Thoughts & Prayers

by Lee Anne Post

Straight-A student Lily Jeong, misunderstood by helicopter parents and ignored by thoughtless classmates, sneaks her manipulative boyfriend into Rockwell High believing he’ll get revenge for her recent public humiliation. But he breaks his promise that no one will get hurt, and minutes later, fourteen people are dead.

Plagued by guilt, Lily invents one lie after another to evade arrest. While devastated survivors grieve, investigators make slow progress identifying the accomplice, and class president Keisha Washington—Lily’s long-time nemesis who narrowly escaped death—resolves to hunt down the culprit herself. As Lily dodges detection, she bonds with Sofia Hernandez, who lost her best friend, Caitlyn Moran, in the shooting.

The adults around them—Joe Hernandez, Sofia’s father, and the first policeman to enter the school; Charmaine Robinson, a nurse whose husband died protecting Keisha; and former Army Colonel Mike Moran, Caitlyn’s father—also struggle to piece together their wrecked lives. When they come together in a support group, instead of finding solace, their mounting feelings of grief and anger drive them to protest and vengeance. Will they ever find justice and peace?

Kindle Edition

Published October 26, 2021

Reviews

[Dawnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a chilling account of the repercussions of a school shooting. A look into the life of a young girl and the haunting choices she made that changed so many lives forever. This was emotional and I felt a huge lump in my throat reading this. This haunted me. As sad and horrific as the plot is it is also a beautifully written story with characters so real you feel like you know them. Stunning!

Dawnny Ruby
Novels N Latte
Hudson Valley NY

[Kris Zeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

For some reason I have read a number of books about school shootings, and they're all sad, but this one was so beautifully written that it was sometimes difficult to read. Not just one but several of the characters have passages that I really found to be a lot to handle emotionally. Specifically, the relationship between Cat & Sofia is just wonderful, and I wish that every young girl had a friend like that. Since I do have a friend like that, who I can't imagine losing, their story line was really tough for me to read sometimes. The emotional response I had to her experience really illustrated for me the extreme trauma kids are experiencing when things like this happen or even when they worry about things like this happening.

I am a Columbine generation kid. We were shocked by Columbine, and though the immediate aftermath was a little scary for a high school freshman, it was an isolated incident on the other side of the country. I never went to school worried that it was going to happen to me. I was never scared that my best friend would be shot in front of me. I never lost a beloved teacher to gun violence or had the police interview me about classmates. The more I read about events like this the more frightening it is that kids today do. They worry about this. They worry about it because it's no longer an isolated incident, it happens literally every year. That's so much scarier than I think most people realize.

I've read a few books about this kind of event recently, and I really like the way they illustrate the ripple effect of one person's actions and the drastic impact these things have on people's lives. I think it would serve the country well if more people read books like this so they would really understand the magnitude of this problem. Kids shouldn't have to live like this, and after an event everyone agrees.....but two weeks later we're back to normal life. I LOVE that this title calls out the absolute slap in the face that an offer of 'thoughts are prayers' is to kids who need action.

My only bit of criticism is that I really, truly, deeply hate the cover. Specifically I hate the font of the title & author's name, it's extremely amateurish.

[Alex Morán · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book....will make you cry, think deeply about a horror that has swept too many of this nation's schools, and leave you with a fight burning in your spirit. Each author in this book did a fantastic job of putting together a heartwrenching read and maybe it's just me but I found myself entranced with Lily. How her choices affected so many people and how she was unwittingly sucked into something so horrible as an accomplice.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughts & Prayers provides another take on the school shooting phenomonen that is mostly uniquely American. Told from multiple perspectives the story centers around LIly, a student who is struggling socially due to the pressure from her parents and herself, and her participation in the tragedy at her high school, along with the friends and family of survivors. Lily is manipulated by her boyfriend (the boyfriend that no one knows about) and thinks he is just going to get back at classmates for humiliating Lily-but that no one will get hurt. Instead, mere minutes later, 14 are dead. Lily is terrified of being implicated, and tells lie after lie. While the survivors meet in a support group, some forge friendships while others are determined to get vengenance. Tired of thoughts and prayers, how is this group of survivors supposed to move forward?

