Bang, Bang, You're Dead

2009, Corgi Books (Random House imprint)
248 pages
YA/Teen

Cushions: 4/5
Tissues: 3/5
Overall rating: 5/5

The tone of the book is set by both the title, and the front cover. You can't see it from the picture, but the bullet holes are actual indents on the children crossing sign (at least, that's what I think it means...if not I may seriously need to examine the highway code again).

The book chronicles the day a gunman was discovered at Mia's school. What follows isn't a spoiler, for it is revealed on the first page that Mia's brother, Jamie dies. Mia has good reason to believe her brother is the gunman. They live with their manic depressive mother, whose manic phases are bad. My stomach dropped throughout the novel, the more I read about their mother's behaviour, and how Jamie reacts to it, the more I wanted to curl up and cry. For this isn't like a fantasy tale - gunman do really enter schools, and sadly, kill children. People, be they mothers, fathers, siblings or friends suffer from mental illnesses.

I applaud Narinder for this moving story. Mia's childlike view on her mother, and Jamie's very different outlook are realistic. Often families such as these don't have any support, they slip through the net of social services and it takes a tragedy for the system, be it in the UK, USA or any other country to step in and act.

I could see where the flashbacks were leading as Mia slowly worked her way through the school, searching for her brother as the rest of school remained outside with the police. It painted a clear picture of how Jamie came to be the gunman. Sadly, I could see these being real reasons for why people turn out the way they do today.

There's a major story twist at the end, one so big that if I didn't have so many books to read through at the moment (I'm not complaining, I'm very happy for them all) I'd re-read Bang Bang You're Dead again just to catch all the hints that I missed first time round. If indeed there were any. I couldn't have thought it would end the way it did.

This book is yet another I'd like to hand out at schools. It portrays a very clear message that no matter how messy life is, it is vital to talk to someone about problems, before they consume the person affected.

Content: it deals with mental illness, and what happens when a gunman is in a school. There isn't actually any blood or true violence.

If you like this, try Without Looking Back (next up for review).

Narinder's website is here