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litwithleigh's review against another edition
2.0
Found this book at Canadian Tj Maxx for $5 so said YOLO. I really struggled rating this.
Writing: unique/5 | Plot: missing in action/5 | Ending: maybe his free trial of microsoft word finished so he had to pretend it ended there/5
THE PLOT
Literally nonexistent. There was a school shooting, a fired teacher was accused then exonerated, and then said teacher rambled on a lot about guns and sexism.
MY OPINION
Originally I wrote: Imagine if you dropped acid right as you watched some YouTube clips about sandy hook and then decided to write a book about mass shootings in America while tripping. That's how I imagine this book was written.
but tbh this was more like: imagine if you went to Joshua Tree and ate a bunch of shrooms, watched a Sandy Hook doc and then decided the world needed to hear your (mostly banal) take on mass shootings and sexism.
I did enjoy some of the "insights" provided by our whackadoodle narrator, but a lot of it was like saying "the sky is blue." Because there was legit no plot, nor character development, it felt like I was reading a catalogue of NYT letters to the editor after tragic events.
I gave this 2 stars because this was the best take on feminism from a male author I've read recently and I appreciated the unique prose. It's not for everyone but at least it was different than closed caption or dear diary ass writing. There were also some funny parts. But the narrator was a mishmash of contrasting ideologies and beliefs, making it tough to understand them. I couldn't connect with this reconstructed barbie doll with a ken head and lego arms.
PROS AND CONS
Pros: unique prose, I enjoyed the prologue from the shooter's POV, some insightful commentary, sometimes funny, didn't come off too mansplain-y when tackling sexism
Cons: no plot, no character development (or identity tbh), banal points, rambling, sometimes made me feel like I was on a date with a guy who thinks liking records is a personality trait
Writing: unique/5 | Plot: missing in action/5 | Ending: maybe his free trial of microsoft word finished so he had to pretend it ended there/5
THE PLOT
Literally nonexistent. There was a school shooting, a fired teacher was accused then exonerated, and then said teacher rambled on a lot about guns and sexism.
MY OPINION
Originally I wrote: Imagine if you dropped acid right as you watched some YouTube clips about sandy hook and then decided to write a book about mass shootings in America while tripping. That's how I imagine this book was written.
but tbh this was more like: imagine if you went to Joshua Tree and ate a bunch of shrooms, watched a Sandy Hook doc and then decided the world needed to hear your (mostly banal) take on mass shootings and sexism.
I did enjoy some of the "insights" provided by our whackadoodle narrator, but a lot of it was like saying "the sky is blue." Because there was legit no plot, nor character development, it felt like I was reading a catalogue of NYT letters to the editor after tragic events.
I gave this 2 stars because this was the best take on feminism from a male author I've read recently and I appreciated the unique prose. It's not for everyone but at least it was different than closed caption or dear diary ass writing. There were also some funny parts. But the narrator was a mishmash of contrasting ideologies and beliefs, making it tough to understand them. I couldn't connect with this reconstructed barbie doll with a ken head and lego arms.
PROS AND CONS
Pros: unique prose, I enjoyed the prologue from the shooter's POV, some insightful commentary, sometimes funny, didn't come off too mansplain-y when tackling sexism
Cons: no plot, no character development (or identity tbh), banal points, rambling, sometimes made me feel like I was on a date with a guy who thinks liking records is a personality trait
annegrmn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
itsdaltonjamesm's review
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
sara_shocks's review against another edition
4.0
You'd expect a book about why school shootings are so awful would be dark, and this is, but it's also a little bit funny (maybe a lot funny) and it's angry and unafraid of its subject. The structure was unusual—fragmentary, shifting between narration styles—but it works really well here for conveying the sort of cyclical nature of trauma responses.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
5.0
How To Be Safe by Tom McAllister is told from the point of view of a high school English teacher, a woman who was not at the school the day the shooting happened. With the murderer dead, there's a search for possible accomplices and Anna is briefly investigated by the FBI and hounded by the media.
As time moves on, Anna looks around at how the shooting has changed the town for good, and how easily these school shootings, and all the mass shootings, are quickly moved past, a few more guns are sold, a monument commissioned, a few more cameras installed to keep watch. But Anna is not moving on. She is consumed with how to be safe, when there are so many dangers out there.
On the highway, you can run into more dangers than you've ever imagined. Not just distracted drivers but stalkers, sex traffickers, teens throwing rocks through windshields from the overpass. If you pass enough cars, you will have passed at least one murderer; that's just statistics.
This novel is narrated by Anna, who spends a lot of her time thinking about what is dangerous. Now out of a job, she spends her day not interacting with her former friends, or spending time with her brother, although she finds that no matter how badly she wants to stay safe, people keep intruding into her life, and she can't stop herself from going outside and interacting with the other people living in the dangerous world.
"The world is not out to get you."
"I never said it was." Though I thought: What if it is?
"Your paranoia makes you not even human. It just makes you this jagged shard of fear that can't do anything."
I turned off the TV and stood. If he wanted to do things, then we would do things. I put on a jacket and some shoes and told him to follow me. If we got killed, it would be on him.
How To Be Safe is very much a commentary on how we have chosen to live in the US today, and how that affects our communities. But despite the subject matter, this book isn't bleak; Anna is too full of fight for that, and McAllister writes with a detached humor that suits this novel very well.
As time moves on, Anna looks around at how the shooting has changed the town for good, and how easily these school shootings, and all the mass shootings, are quickly moved past, a few more guns are sold, a monument commissioned, a few more cameras installed to keep watch. But Anna is not moving on. She is consumed with how to be safe, when there are so many dangers out there.
