Heather Gudenkauf

When an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom, holding the children hostage, Officer Meg Barrett watches and waits for his demands, while Evelyn Oliver, trapped in her classroom, wonders how to save her students, and 13-year-old Augie Baker risks her own safety to save her little brother. Original. 164,000 first printing.

One Breath Away

Melissa Palmer

Book #66 Read in 2013
One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf

Augie and PJ are sent to their grandparents after their mother is horrifically burned in a kitchen fire. As if that isn't traumatic enough, the day before spring break finds them being trapped in their school by a deranged gunman. The police are outside of the school trying to negotiate with the gunman in the hopes of getting the students and teachers out safely. But will that happen in time?

This was a thrilling read. It showed the bravery of people in horrible situations. The gunman's identity was not known for most of the book and there were a variety of suspects. I figured out who it was about 2/3 through the book (and the gunman wasn't revealed for about another 15%) but that did not take away from the reading interest of the book. Gudenkauf is one of my favorite authors. I've read all of her books and they are all edge of your seat thrillers. I recommend it.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

He has a gun. Who? Tell me, where are you? Who has a gun? I love you, Mum. An ordinary school day in March, snowflakes falling, classroom freezing, kids squealing with delight, locker-doors slamming. Then the shooting started. No-one dared take one breath He's holding a gun to your child's head. One wrong answer and he says he ll shoot. This morning you waved goodbye to your child. What would you have said if you d known it might be the last time?

Dina

Well, let me start by saying I don't usually read this kind of book. And by this kind of book I mean the ones who have like 5 different character POVs.

To be honest, in the first few pages I kept wondering "why am I reading this?". It was quite hard to get into the story, but I don't know if it was the book itself or if it was just me not being quite in the mood for it.

In this book you have 5 different POVs, as I mentioned already. You have Mrs. Oliver, a third grade teacher on her way to retirement; Meg, a police officer; Augie, a 13 year-old girl; Holly, Augie's mother who is miles away in a hospital because of an accident she had; and Will, Holly's father, who's taking care of his grandchildren back in Holly's old hometown (which she despises).

The book starts with what you'd call a "flash-forward", I think. You first hear about what's happening through Holly's POV, which is the character who's the farthest away from the main action, and a lot of things have already happened by then, as you'll figure out later in the book. Then you kind of go back in time a little to how it all started.

As you change POVs, some flashbacks are introduced. They help you understand why some things are happening or, for example, what happened to Holly, Meg's back story, etc. But it's a bit frustrating, because you have like 117 POV changes, some of them less than a page long, and you never really know all at once. I know it probably would ruin the story or at least make the book much shorter or even make the plot develop much quicker if they were revealed at once, but the flashbacks will start out of nowhere and then stop mid-action and you'll have to wait for some 8 POV changes before you can return to it. Now imagine this happening with 5 characters. It can be a bit messy!

Anyway, as the plot moved along, it started to become more interesting and the whole "who did it" thing going on with people getting killed and accidents happening while you're still trying to figure out who the hell is the shooter, I think it worked well. But again, the POV changes... It's frustrating, but I think it kind of worked? It's not perfect. You sometimes have to go back to that character's POV a few pages before in order to move forward, but if you have some patience and some time in your hands, you won't get too worked up about it.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read, but probably could have worked better with less jumping around between characters and less weird changes between past and present (or even future). I feel like some bits were lost between these changes.

One Breath Away

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