Reviewer: Terry
I received a review copy.
What happens to a town after tragedy strikes, do you ever wonder how the people affected by tragic events like…a student walking into a school with the intent to kill. I can’t even imagine what it would take to get over a tragedy like this. To band together as a town to bring everyone through the grief and pain it would cause.
Stillwater Rises tells this story. The story of how one town was faced with a terrible tragedy, a young troubled man struggling with burdens that wrecked his heart, walked into a school full of children and teachers and shot and killed many and then took his life. A tragedy that cannot be justified or reasoned and only leaves those behind with grief and often anger that they don’t know how carry on from. But with love and help from those capable of giving it, even in unbelievable circumstances is how people carry on after something so horrifying.
But this story is more than just that, it also is a story of how to help those we don’t think about…the victims that are leftover that are forgotten, or even blamed for. The mother of the shooter, a woman no doubt wracked with grief not only for her own child, but every life her child took. The pain and guilt a woman like this might endure is hard to understand. Many may choose to hate her for her child’s choices, that she over everyone else should have been able to control this angry young man; she should have seen this coming and stopped it. It’s a lot of responsibility to put on the shoulders of a grieving mother, responsibility that she herself has already taken and almost never recovers from.
How does a town recover from tragedy like this? The rally together, they support each other and comfort each other. They love through the pain and they remember each one they lost.
This story was a surprise for me; I have spent time recently putting myself in the shoes of parents on both sides of this fence not long before picking up this story to read. So it seemed fitting to read this book with such a refreshing take on the “after” of a tragedy like this. It helped me to see more than just one side of the story.
You are stronger than me for being able to read this book. I’m not sure if I could with me having to school age kids still at home. Great review of it!