Book review - When the World Was Happy

 

Title: When The World Was Happy

Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz

Genre: realistic fiction

Age range: teen

Similar book: Thoughts and Prayers by Bryan Bliss

Summary (provided by publisher): CheChe knows that he and his twin sister Emma lead an unusual life. They enjoy spending time with their parents and grandparents, love to read, and don’t have a huge circle of friends—and they’re happy. Then, just a few months after they turn seventeen, three gunmen show up one morning at their El Paso, Texas, high school, and everything changes.

CheChe loses a leg, and both he and Emma have friends who die. Suddenly, the world feels like a very different place. But what they find hasn’t changed—or has only gotten deeper—is their love for their family, their close friends, and one another, and as they begin to heal, they create their own little community, one that wields the power of humor, kindness, and hope.

CheChe finds himself doing all kinds of things he never expected from his junior year: relearning to walk, falling in love with the boy he’s nursed a longtime crush on, making friends with a kid he always found intimidating. By the end of this life-changing school year, none of them will be the same, and many of them will have found their voices in ways they never imagined.

What I liked: While this is a book about a school shooting it is even more a book about beauty - the beauty of language and the beauty of life, even when it is heartbreaking. These are characters who have been through the worst tragedy and it does not break them. They are angry. They are devastated. But they are also living and finding a way forward. The narrative does not dwell on rage or even on the physical. This is very much a story of emotional change and the bulk of the text focuses inward.

What I didn't like: This book may be a bit abstract for some readers. It spends very little time on conversations or movement, filling it's pages instead with well crafted lines and evocative thought. It can be a bit preachy at times but that is largely forgiveable.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley