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Title: Dear Charlie
Author: N. D. Gomes
Narrator: Huw Parmenter
Format: Unabridged
Length: 6 hrs
Language: English
Release date: 10-20-16
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Genres: Teens, Mysteries & Thrillers
Publisher's Summary:
Death should never meet the young. But it did. Thanks to my brother, death made 14 new friends that day. Maybe even 15, if you count Charlie.
At 16, Sam Macmillan is supposed to be thinking about girls, homework and his upcoming application to music college, not picking up the pieces after the school shooting that his brother Charlie committed.
Yet as Sam desperately tries to hang on to the memories he has of his brother, the media storm surrounding their family threatens to destroy everything. And Sam has to question all he thought he knew about life, death, right and wrong.
Endorsed by Amnesty International UK for reminding us that human rights belong to all of us.
Members Reviews:
Controversial & touching
3.5 - 4 Stars in my Sky!
I've never really given much thought to those left behind after an act of terrible violence so Dear Charlie is a real eyeopener! The story focuses on Sam. Sam's brother, Charlie killed a lot of people in a high school shooting before killing himself. Charlie ruined the lives of many people in their small town and Sam is left to face the outrage.
As Sam and his parents struggles to accept Charlie's crimes. We see them battle the rage of other students and families of those murdered by his brother. The story is really sad because we know from the start what has happened but we see his disbelief, anger and heartbreak. Why did Charlie do this? How could he not have known? Why do people blame him and how can he move on? Will his parents ever sort themselves out?
The topic is pretty controversial and although I was never entirely comfortable with it, I think this is a good thing because violence should never be comfortable.
Sam is pretty closed off and I did find it difficult to understand him at times, but again I felt as though this was intentional. The tone is awkward, Sam is unsettled and the town will never forget.
The setting isn't America as might be expected with a school shooting but instead is in the UK. I knew straight away where Gomes was writing about which made for an interesting and upsetting change for me as a Brit but I'll remember the story and Sam's voice...
I received a review copy from HQ at YALC
It's brutally honest, which is why it is so refreshing
There are plenty of fictional approaches to school shootings and massacres, and quite a few of them are really good.What makes Dear Charlie an interesting read is the fact it is written from a different perspective. Instead of the voice of the victims or the survivors, itâs the voice of the killerâs family.
In general they tend to be absolutely slated and portrayed in an overwhelmingly negative light by the media, the world and the people around them. In the majority of cases they are just as shocked by the actions of their children, siblings, grandchildren or family members, as every other person. Tragically they are also often the first victims in these kind of situations.
Sam has gone from being the younger brother of the artistic and supposedly happy Charlie, to the brother of a killer. His mother and father are now the parents of a killer. People look to them for answers and they also blame all three of them.
Pair those emotions, projected on them by others, with their own feelings of guilt, inadequacy and shame, and itâs no wonder they all begin to fall apart. To top it all off both Sam and his mother have to contend with the reactions of the people they interact with on a daily basis.
