Always tell the truth. Right?

As one of the newest books in a newer genre of "school shooting" books, That's Not What Happened examines the lives of six survivors of a school shooting three years after the event. To start off, I HATE that this genre exists, or rather that it has to exist. So many of our students face anxiety about their safety at school, especially when major shootings occur and hit our news networks like a hurricane. I don't know a teacher or student who hasn't thought about this nightmare scenario and what they'd do in a number of different scenarios to try to survive.

Such is the world of this book. The shooting was three years ago and the story of that event is told in flashbacks as the survivors deal with their experiences. The name of the shooter is "erased" throughout the entire book, a move I applaud.

The book begins from Leeann's point of view. She's now a senior and has friends that she never would have had three years ago when she was a freshman. Her best friend then died in the shooting. Lee held Sarah's hand in the bathroom stall that day when Sarah was shot and killed. So Lee knows the truth. That story about Sarah speaking with the shooter about her cross necklace before she was killed for standing up for her faith? That didn't happen. Lee knows it absolutely isn't true.

But what should she do with that truth? Sarah's parents take immense comfort from the myth that their daughter was some kind of holy innocent. They're writing a book about how their daughter died for her faith and how Christians around the world should strive to be like the fifteen year old martyr from Virgil County. But others, like Kelly are in immense pain due to that mistruth.

There are a lot of characters to follow in this book, with six survivors playing the main roles. The victims also play large roles through flashbacks and letters. It can be a great deal to keep up with, but all in all the author does an excellent job of making each survivor and victim into a complex and unique human being. I felt like I could have gone to school with any of these students. I could have had any of these students in my classroom. I could have worked with the two teachers who were killed and in a lot of ways I hope I am like those teachers.

This book grapples with several unanswerable questions. Are our memories objective truth? Is the truth always what's best? What do we do when the obvious right choice for us is not what is right for someone else? Which stories are ours to tell?

It's strange to say that I enjoyed this book or liked this book - because those aren't accurate words. I related to this book. I was impressed by the nuance of this book and the prose was excellent. This is probably the best book I've read in the genre. There are so many ways books on the subject of school shootings can really get things wrong and actually cause harm, the worst of which would be providing an unintentional how-to for student shooters to follow. This book avoids all of the serious pitfalls and manages to explore the truth and the self in a way most readers might not have ever encountered in a book before.