Shooter by Walter Dean Myers

Shooter Reviews

• 
  MsAprilVincent

  I honestly don't know how Walter Dean Myers does it. How can he be such a genius? It's unfathomable.
  
  This is the story of a teenager who is often bullied by classmates who eventually loses it and opens fire in his school, killing his arch-enemy and himself. The book opens after the fact.
  
  I liked the format of using police reports and various interview transcripts for the main text; it's a realistic device that adds to the clinical, almost sterile accounts of "the incident." It also kind of makes the story a little more creepy.
  
  Myers' talent is really evident, though, in Len's diary. You totally get the idea that Len is crazy, but he's not one-dimensionally crazy. Myers fleshes out his background so that you can kind of see why Len would feel driven to an act of desperation, but at the same time, since you already have an idea of his personality (based on his friends' interviews), it's difficult to feel sympathetic.
  
  Len's use of language is at once beautiful and terrifying. The way he's able to manipulate words is absolutely breath-taking, but I found myself wondering if he was really that good a writer, or if his mental acuity was a result of somewhat sociopathic nature; you know how sometimes geniuses and hyper-artistic people can be sort of crazy? Like that.
  
  ***teacher***
  I definitely think my boys would like this book. It's very true in the way it depicts teenagers and the culture and hierarchy of high school. The use of non-traditional text format makes it seem more like non-fiction than fiction. I think some of the themes--changing friendships, questioning authority, realizing your elders aren't perfect, spontaneous acts of jack-assery--are especially relevant to my students, as they're experiencing all of that right now themselves. The best part is that Myers is prolific enough that they have a ton of other books to choose from when they finish this one.
• 
  Georgina

  I like this book but I didn't like the characters because it's just was so depressing for me and the reality is that this kind of situations happened
  
  I been studying in America for 2 years, I was afraid to go to school after see the school shooting that happened in Florida because that's never happened in Mexico where my other school was. But the reason I didn't give the book 5 starts is because I didn't felt like this book really help me it just made me feel more sad.
  
  Sorry if i did Gramma mistakes I'm still learning English lol
• 
  Roxanne

  Disturbing and powerful, this short book evoked a myriad of real emotions from me as I read. This is a dark story written in mixed media format about the aftermath of a school shooting. It delves into this tragedy from perspectives I haven’t seen in literature. I was riveted to every page.
  
  Trigger warnings for gun violence, domestic violence, bullying, sexual abuse, depression and suicide. This is a VERY dark psychological story so beware and be warned.
• 
  Camden Johnson

  School shootings are a common occurrence now-a-days. It's common for us to go on Twitter and see that a new shooting has occurred. With this, I am interested in what makes a killer a killer so when I saw this at the library I picked it up. I love books that stray away from the common way a book should be portrayed. This book was written in the style of an interview and at the end it showed newspaper articles, the diary of the shooter, and the medical examiner report. I enjoyed this book and breezed through it quickly. It is a sensitive and touchy topic but I would recommend it for people who are like me and are intrigued by what makes a killer a killer.
• 
  Keira Francis

  At Madison High School, if you don't fit in, you're an "outsider." And outsiders stick together. That's exactly what Cameron, Leonard, and Carla did. They were very close friends and could never stay mad at each other too long, no matter what they did to deserve the hate. Cameron and Leonard are bullied, left out, and don't feel like they belong anywhere. They feel like there is no light at the end of their tunnel, and they feel that if they can't see a light now, why keep searching? One of the kids get pushed to their breaking part, and their revenge goes way too far in their, "act of rebellion," ending in a tragic school shooting. Shooter is an excellent book. It is written in interview, journal entries, and forms and it makes it even better. When you read a Shooter you feel like you're questioning the main characters and they're answering you, one on one. It is a great book and you never get bored.
• 
  Chris Thompson

  Walter Dean Myers' Shooter is a multigenre work that takes a look at a fictional school shooting and events leading up to it. We don't actually witness the shooting happen, but learn about it after the fact from interviews, police reports, and a diary. School shootings has been a topic of film and novels ever since the horrible Columbine shootings of 1999, and school violence has become an increasingly greater problem ever since. It's no surprise that people are drawn to these kinds of stories, many of which focus on the character of the shooter or shooters. The media, of course, has its theories as to why these teens snap. Video games are to blame. Bullying. Bad parenting. We need to know why someone would go on a shooting rampage so we can prevent it from happening next time.
  
