Rhiannon NavinReseñas
Autor de Only Child
Reseñas
I was scared, sad, mad, sorry and then sad again. It was one hell of an emotional roller-coaster ride but the ending was so beautiful it makes the ugly crying through the story worth.
It makes me wonder if it's just human nature to be yearning so hard for something one's lost that one fail to see what they've got left just like Zach's mom. Speaking of, she was my favorite character of the whole story.
ႊ့The fascinating thing with this book is that I thought a lot about my mom whenever I see a glimpse into Zach's mommy's feelings. I didn't like her. I might hate her tbh. However her character was built so that we can see how she changed from an ordinary mom to a selfish ball of pain to this emphatic kind mother. Seeing her character blossoms makes me understand my own mother a little better and forgive her for all the time I thought she was selfish when really she wasn't.
Written from the perspective of a six year old boy who experiences the devastating event itself and the heart-breaking aftermath of a primary school shooting, Zach is a voice that I will never forget. I felt my heart squeeze as Zach talked about the sky crying and I almost felt as if I had to be strong for him, as I struggled to hold back the tears that kept threatening to fall. I don't want to write anything about the story as it could spoil it for others but I will say that Only Child is a book that is very hard to put down and impossible to forget.
I was reminded of the stages of grief as I read about Zach's story and saw how the adults around him were behaving. From the shock of the initial event to the anger as the parents look for someone to blame and the final acceptance as life goes on. I compared grief for an adult against grief for a child and although we think children are resilient and quick to bounce back, I think it was good to show Zach's denial and anger coming through. It's also a stark reminder that little ears hear a lot more than we realise.
I was so completely invested in Zach's story that I felt every single emotion with the characters in the book. I felt that Zach had a lot to teach us about acceptance and forgiveness but also that it's ok to be upset and angry. Zach's unique voice, so honest through his innocence, is written completely flawlessly making this a very special book indeed.
Only Child is an absolutely stunning book and I am completely astounded that this is Rhiannon Navin's debut novel. It's exceptional, outstanding, extraordinary, astounding...in fact it's all of the adjectives I can possibly think of and more! Only Child is definitely one of my top picks of 2018; even the coldest heart won't fail to be moved by this perfect novel of loss, hope and everything in between.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
First grader Zach Taylor, his teacher Miss Russell and his classmates are among the survivors of a school shooting that takes the lives of nineteen classmates and educators. Zach is a very bright and observant young boy whose parents' marriage is already a somewhat stressed before the shooting and in the aftermath, they leave him to cope with the tragedy on his own. His questions are heartbreaking as he tries to make sense of what happened especially when he learns the identity of the shooter. Zach is embarrassed when he regresses to what he considers to be "baby" behavior and he takes comfort in the hideout he has created for himself. He is also confused by the changes in his mother but his father is surprisingly understanding of what Zach is experiencing. Finding solace in a set of children's books, Zach tries to apply the insights he gleans from the stories to restore happiness to his family.
Although quite smart, Zach's worldview is simple and lacking pretense. He is quite honest about his perceptions of the shooting and its impact on his family. His little world is shattered and he cannot understand why his mom's reaction is so different than his and his father's. Although he was quite close to his mom before this life altering event, he is stunned by how drastically his sweet and caring mom's behavior becomes in the days, weeks and months following the shooting. Zach loves his dad, but his father's long commute and work schedule leave little time for them to spend together. However after the tragic incident, his dad's presence reassuring.
Zach's astute observations, conclusions and decisions are age appropriate. While some of what he observes goes over his head, readers will definitely understand the implications. Quickly picking up on the tension between his parents, he breaks down their behavior into something only he can understand and he is quick to pick up on the subtle nuances of impending trouble. Zach's parents are so consumed by their own struggles to cope, he is left to navigate the morass of his emotions on his own. His coping mechanisms are heartbreaking yet effective and his explanations are guaranteed to make even the most stoic reader shed a few tears (especially his scenes with his dad in his hideout). As Zach continues to watch his family fall apart, he decides on a course of action to heal the people he loves.
Only Child is an absolutely brilliant novel that is unique, deeply affecting and quite thought-provoking. Zach's narration is incredibly compelling and viewing the world through his young eyes is often quite perceptive. Rhiannon Navin is an immensely gifted storyteller who evokes empathy and deep emotion in this sorrowful yet ultimately uplifting story.
Compare this to Room and it's almost cringey.
The murderer was the popular school janitors son both called Charlie.
Zach's family start to unravel, his Mum is out for vengance and blames Charlie senior for not doing more to stop the murders. The bitterness is all consuming for his Mum, Dad leaves home.
It takes Zach to try and fix things and reunite the family.
Sad, well written easy to read book.
Navin has an ear for dialogue, & slowly reveals that this ‘perfect’ family had their problems prior to the tragedy. An uncomfortable read, believable and heart-rending.
