Review: Aftermath - Kelley Armstrong

Review: Aftermath - Kelley Armstrong - May 2018

A theme of books that I have always been fascinated with is school shootings, I know that makes me sound creepy, but I'm not honest. I guess living in New Zealand, we only hear about the shootings. Kelley Armstrong's book was a different take on your usual school shooting novel which takes place leading up to the shootings. This one features the siblings of victims and shooters three years later. Skye and Jesse were the best of friends until one day changed their lives forever. There has been a school shooting at the high school, and both their siblings died - one was the shooter and the other a victim. Skye moves away for the next three years until her mum suffers a mental breakdown which lands her hospitalized and Skye must move back to live with her aunt in the hometown where the school shooting happened. Skye starts school and is instantly targeted as the girl whose brother shot up the school. Things start happening to Skye, and soon she is being bullied, and someone wants her dead but not before they make her watch footage from the school shooting. As she learns more about the shooting, the evidence seems to come to light that not all was what it seemed and that her brother may have been innocent and others were to blame. This was a good read and also held the moral of not judging others for the actions of siblings or family members but that we are all different and just because a family member might do something, we aren't the same as them. I liked this part as growing up; I had a sibling who was the complete opposite and tried hard to prove I wasn't like them.