  The story focuses on three characters, all students of Harrison County High School: Cameron Porter, Leonard Gray (Len), and Carla. Cameron, who was Len's best friend, is the main focus of the novel. We learn that Len was the shooter, and Cameron and Carla were also in the school at the time of the shooting. There were two deaths: Len's and another student's. The interviews are meant to shed light on the character of Len, but also of Cameron, because his participation is somewhat shady. Cameron is shy, a black kid. He and Len are both outsiders, but Len has a strangeness to him that seems to attract the attention of bullies. Len's troubled mind is apparently passed down from his father, though he didn't acquire his father's racism. One day Len's father took Len and Cameron out with his friends to do some shooting, and among the targets was a cardboard cut-out of Martin Luther King, Jr. Len treats it as a harmless joke, and Cameron tries to as well. He looked up to Len to the point that he wasn't able to realize something wasn't quite right with him.
  
  I find that while the novel does some interesting things, it didn't work for me. It was too impassive and not very engaging. The main problem lies in the fact that Cameron isn't very interesting. We get the impression he's intelligent, but he doesn't say very much. At least one interviewer seems to believe he's holding back information, but I think he's just not very comfortable with the interview process. The one interview with Carla proves much more interesting, because she has personality. She's combative with the interviewers and she brings a lot of life to what was becoming a dull, repetitive affair. The second to last section of the novel, which is Len's diary, is also fascinating. Len uses a lot of clever, yet creepy, wordplay, and his language reveals a very troubled mind with a plan. We learn from his diary that he did have a purpose in carrying out his shooting, but I'll leave that for you to discover.
  
  There is an emotional detachment in the way the novel unfolds. As the interviews focus solely on the words spoken by the interviewer and interviewee, we can only guess what it means when someone pauses, but there's no real emotional connection with the speaker. The news reports also add to the detachment, as well as the very final piece, which is cold in its finality. I believe Myers did this on purpose, however, to show how the dissection of tragic events removes their emotional impact. They become mere facts and figures, abstract ideas rather than a real thing with real weight. The purpose is to analyze and determine why such events happen, but Myers' goal is to point out that there aren't always easy answers to those questions. Maybe there are no answers at all. Sure, Len was an outsider and he was troubled, but so were Carla and Cameron, and they had no intention of harming anyone.
  
  As a discussion piece for a book club or a classroom, I think this novel has a lot of potential. However, I would be hard-pressed to recommend it to a friend or family member. It's a very competent work, just not an entertaining one.
• 
  Booklover

  This novel is a collection of police interviews, diary entries, and police reports after a high school shooting. I enjoyed this non-traditional format and found it to be a compelling and interesting look into the minds of some students who are "outside" and don't fit in, those outside who "do something that shuts the door so people know you don't want to come back in."
• 
  elise (the petite punk)

  You need to know going into this book that it’s not a straightforward story—it’s not really story at all. It’s about the aftermath of a fictional school shooting, but rather than exploring this in a traditional prose novel, this is a story comprised of police documents and evidence. Of course, you understand what’s going on from the transcripts and journal entries, but if you’re looking for a regular novel, this isn’t it.
  
  I was a little apprehensive about the format because I like my traditional prose. This was so…interactive. But I ended up getting a lot out of it. There were some elements lost to the format; it probably would have been more emotional and disturbing if Shooter was told in a traditional format. Because most of the book was transcripts (aka, dialogue), there wasn’t much detail on body language, internal monologue, individual perspectives that weren’t explicitly mentioned to the interviewer, etc. But I still appreciated the unconventional style. If you’re open to feeling like a detective rather than a reader, then give Shooter a shot (omgomgomg I did NOT intend for that pun until I typed it out oops).
  
  *Note: It’s kind of weird that this isn’t the first book I’ve read with a teenager shooter named
  Leonard…
  
  
  ✧ ✧ ✧
  
  ≪reading 31 books for 31 days of january≫
  ╰┈➤ 1.
  all that's left in the world by erik j. brown
  ╰┈➤ 2.
  the female of the species by mindy mcginnis
  ╰┈➤ 3.
  the battle of the labyrinth by rick riordan
  ╰┈➤ 4.
  exit west by mohsin hamid
  ╰┈➤ 5.
  don't call us dead by danez smith
  ╰┈➤ 6.
  warm bodies by isaac marion
  ╰┈➤ 7.
  the other side of perfect by mariko turk
  ╰┈➤ 8.
  the last olympian by rick riordan
  ╰┈➤ 9.
  counting down with you by tashie bhuiyan
  ╰┈➤ 10.
  a matter of death and life by irvin d. yalom and marilyn yalom
  ╰┈➤ 11.
  the new hunger by isaac marion
  ╰┈➤ 12.
  dorothy must die by danielle paige
  ╰┈➤ 13.
  starfish by lisa fipps
  ╰┈➤ 14.
  one true loves by elise bryant
  ╰┈➤ 15.
  chlorine sky by mahogany l. browne
  ╰┈➤ 16.
  for every one by jason reynolds
  ╰┈➤ 17.
  fight night by miriam toews
  ╰┈➤ 18. shooter by walter dean myers
• 
  Tripp