This is a tough book. First and foremost. I had to put it down at times because, as one would expect, the material is heavy, sad and difficult to read. The feelings, emotions, and reactions ring true. There have been many novels covering this tough subject matter and this is told from more of the YA genre. The perspective changes often and you have keep that in mind as you follow along but this is a solid story covering a very difficult subject.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

[Chelsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very hot topic in the US right now- school shootings. This novel follows various characters of a school shooting and gives different perspectives of the shooting as well as the aftermath of it all. Although this is a very scary topic to think about, this novel encompasses what a school shooting does to a community. It is not just the kids that are affected, but this spiderwebs out to parents, teachers, counselors, hospital staff, the police force as well as the gun activists, government leaders and lately the President of the US calling for changes- but it seems nothing gets changed.

This novel follows a nurse who is directly involved and connected to someone who perishes in the shooting, a father who is a police officer that helps get students out in the midst of the shooting, and a few of the students who came face to face with the shooter and after-affect of his actions. I thought this was very well written in that it did not get too dark, but it brought up the various different topics and sides of when a school shooting happens. School shootings started happening right after I left high school, so I do not know the fear these kids have but I do know the fear as a parent that I have of this happening in my community.

Thank you to the author for the free autographed novel, and the Suzy Approved Book Tours for the invite.

[Debbie Rozier · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.

This book which is penned by four authors is told in multiple voices of the victims’ family, friends, an accomplice, and even a victim themselves of a high school shooting.

The story begins on the day of the shooting and tells in the aftermath of how each person copes with their losses.

Let me tell you a true story..

I live in Florida. In 2018, a shooter came into Majory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida and killed 17 students and injured 17 more.

They also have a fantastic marching band that competes and wins at the state and national level.

In 2019, I was in Daytona Beach for the Florida Marching Band Championships with my daughter’s high school band. We were at final retreat which is when all band members are on the field to receive awards.

Fireworks suddenly went off as a celebration of the winners. While other bands and supporters in the stands enjoyed the fireworks, those that were part of Stoneman Douglas High School began to take cover. The adult supporters began to rush from their seats in the stands to get to the field to protect their kids. The adults associated with that band on the field began to cover the kids. The fireworks which I thought were a pleasant surprise brought back PTSD for those families and staff so severe that some kids had to have medical treatment.

You need to read this book because unless you’ve been through this situation you really can’t grasp how these people have had their lives forever changed.

[Susan Ballard (subakkabookstuff) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is shattering and gut-wrenching as it walks you through the moments and days after a school shooting. One girl, weary from being bullied, makes a naive choice that will change lives forever.

It was emotional and visceral enough, and then, as I was reading it, the news broke… a shooting in an elementary school here in Texas; my heart broke.

I struggled to continue, but these authors did such a fantastic job. It covers the utter fear, devastation, panic, and what comes next. How do they bury their loved ones? And how do these kids, parents, and the community move on from this paralyzing grief and with this weight of anger? How can there ever be justice?

No matter what side of the aisle you stand on, this book will touch you deeply. No one will come away unmoved.

Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours @ginnyfite @cathybaldau and @dreamcircle1111 for a spot on tour and a gifted copy.

[Jiyoung · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know that the victims and survivors of mass shooting go through a lot... But I personally never fully understood the magnitude of what that is like until I came across Thoughts & Prayers.

At first, I thought Lily was the main character of the book; however, this book is organized in a way that each character has their chance to share their life from their perspective from the day of the shooting.

I definitely sympathized with Lily, especially in the beginning of the book, when things got out of control and many people were killed and hurt. I can't imagine being Lily and having to navigate that chaos and guilt trying to hide it from everyone else.

However, as the story continued, I wholeheartedly empathized with the rest of the victims and survivors of the shooting and could not hold my tears in. In many tragic events, it's easy to focus on the victims, not the survivors including victims' families and friends. But can you imagine having your loved ones taken away from you out of nowhere?

Reading about how the survivors from the shooting were coping with the tragedy, it gave me a lot to think about: Some people want changes to prevent another mass shooting, some people want to forget everything and slowly move on, and some people cannot simply move on... because they feel guilty for surviving.

I know simple Thoughts & Prayers are not enough for the survivors and victims of mass shooting. We need systemic changes to keep our children safe from guns and gun violence. I hope that day comes sooner than later.

