You Snooze You Lose

By Devika T.

The Silent Alarm is young adult novel by Jennifer Banash that showcases the perspective of a school shooter's sister. Alys's younger brother Luke enters a crowded library with a gun that no one is aware of. Upon his entrance, he tactically kills fifteen people before pointing the gun Alys. His last word was "Hey" which is what he said to Alys before taking his own life. Of the fifteen people that were killed, many were close to Alys and her family. Because of this, her family suffers with the trauma of losing their son and the distress from other households. What's even more nerve wracking is that they don't know they reason as to why he killed those people or why he had spared Alys. The book unfolds as a story of how they came to a consensus in their life after this situation and how they coped with the negativity, shame, and indirect guilt.

This book is a little slow moving and doesn't have a real climax after the shooting, which was at the beginning of the book. There's nothing keeping you excited enough to flip to the next page. Although, I think that the intention of keeping it slow and flat was to make the story seem more genuine to the unique situation and perspective. The story would have had to be a progression to show how she coped with the incident and how her life gradually came back to place. Realistically speaking, there would probably be more obstacles in the way of her resolution than the ones that were presented. I think that is where the book fell short. The only real conflicts Alys went through after the incident was the hateful comments on social media and the death of her boyfriend's sister. Banash could have went into more depth on how it felt rather than just stating what happened.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a slow, smooth, progression with no significant heights. If you're a person who likes to be at the edge of your seat, it is extremely painful to read and something that you shouldn't have to put yourself through. Her perspectives and ideas were unique but the book was ordinary and bland.