Eleven years after a gunman turned an assault rifle on a first-grade classroom, the graduating class who lost 17 of their own prepares to go their separate ways. Cole is deferring freshman year to help his mother through her grief and depression after his father's death. Worse than being left behind by his peers is saying goodbye to the girl he secretly loves. His best friend, Matt, is determined to help Cole pull off the romantic gesture of a lifetime. A privileged star athlete who missed school the day of the shooting, Matt tries to absolve his survivor guilt by being there for his classmates who suffered the most: Chris, who lost the use of his legs, and Paul, a boy with autism who lost his identical twin. As Cole and Matt struggle under the heavy weight of the futures their classmates will never see, their friendship is tested like never before. This debut powerfully captures the strong bonds of male friendship and the deep aftershocks of trauma. A solid pick for John Green fans.

In the still-rippling effects of a years-ago tragedy, the survivors cope with the burden of moving on.When Cole and Matt were in first grade, a shooter killed 17 of their classmates and their principal. Yet life went on for those in the New Jersey suburb, and now they approach the summer after high school graduation. Cole, in the wake of his father's death, is determined to finally overcome his awkwardness and connect with his longtime crush—although he'll have to make some drug deals for his romantic master plan to get off the ground. Matt struggles with the guilt of having been at home sick during the shooting due to his diabetes and makes questionable health choices while starting a romantic relationship with a woman who is also irrevocably connected to that pivotal day. The default-white cast includes a classmate who was shot and left partially paralyzed and the autistic twin brother of their deceased friend; both are secondary characters with enough screen time to show their struggles but are barely developed beyond that and feel like idealized martyrs. The town's diner—wallpapered with failed gun control bills—attests to the horrible commonplaceness of such tragedies. This debut avoids sensationalism, instead focusing on the boys' attempts to make sense of the changes in their world while grappling with the things that never change.A sober, introspective coming-of-age tale overshadowed by the all-too-real effects of a mass shooting. (Fiction. 16-adult)