Emotional and sweet, while heart-wrenching. Truly a story that resonates in this age of school shootings.
#OnlyChild #RhiannonNavin
If you have the chance to only ever read ONE school-shooting novel, this should be the one you choose!
Zach was hiding in a closet in his classroom at the time of the shooting. So he is not only agonizing because his brother was one of the nineteen casualties but because of the trauma of the entire event. His parents are devastated about losing their son and in their grieving they seem to forget that they still have another living child.
The book takes a novel approach to a school shooting with its focus on the child who is struggling to understand, forget, and heal. While trying to recover personally, he desperately wants his parents to mend their broken hearts and realize that they still have a son who needs them.
The audio version was extremely well read by a child who gave voice to Zach’s character. This debut novel is particularly timely. And even though it tells a heartbreakingly difficult story, I would recommend it for its fresh approach.
Narrated by Zach Taylor aged 6, it is his take on the events of one terrible day at the junior school he and his 10 year old brother Andy attend, and how it affects his family members and the wider community in the days, weeks and months that follow. The only thing that is not addressed in the book is the ease with which disturbed individuals can obtain guns in the USA, something we in other countries find extraordinary.
Grief is experienced differently from individual to individual, and the author has captured that brilliantly. Many people do not come together in mutual grief, they are driven apart by their pain.
The author allows the reader some glimpses of what his parents and other 'grown-ups' are thinking and doing in the aftermath. Rhiannon Navin has written a wonderful book that deserves to be widely read.
I read it at a single sitting - could not put it down. It is a long time since I found myself on the emotional edge when reading a book, at times aghast, at times horrified, at times angry - and towards the end I was in tears.
BTW I think it was Linda Whitfield of the FB group 'Read Any Good Books Lately' who suggested this book - thanks so much Linda!
Through the voice of Zach this moving story deals with the after effects on him and his family of the shooting and of the death of Andy. It soon becomes clear that Zach’s relationship with his brother had not been easy. Although very bright and excellent at sports, Andy had suffered from ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) and this meant that he was frequently bad-tempered, flew into rages most days and was often unkind to Zach, so Zach had cause to be wary of him. Andy’s challenging behaviour also meant that, all too often, his parents often argued about how best to deal with him and paid more attention to him than they did to well-behaved Zach. Hardly surprising then that, in the immediate aftermath of his brother’s death, Zach feels relief at his brother’s absence. Maybe home would now become a more peaceful place, with both parents able to show more interest in him and all his activities.
However, it soon becomes clear that, as his parents struggle with their own grief, Zach receives less, rather than more, attention and is left to cope on his own with the effects the shooting has had on him, his growing realisation that his brother is never coming back and his guilt that he had initially felt pleased that Andy has gone. He begins to find solace in the secret “safe place” he creates for himself in Andy’s closet, a place he would never have been allowed into in the past. In there he paints blocks of colour onto individual pieces of paper and sticks them onto the walls. These represent his wide and confusing range of feelings and being able to look at them helps him to start to understand them. He also takes solace in reading books out loud to his brother, gradually feeling a closer connection to him; he begins to forgive Andy his hurtful behaviour and to wish that he had understood his brother better. However, feeling increasingly isolated by the lack of any meaningful attention from his parents, he also starts to wet the bed and to have tantrums.
This story captures, in a very effective and heart-wrenching way, the struggles experienced by a young child when faced with such a violent death. It captures the confusion of a little boy trying to make sense of a world in which nothing is the same, where even his parents seem to have become different people. Through Zach’s innocent voice the reader is drawn into the very literal, black and white thinking of a six-year-old, an age when adult hypocrisy is recognised but not understood. For instance, at the funeral service Zach hates the fact that suddenly, the brother who had caused such trouble in the family, is now being described in glowing terms! His difficult and confusing journey through the early months of grief is very well-captured but doesn’t make for easy reading.
His parents, Melissa and Jim, are not unkind people but are drawing further and further apart as they struggle, in very different ways, with their own grief. Melissa, once she emerges from the drugged state in which she was kept in the immediate aftermath of Andy’s death, is focused on seeking retribution from the gunman’s parents, whom she blames for not having prevented the massacre. Jim, who initially does seem to try to offer support, eventually takes refuge in the routine of his job, although it becomes clear that this is a defence he has used in the past when avoiding conflict about how to manage Andy’s behaviour. His parents’ reactions leave Zach feeling unsupported and struggling to cope alone with his grief, his shame about starting to wet the bed and his violent, out of control feelings. There were moments when his increasing desperation felt almost unbearable and I felt like shouting at the parents, reminding them that they had another son, one who was still alive! However, the descriptions of their behaviour capture their struggles to come to terms with their elder son’s death and, most of the time, tempered my anger with them. There is no handbook for parents on how to deal with the death of a child, especially in such shocking circumstances. It was all too easy to be critical of Zach’s parents but none of us can possibly know how we would react in such a devastating situation, especially when there has been such a degree of ambivalence and tension in the relationship with the person who has died.