On the highway, you can run into more dangers than you've ever imagined. Not just distracted drivers but stalkers, sex traffickers, teens throwing rocks through windshields from the overpass. If you pass enough cars, you will have passed at least one murderer; that's just statistics.
This novel is narrated by Anna, who spends a lot of her time thinking about what is dangerous. Now out of a job, she spends her day not interacting with her former friends, or spending time with her brother, although she finds that no matter how badly she wants to stay safe, people keep intruding into her life, and she can't stop herself from going outside and interacting with the other people living in the dangerous world.
"The world is not out to get you."
"I never said it was." Though I thought: What if it is?
"Your paranoia makes you not even human. It just makes you this jagged shard of fear that can't do anything."
I turned off the TV and stood. If he wanted to do things, then we would do things. I put on a jacket and some shoes and told him to follow me. If we got killed, it would be on him.
How To Be Safe is very much a commentary on how we have chosen to live in the US today, and how that affects our communities. But despite the subject matter, this book isn't bleak; Anna is too full of fight for that, and McAllister writes with a detached humor that suits this novel very well.
clare_tan_wenhui's review against another edition
4.0
I thought about the ways people can be fulfilled and I reminded myself they are not faking it, they are actually happy, people can actually be happy, they are people who go on outside and act on the world and let it act on them and they feel okay about it. I wanted to be one of those people, and I didn't know how I could be that, but that's where I was headed. What I wanted, more than anything, was to be somewhere where I felt safe enough to try again.
Pg 229
A movingly acidic piece of work on the half-myth of "moving on" from tragedy. Despite the caustic tone of the protagonist Anna, thankfully the reader does not ever lose empathy for her. Space and time are always treasured gifts during any tragedy.
Pg 229
A movingly acidic piece of work on the half-myth of "moving on" from tragedy. Despite the caustic tone of the protagonist Anna, thankfully the reader does not ever lose empathy for her. Space and time are always treasured gifts during any tragedy.
lizaroo71's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this one up after seeing it on a list from my library.
The prologue begins from a teen boy's point of view. He describes the mundane activities he performs before he walks into his school and begins shooting indiscriminately. But, this isn't his story. This is Anne's story. She is an English teacher at the school and while she wasn't at the school when the shooting occurred, she is accused of being a perpetrator. When her name is cleared, she is still held under suspicion.
This is a timely book as it deals with a mass shooting and it takes a look at how this can happen. The writing is strong, I had many quotes marked in it. But, the protagonist just isn't a strong one. You want to reach in and shake her out of her stupor. Maybe this is real life though. You can't control how people react and this is a realistic portrayal of how that may be.
The prologue begins from a teen boy's point of view. He describes the mundane activities he performs before he walks into his school and begins shooting indiscriminately. But, this isn't his story. This is Anne's story. She is an English teacher at the school and while she wasn't at the school when the shooting occurred, she is accused of being a perpetrator. When her name is cleared, she is still held under suspicion.
This is a timely book as it deals with a mass shooting and it takes a look at how this can happen. The writing is strong, I had many quotes marked in it. But, the protagonist just isn't a strong one. You want to reach in and shake her out of her stupor. Maybe this is real life though. You can't control how people react and this is a realistic portrayal of how that may be.
jdintr's review against another edition
4.0
There is quite a bit of good literature out there on school shooting, and as a writing teacher, I know students are talking about the issue, exploring themes through fiction (yes, including zombie school shooters), and wondering if they will be next.
McAllister chooses a unique point of view for How to Be Safe, and that makes it stand out from other student-character-centered reads. His main character is a teacher--one who was suspended from work the day of the shooting and who became a suspect for a moment in the media frenzy (15 minutes which certainly must seem to those in the media eye like months and years of unwanted exposure).
The book addressed issues related to women and families through the main character as she comes to terms with herself in the context of the tragedy. This may disappoint readers as the plotline of the shooting peters out as the book goes on. Ultimately, the story is about escape--whether that takes the form of mass murder and revenge (in the form of the teenage boys who propogate these terrible tragedies) or leaving relationships and communities that bring us down.
McAllister chooses a unique point of view for How to Be Safe, and that makes it stand out from other student-character-centered reads. His main character is a teacher--one who was suspended from work the day of the shooting and who became a suspect for a moment in the media frenzy (15 minutes which certainly must seem to those in the media eye like months and years of unwanted exposure).
The book addressed issues related to women and families through the main character as she comes to terms with herself in the context of the tragedy. This may disappoint readers as the plotline of the shooting peters out as the book goes on. Ultimately, the story is about escape--whether that takes the form of mass murder and revenge (in the form of the teenage boys who propogate these terrible tragedies) or leaving relationships and communities that bring us down.
meeshkageorge's review against another edition
3.0
I was drawn in right away, but then I felt it was lacking as the novel progressed. It felt too scattered for me and although I know it was supposed to be sarcastic and funny, it didn't totally resonate with me. Liked it, but didn't love it.
kathleenww's review against another edition
2.0
I just didn't really enjoy much about this book. I kept thinking the narrator was a male voice (it's supposed to be woman), I didn't understand a trope he kept repeating (the sun disappeared in this town...), and I felt little for anyone in the novel. Just underwhelming--so underwhelming, I forgot to record I'd read it and actually went back and re-read the last twenty pages or so, to remind myself I did indeed finish it! It ends abruptly and unsatisfactorily.