first read:
A powerful story, there's no doubt, but there is no escaping its excruciatingly slow pace. It took me forever to read this one, though over all, I know that it is important. 3 stars

second read:

I think I'm going to bump my rating up to four stars. I reread this book because we had to choose a nonfiction book for a project in school, and with the pandemic happening I wanted something already on my shelf because shipping was even more unreliable then than it is now. I think I was picking between this and one other book, and honestly I think this one won because it had a lower page count. I should probably feel ashamed but I don't. (also, edit- the final product i had to produce was an abstract and i remembered that this book was very to the point, they said what they meant, which makes for good quotes when you don't have a lot of room for analysis.)

Reading this with a purpose in mind definitely gave the book direction for me, and it was an overall better experience the second time around, even if I had already read all the essays. Actively trying to parse out themes and essential questions and picking up quotes for status updates made sure I was constantly engaged with the text, where as upon first read, I struggled to get through some parts because I could feel my mind wandering/ I wasn't as invested.

This is also when I discovered that I actually really like writing in books, especially ones for school. I've always hated taking notes when I'm reading half because I like reading for fun and not for school, which is mostly still true, but also because I hated having to stop reading to rip off a sticky note and have it obstruct the text when I put it on the page- plus they'd always be falling out no matter how sticky it was.

But then I started using a pen and it was great! I've discovered that I love underlining important passages and sentences, starring ones I want to come back to later or even writing what analysis I could do on a certain quote in the margins so when I came looking for quotes later I already had them lined up. And also- superficially, the feeling of the pen gliding on paper never gets old. I'm reading another school book now- The American Spirit by David McCullough- and I've found it's actually fun to write things in the margins, and to and/or disagree with what he's trying to argue.

As for this book, the second reread renewed my appreciation for not only the strength the Parkland survivors exhibited then and continue to exhibit now, but the power of activism and its widespread affect. I will say that at some point both the structure of the novel and the ideas expressed in each essay did get a little repetitive and the writing seemed a little disjointed as the quality varied from essay to essay, but neither of these things put a damper on the power of the stories being told.

It saddens me to see that with each year that passes, the Parkland shooting becomes less and less a part of the public consciousness, just yet another in a long list of gun tragedies we Americans have become appallingly desensitized to. It is my hope that one day there will be no need for books such as this to be published, yet We Say #Never Again is necessary now more than ever.