This story failed to look at the facts surrounding school shootings and made it appear exaggerated for dramatic effect which, in turn, took away from the subject matter.
The characters were unrealistic, two-dimensional and hard to connect with which is disappointing in the least for a character-driven text.
Mostly, this book handled the issue of mental illness deplorably as it follows the dichotomy of all-good and all-bad characters without representing anything in between. The characters who appeared with mental illnesses were portrayed as helpless, deviant and unredeemable.
On the plus side, there were diverse characters representing many different communities including LGBTQI+, disability/chronic illness and people of various cultures.