A story Of Toxic Masculinity, Gun Culture and Scary American Reality.
This is the first book of Tom McAllister that I read and was pleasantly surprised with the writing style. The protagonist Anne Crawford seems like an unreliable narrator, but soon it becomes quite hard to figure out who was crazier: Anna or the world she was describing.
I came across Tom McAllister through a podcast called Book Fight, which he co-hosted with Mike Inghram. And thoroughly enjoyed it, so I decided to Read one of his books which ended up being "How To Be Safe." Because not only did the Plot intrigue me, but the beautiful cover design caught my attention.
Anna is a suspended high school teacher, who is named a person of interest in investigation of a mass school shooting. She was suspended a couple of days before the mass shooting took place, because she had an unexplained outburst in school. After the shooting, which ends when the unnamed male shooter kills himself, broadcast journalists show her picture and identify her as a suspect. In the chaos following the tragedy, she is bombarded with threatening phone calls, her home is searched by the FBI.
She was thrusted into this mess and even after being proved innocent her life was anything but back to normal.
Though one would expect this book to be about the investigation of what and who was behind the mass shooting, it's more about the aftermath that this leaves behind.
As Anna, who's town, friends and everyone close betrayed her, was left to move past this. She tries to understand what the gun culture in America has become. It is intresting to see this dark topic unfold with Anna's thoughts and musings with a little bit of humor.
Tom McAllister has also explored the stages of grief, Relation between Gun Violence and Rape culture or how misogyny, male aggression, racism, xenophobia, and classism shape a society in which assault weapons are fetish objects have affected the world.
Anna see's that People wanted to treat violence like the weather; it was there, inevitably, and they felt that with enough advanced equipment they could predict where it would strike next. The possibility of the violence not existing had not occurred to anyone.
This book is one of the best ones out there about mass school shootings.
For Anyone who wants to listen to the Podcast BOOK FIGHT! <= Click Here
And to Buy How To Be Safe <= Click Here
Reviewed By: Kairavi Anjaria