  With a startling cover that uses Robert Beck's anti-gun violence piece ("gunpowder on sketchpad"), and employing a variety of formats, including threat analysis reports, counseling and interrogation interview transcripts, newspaper articles, police reports, and diary entries, this novel builds a layered, complex account of a school shooting. This multi-angle, multi-faceted approach allows the reader to understand the many subtle fault lines that run through such a horrific event, doing so in a way that is the polar opposite of sensationalism. In fact, Myers leans so far away from the sensationalistic that it's a testament to his skill that the book still manages to be completely absorbing. For anyone wanting to understand how these terrible calamities happen, this book might be the perfect place to begin.
• 
  Lynn

  Not Quite
  
  I love Walter Dean Myers but this book just isn’t up to par with others he’s written. The horrific events he writes about just are muted in this young adult book. It needed to be shocking and more powerful but I’m not sure young adult books are ready for it. Young adult readers need a bit hard hitting in the book department.
• 
  Elizabeth Menne

  I just didn’t really care about any of the characters.. probably due to the book being written as series of interviews
• 
  Norma

  It was very good though I really didn’t like the diary at the end.
• 
  Jay DeMoir

  Powerful, still relevant,& also somewhat insightful. Very disheartening but important… there’s so much to tackle here
• 
  Reka Beezy

  This was my first Myers book. While I wasn’t a fan of any of the characters, I can tell, Myers can write. I need to read something else by him.
• 
  Alex Arroyo

  The book "Shooter" is a good book depending on the audience intending on reading it. If you are young, or not mature enough, to handle the book I wouldn't suggest reading it. Cameron, Leonard, and Carla didn't fit in with everyone else. Len and Cameron did not fit in with everyone else, and they were a good duo, but they were not the perfect children inside. They vandalized a church but didn't get in that much trouble. It ended up where Len was a school shooter, and killed one person, and injured nine other people. I liked the book, but for me, it was all over the place.
• 
  ~Tazia

  SHOOTER
  Hard To Forget About Someone Once Their Gone
  “At first, right after the incident, I didn’t. And I don’t think I admire him now. But the more I think about him, the more I talk about him, the more I understand him. And when you understand somebody that changes your relationship with them. I don’t know if you can get next to that, but that’s the way it goes. At least for me. Sometimes I think I don’t want to understand Len, because I don’t want to like him, or admire him. But I think you can reach a point that you don’t like a person but you’re close to him because you’re into his head. That’s what happened, or that’s what’s happening with the way I feel about Len.”
  
  The police officers and the SWAT team surround the whole school some of the SWAT team officers and police officers enter the school searching every floor in the school. They found Cameron Porter on the second floor there was a weapon in the room with him, a loaded AR-18. Carmon was searched and handcuff and taken to custody. The officers got back to searching the building and they found Carla Evens on the second floor in the closet and they put her in handcuffs as well. Few seconds later on the third floor they found the body of Leonard Gary there was a Ruger pistol by side him as well as a Kalashnikov. Cameron was to upset to be interview then when his parents came to the station he had agree to be interviewed. Miss Evans was also held for 24 hours after she arrived at the precinct from Mercy Hospital, also as a material witness, and then released on bond by application of her family attorney.
  
  
• 
  Hivan Escutia

  Shooter written by Walter Dean Myers. Published in 2004. This book is non-fiction. The main character is Cameron Porter. Another important character is Len Evans. A third important character is Carla Evans, she's Len's sister. This book is about 3 kids who are in a school group. Len Evans is the brother of Carla. Cameron is Len's best friend. Len is accused of killing someone. So Cameron and Carla get interviewed to ask questions about Len's life. Sometimes the questions get too personal, some are a little racist. One incident that happen was that Len and Cameron spray painted a church. They wrote something about, and eventually they got caught. Then Len started taking pills. At the end another incident happens that made Carla almost hate Len. But you will only know what happens if you read this book. One of the best passages from this occurs on pages 16-17 when "Cameron admits that he got physical with his father because Cameron's father called him a loser. This part of the book was important because it shows that Cameron doesn't have a good relationship with his father. If you like books from Walter Dean Myers then you will love this one. This is similar to "Monster" which was written by the same author. It's similar because in both books a shooting occurred. Choose shooter by Walter Dean Myers as your next reading book because I think that this is one of the best books I've read, and am sure your not going to put it down once you start reading it.