Thank you to Netgalley and Milford House Press for giving me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Christine Livinghouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I am feeling all kinds of feels about this book—anxious, sad, hopeful, cAutious, anger and more! The authors have created a story (based on too many school shootings irl) that will force you to examine your views on gun control, the legal system, what it takes to be a family and the critical , fragile state of the adolescent experience.
Truth be told, I have read so many books on school shootings but this one has the twist of including the points of view of the shooter as well as one of his deceased victims along with parents and other students.
This is an important read. Unfortunately, it’s also timely.

[Suzanne Thackston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very well done, especially for being written by multiple authors and yet staying cohesive, which is a pretty tall order. As with most of 'em, I found some voices much stronger than others and one which I didn't think was on the same level as the others. But the good far outweighed any meh.
It's such a tough subject. Approaching it from the POV of people other than the students provided much needed context for discussing it. Also pleased that they were smart enough not to attempt anything resembling a happy ending, or loose ends tied up. The messiness of it all is vital to keeping it real.
Since we're clearly not, as a country, going to give up even the smallest of our 'freedoms' by sensible restrictions and consequences, maybe the only thing to do is to keep reminding people of how horrible, how unthinkably ghastly it is for those involved, and we have more and more and more with every passing month. Maybe until everyone has either experienced this crime for themselves or are willing to read books that make them uncomfortable with their shallow clinginess to the Second Amendment, we'll have to hope this book shows up in book clubs and discussion venues until the message finally sinks in.

[Katie Levesque · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Don’t send us your thoughts and prayers. Don’t tell us ‘it is what it is’ and nothing will change. This can’t be how it is. Enough is enough. Don’t tell us your right to own a gun is more important than our right to be alive. We won’t let you. Not anymore.”

I hung onto every word. I cried, I empathized with these characters. Each character so different, and grieving in their own ways. This book was powerful, emotional, and heavy. It’s also something I hope everyone will read. I will be first in line to purchase this book for my personal library when it is released in October. Bravo to the author for giving such a gut wrenching look into a subject that’s so hard to think about.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for allowing me an early read. 10/10 recommend this book to everyone.

[Kate Larkindale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the first book I've read about a school shooting and it probably won't be the last. This kind of thing seems to have become far too frequent an occurrence in American schools.

The book opens in the chaos of the shooting and follows a group of survivors through the aftermath. The survivors are a mixture of students, parents and other adults associated with the shooting. Which for me, made this a confusing read. Is it supposed to be YA? If so, why are there so many adult voices in there? Or is it for adults? If so, why doesn't it go deeper into the way this kind of event can affect adult relationships?

Because the book straddled the line between YA and adult, I didn't feel like it really did justice to either audience that well. The voices of the characters were not distinct enough to recognize who was narrating any one section and the young voices were not that different from the older ones. It was surprising to me to discover the book was written by four authors because the voices were all so similar.

And there were so many characters to keep straight!

There's Lily who was an accomplice to the shooting in that she let her boyfriend into the school to, she thought, make a little mischief. There's Keisha, the over-achiever whose life was saved by the guidance counsellor whose office she was in at the time of the shooting. There's Sofia whose father is one of the policemen who entered the school first to take down the shooter. There's Caitlin, Sofia's best friend who is shot, but not initially killed in the shooting.

There's Charmaine, the nurse at the hospital who receives the victims and is the wife of the slain guidance counsellor, there's Joe, Sofia's father and the cop who enters the school first, there's Caitlin's father, Mike, dealing with the grief of losing his daughter.

And there's the killer who is known primarily by his initials, ABC. There are a few sections from his POV too.

The book follows these characters through the shooting and the weeks following it, through their grief and anger and accusation and attempts to heal. Each has their own way of dealing with the events but they all come together at a support group, not knowing the accomplice they are all anxious to find is actually sitting among them, grieving alongside them and dealing with her guilt at the same time.

The characters were racially diverse - Asian, Latino, Black and white, but I felt a little uncomfortable with the representation. It felt very stereotypical, especially the representation of Lily's parents as Asian tiger parents, interested only in school and not caring about art or anything else. The Spanish sprinkled into conversation amongst the Latino families didn't feel authentic either, not like the writers actually spoke Spanish with their own families.