By using Zach’s innocent but, in many ways, uncompromising voice the author was able to explore how easy it is to lose sight of what is important in relationships and how adults can all too easily find ways to defend themselves against facing a loss which feels almost unbearable. For much of the time I think she managed to evoke an authentic and convincing voice, but there were moments when I had to suspend disbelief at some of the sophisticated metaphors and abstract thinking she attributed to him! However, this didn’t really reduce the overall impact of her sensitive, moving and thought-provoking story-telling and she certainly conveyed a very loud reminder that we need to remember to listen to children!
Although the final resolution felt just a bit too neat and overly-sentimental, it did reflect the fact that grief can become all-consuming, resulting in a lack of recognition of the feelings of others but that once people start listening to each other, it is possible to cope with grief and the mourning process in a more positive way. The hurt doesn’t disappear, but it can feel more bearable if it is shared.
This is an impressive debut novel from Rhiannon Nevin and would make an excellent choice for reading groups.
To make it short: I DNF’d the book after 138 pages. Not because of the writing though, which was interesting and unique. To experience the events from the eyes of a child is fascinating, yet so very heartbreaking. What got me to put the book away in the end was the very heavy topic itself. There is absolutely no moment of relief/happiness/or optimism in the first half of the novel which can drag you down while reading. I also have to admit that I neither liked the “character” of Andy, who comes across as a little tyrant, who more often than not got mad at his family nor Melissa, Zach’s mother, who completely overreacts and pushes her surviving child away. I am not trying to say that her reaction is not realistic - no one can even begin to fathom what it must be like to lose a child - but as a reader, her character made me so mad and angry that I could not take it anymore. I wanted to hug and cuddle little Zach and tell him everything would be okay. Together with the incredibly depressing and dark mood of the book, I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it. It’s a unique and bold book. With an incredibly tragic topic that, unfortunately, seems to be part of our daily lives these days. But it’s one that I won’t pick up again.
I gave it two and a half stars.
Obviously, this was not a fun read, but it was a good read. We followed a family in recovery, hurting so bad that they were not able to give other members of the family the support that was needed. We saw the different ways that different family members attempted to deal with their grief. I especially liked how the book was written from the point of view of 7-year-old Zach, who witnessed a lot of things in his family that he just could not understand, but tried to. For the most part, his voice sounded authentic, though there were a few times when he sounded much older than his 7 years. He occasionally used a word that would make me stop and think “How does a first grader know that word?” Admittedly, I’ve done the same with my own kids, so maybe we just aren’t giving kids credit for what they know. But in his innocence, his observations were spot on, for example, when he wondered at his brother’s funeral why his daddy said Andy always made him happy and he was always proud of him, when Zach knew that wasn’t true.
At first I was sympathetic towards Zach’s mother, Melissa. She had just lost a child and was grief-stricken. But after a short while, my sympathies were with Zach’s father, who finally seemed to get that Zach was hurting and needed his father to put his own grief on hold. Melissa, on the other hand, went on the attack, trying to get revenge on the shooter’s parents, and making Zach an afterthought while she contined her crusade. Everything was probably wrapped up a little too quickly, but it did make a good story.
This will be a great book club selection for clubs that are looking for something topical, and can discuss the questions with respect when there are conflicting opinions. Some of the topics are obvious; how to prevent school shootings, who is responsible when a shooting occurs, the process of grieving, etc. There is also a reader’s guide at the back of the book.
If you do decide to read this one, and are interested in pairing it with a nonfiction book about gun violence, take a look at Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge.
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Zach is a six-year-old boy who survives a school shooting that kills his older brother, Andy. He suffers from the trauma of hearing the gunshots and the loss of his sibling, but he feels ignored and neglected by his parents, who are consumed by their own grief and marital problems.
Zach narrates his own journey of grief and recovery, as he observes how his parents cope in different and destructive ways. He decides to take action, and find a way to heal his broken family, even if it seems impossible. He shows courage and wisdom beyond his years and tries to find the peace he desperately needs.
I listened to this book as an audio book, narrated by Kivlighan de Montebello, who did an amazing job of capturing Zach’s voice and emotions. I was captivated by his performance and could not stop listening.
This book is very powerful and emotional. It does not shy away from the harsh reality of a school shooting and its aftermath, but it also does not take sides or make judgments. It focuses on the human impact of such a tragedy, and how one little boy manages to overcome it with love and compassion. Zach is a remarkable character who touched my heart and inspired me.
I highly recommend this book, but I also warn you that it is not an easy read. It will make you cry and ache for Zach and his family. But it will also make you cheer for Zach’s resilience and courage. It will leave you with a sense of hope and peace, knowing that Zach is on his way to recovery and should have a bright future ahead of him.