bottom.
The book talks about the aftermath of the Carter High School shooting, showing you how it affects students and families. In this case, what happened affected the main character a lot since one of the victims was her twin brother and she was hidden in the closet of the music room while everything happened.
What I liked about the book was the development of the plot, you can see a positive progress of the characters, but then it surprises taking a dark and distressing course. In addition, the book was a light read because the chapters were short and the story was told by two different points of view, one from May and the other from Zack.
Now let's talk a little about the characters, May at first bothered me because she was becoming too grumpy, to the point where I no longer understood her anger. Hopefully, her development was quite positive and I really liked it because I was able to connect with her in the last chapters.
Another character that I liked was Zack, the boy is very cute and I was very sorry to know what was happening to him, all that hatred that he received just for being the son of the lawyer who was defending the case of the shooter of the massacre in Carter. However, that didn't make him collapse and because of that, it makes his relationship with May quite positive.
In truth, the book is good and teaches you things that others do not, just keep in mind that it talks about post-traumatic stress disorders, depression and it tells not graphically but mentions some details of what happened in the Carter.

This book was so sad and hard hitting I cried a few times I didn’t expect to cry but I did. I gave this five stars, it was so good 😊.

Short synopsis: The story follows the aftermath of a school shooting. A girl named May is a survivor. She doesn’t feel like that way, she feel mad, sad, angry, alone. She lost her twin brother from the shooting. Zach lost her mother when she decided to defend the shooter. His friends bailed him and his ex girlfriend bailed too and now he hangs out with his faithful friend who invites him to band audition where he meets May

This book has some triggers for substance abuse, school shooting just let people know if they have those triggers and this book really shows that these students trying to find a new “normal” of the aftermath

This was a heart-wrenching, poignant story. It's one that shakes you to your core. It's sad to think that school shootings are something that kids in school have to face, but this story handled it so beautifully. I loved this.

I really liked this book. It dealt with a diverse character cast going through completely different, but it intertwined beautifully with the story.

The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson was a pretty quick read once I’d actually gotten into the book. It’s one of the most heavy and hard-hitting young adult novels I’ve read this year so far but also thematizes such an important topic.

I think it’s very important to include heavy topics such as school shootings in teen literature because those books should portray reality and sadly, what happened in this book can happen at any school in the world and still happens several times a year at schools in the United States. I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to go to school every day and have to actually fear that someone enters the building with a gun and you, your friends or your siblings won’t come home alive at the end of the day. This was such a heartbreaking book and reading about May trying to cope with losing her twin brother and her classmates brought tears to my eyes.

However, I decided to deduct a star and ultimately rate The Lucky Ones four out of five stars because, as mentioned above, I had a hard time getting into the novel at first and it took a while until I started caring about the characters. Furthermore, I also sometimes struggled with Liz Lawson’s writing but this is her debut novel and so I’m definitely still interested in reading her next book In Silent Seas We Drown which is coming out in 2021.

We shouldn't have to have stories about school shootings because school shootings (and any shooting for that matter) shouldn't be happening but they are and this book wonderfully explores the affects they have on the lives of those who are left behind, the people who have to live with the aftermath, the survivors, the 'the lucky ones'.

Both Maya and Zach's narratives were brilliantly explored. I particularly loved that the author allowed them both to be angry, without being looked down upon or seen as aggressive or 'bad', which is something I rarely see in YA. They were both real, raw, multifaceted teens who were given permission to explore their emotions and navigate their grief in the aftermath of the same traumatic circumstance, despite it having affected their lives in very different ways.

The relationships throughout the book were wonderful and once again, brilliantly multi-dimensional and given a depth that added so much to the story and characters. From friendships to family to romance, no relationship, old or new, was untouched by the trauma caused by one single person and I thought the author portrayed this really well.

This was heart wrenching, heart warming, intense, poignant, sensitively written and packed with a wide spectrum of emotions that don't stop hitting you right in the gut from beginning to end. I don't doubt that this is a read that will will stick with me for a long time to come.

TW: school shooting, PTSD, panic attacks

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I loved this book. The atmosphere was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the plot and storyline in the book. I loved the characters in this story. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.

I ended up really liking the writing in this book. I read it in only a few sittings, and it gave me so many feelings. I ended up enjoying it so much more than I expected.

***Actual Rating: 3.5/5 Flying-Far-Away Stars***

When people told me this book would be perfect for fans of All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, I literally pushed everything I was reading aside just to pick this one up right away. Well, after I was finished, there's one thing I could be sure of and that is: May and Zach's story was nothing like Violet and Finch's--my favorite OTP's--even though both stories did convey some essential messages to us readers.

In my opinion, there's been more and more news reports on school shootings in the U.S. in the past few years, and even though it's not--and hopefully will never be--the new normal anywhere in the world, it's undeniable that more and more people have to deal with the consequences and the traumatic experiences caused by the incidents.

The main characters, May and Zach, were the victims in a shooting incident, but they had very, very different reasons to mourn over. One lost a beloved family member whereas the other was on the receiving end of all things hostile. At first, it was good to know May and Zach had each other to hold on to when they couldn't get their emotions under control; however, as the story and truth behind the incident started to unfold, they realized what they used to believe in may all be a lie.

What I appreciated most about this story was the layers of the character development between May and Zach. Needless to say, they grew much more mature at the end of everything, but the process was certainly the most precious and what I cherished most. It wasn't an easy task to depict the healing evolution from various levels of grief, hatred, and self-deprecation, to the ability to seek help, express the feelings, and forgive themselves.

That being said, The Lucky Ones was undoubtedly a book I'd recommend and I hope everyone will be able to put themselves in the characters' shoes for once, just to feel the power of healing and being healed.

***Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***