That’s Not What Happened.

As the anniversary of the school shooting that killed nine people, including her best friend, approaches, survivor Leeann is anxious and sad. She’s also angry—not just at the shooter, but at the people who turned Sarah into a martyr whose dying thought was of faith, and at herself for not clearing things up sooner. Searching for the truth, Leeann asks the other five students who were in the shooter’s range, four of whom have become her closest friends, to tell their stories, and their narratives are folded into the book. The fifth has left town, but Leeann tracks her down. As the truths mount up and displace each other, the survivors must come to terms with what they did and didn’t do that day, and how different that may be from what people think happened. Keplinger (The DUFF) effectively conveys how the stories they’ve told and have been told about the shooting have shaped each survivor’s sense of who they are. The result is an original and engrossing narrative about scars, recovery, and how the stories we tell can both sustain and hobble us. Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. (Aug.) Correction: A previous version of this review misstated the number of victims. [/em]