This was an interesting book dealing with sensitive and important subject matter, but I feel like it could have been stronger if it had focused only on the teen experiences or only on the adults. Trying to balance both meant neither was fully realized - a shame when dealing with such powerful material.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this one early!

[Linda Zagon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every parent’s nightmare is hearing that their child’s school has had a shooting. “Thoughts & Prayers” by Lee Ann Post,( Pen name for authors Catherine Baldau, Tara Bell, Ginny Fire, and K.P. Robbins ) is an intense, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking contemporary novel about a major problem in society today. The Genres for this novel are Children’s Violence Books, Coming of Age Fiction, and Contemporary Fiction. The author describes her characters as complex and complicated. The authors vividly describe each of the character’s reactions and responses to the tragedy that happens to their school and community.

After a student helps open a closed door, so her boyfriend can enter the school building, she has no idea what his true intentions are. He uses some bombs and then starts shooting students and teachers. The authors discuss the community’s reaction. There is fear, shock, grief, anger, wishes for revenge, and denial. There is a division in the community about gun control and the right to bear arms. Support groups and vigils are organized after the tragedy.

The spouses, the parents, and the victims all voice their fears, sorrow, and anger. Even one of the deceased victim’s essence is there to interface with the living in order to relieve any of the suffering and possible angry reactions, as well as the clues to the accomplice of the crime.

The authors describe how the characters try to move on, and even show a glimmer of hope. I recommend this novel, and I sincerely hope that kindness and peace prevail, and that bullying and violence disappear.

[Sarah Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was a beautiful October day. The worst things always happened on the most beautiful days."

At my high school, it was an April day instead of October-but it was still a beautiful day. We were lucky. The gunman was stopped by the school liaison officer immediately upon entering the building. I've lived every day since then knowing that it could have been us.

I thought that this book was written by a teen. Not that it sounded like an inexperienced author, but because the writing seems to be closely related to how a teenager would think. Every voice seemed genuine, and the characters were made very relatable. I really loved how almost every point of view surrounding this incident was heard. It showed the larger reach of tragic events such as this one, and how so so many are affected. It made me sad, angry and, in the end, thoughtful. (HOW on earth has #thoughtsandprayers become a hashtag? As a society, how have we let things go this far?) Very well written and moving. One of the best books I've read on this topic, and I've read A LOT.

[Rox · Rating 3 out of 5]

📖 Book Review 📖

I have some complicated feelings about Thoughts & Prayers.

On the positive end, I liked the multiple POVs and felt like it enhanced the storytelling.

The subject (aftermath of a school shooting) is a difficult one and I can appreciate the challenge in trying to cover the subject matter in a nuanced way. I'm not entirely convinced this book got there.

What bothered me most was that there were POC characters here but none of the authors have that background. There were some moments (particularly with the Asian character) that read as stereotypical to me.

I'd go with 2.75⭐️ - I liked the overall approach but the execution could have been better.

[BookTrib.com]

Readers experience the visceral fear of the mass shooting, the tragedy of the aftermath, the grief of the survivors and their families, and the futility of trying to enact change. On every page, we experience the gravity of the violence.

THOUGHTS & PRAYERS is a timely commentary on our gun-obsessed society and the tragedy of the mass shootings that are all too common.

Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/11/19/our-w...

[Christy Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a book that takes on a timely issue head on and especially appreciate those that shed light on multiple perspectives. This book does both perfectly and is a must read in my opinion. This book is compelling. It is powerful. It is an incredible collaboration between incredibly talented authors. I could not put it down and I cannot stop thinking about it.

[Dawn Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughts and Prayers by Lee Anne Post

9781620064979

232 Pages
Publisher: Sunbury Press / Milford House Press
Release Date: October 26, 2021

Fiction, Gun Violence, School Shooting, Mass Shooting

Lily is in love with a boy. He is her escape from her strict Korean family. He says he will help her get even with the people that have hurt her. All she must do is open a door for him at school. That is when the world turns upside down for her and everyone else at Rockwell Highschool.

This book is fast paced and written in multiple points of view. The characters are well developed. The title of the book is so appropriate since we hear it so many times after a school shooting. Legal action is needed more than words. This is an emotional book and at times hard to read. I cannot imagine if one of my grandchildren were in such a situation. I think everyone should read this book.