The Terrorist

by Caroline B. Cooney

Never really enjoying living in London, American teen Laura Williams finds herself consumed by a desire for revenge when her little brother is killed by a terrorist's bomb. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Banned Books, Teen, Realistic Fiction

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!"
When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action."
To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams!
- Scholastic.com

Reviews

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

The more I read banned books, the more I realize that just because a book is banned, does not mean it's good literature.

I thought Cooney's writing style would have improved between The Milk Carton and The Terrorist but no, same cardboard characters and language that tells, not shows. Unlikable characters who don't mature and show nothing more than shallow development through the course of the story.

This book was challenged because of portrayals of Muslims, but, frankly, I'm offended by the way she portrays teenage girls. If we give teen girls nothing but vapid heroines focused on boys, fashion, and prom, what are we telling them? Yes, that is a big part of girls' lives at that age, but I am an American who lived overseas and no girl I knew at my school was quite so petty or myopic.

My last gripe- why would the author create such a black and white, American is naive and innocent, Muslim is evil-hearted and malicious, world for her characters? I'd like to think that young adults are capable of thinking in more than just grandiose sweeping stereotypes.

[Amara Tanith · Rating 1 out of 5]

After the wonderful surprise that was Fog, I didn't expect to be as disappointed as I was by The Terrorist. While Fog balanced out its sillier YA-typical elements with a well-crafted tone of eeriness and a reasonably strong female protagonist, The Terrorist stars an obnoxious teenage girl who flaunts her extreme nationalism and rampant xenophobia.

I mean, my goodness. I like the US as much as the next citizen, but hearing Laura go on and on about how it's simply the only country worth living in is incredibly annoying. Her attitude is downright ludicrous. America and Americans are the only good place and people in the world, according to Laura. Meanwhile, the Brits are our eccentric, backwards neighbors across the pond, and everyone else is a terrorist.

When Laura's little brother Billy is killed by a bomb of unknown origin and motive, Laura decides that one of the other children at her international school for rich expats—one of her friends—is the terrorist behind it. Why? Because reasons! Reasons that don't make sense to anyone but Laura. So, of course, she interrogates each and every one of her friends. She forces them to show her their passports in order to prove they're really Americans. The Japanese American kid? She wants to know his entire family tree, and then implies he's lying because he couldn't possibly look so Japanese with that background.




And let's not get started on Laura's views of Middle Eastern people.

Now, here's the thing. Laura is an extremely unsympathetic protagonist. She's a massive brat. She's entitled and selfish. She's unashamedly xenophobic and extremely nationalistic. She's dowright insufferable.

In other words, Laura is the perfect "lesson protagonist". Laura is an American-loving, foreigner-accusing young woman, and she desperately needs someone to open her eyes to the fact that the world is not in fact populated by cardboard cutouts of stereotypical human beings. And when Laura makes friends with the beautiful and exotic Jehran, a childlike and proper Muslim girl, it looks like she might just be coming around to the idea.

And then Jehran turns out to be the terrorist. She's just using Laura to get into the United States. Her cohorts killed Billy so she could use his passport.

Mother of god. The entire book built up this sense of, “Laura sure is prejudiced, ain't she? Ready to see her learn to respect other cultures?” ...and then at the last minute shoved in a, “Surprise! Laura was right all along! Those tricky Muslims sure are something, aren't they?”

I don't really know what to say. I spent most of the book hoping that Cooney was going to use Laura as an example of how prejudice is harmful and foolish, but the ending only validates and reinforces Laura's worst qualities—and it doesn't even have the decency to provide the stereotypical Muslim terrorist cell with any motive. Their identities aren't revealed. Their plan isn't explained. There's not even any proof that Jehran was a terrorist, just Laura and her Scotland Yard buddy babbling about Jehran's supposed crimes. After all, there's no evidence that ties Jehran or her mysterious family to Billy's death, and the bomb that Laura accused her of having didn't exist.

All in all, I'm very glad I read Fog first; otherwise, I would have been seriously rethinking my decision to purchase Code Orange and Return of the Vampire.

A copy of this book was provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Alfredo Valdez · Rating 1 out of 5]

How would you feel if your brother was killed by a terrorist,angry revengeful,clueless? In the book Billy is killed by package bomb in a subway station. The genre of this book is realistic fiction because it contains events that can possibly happen. What I thought of this book was a suspenseful beginning with the death of 5 year old Billy Williams and then turns into a mystery where Laura, Billy's sister, tries to find the killer by suspecting everyone at her school including her enemies and.............. friends.

The setting of the story is in L.I.A school. It is important to the story because the main suspects of the terrorist attack according to Laura go to that school. Laura was trying to find the killer of Billy because she wants revenge on the killer, but she was blaming people with no proof because she is desperate to find the killer which leads her to investigate the death more in depth and find out why Billy was chosen to be killed,so It led her to she suspected Jehran as a victim because she was trying to escape London with Billy's passport because Jehran was being forced to marry an older man,and if she did not flee London soon she would be abused at a young age of 16.This leads Laura to try and help jehran and they are making a plan to escape to the U.S.A using Billy's passport.These events strangely occur after the death of Billy Williams. The type of problem is person vs. person because Laura has to face a killer who was obviously a human being. The theme of the story is the no matter how hard you try not all stories have a happy ending.I choose that theme because at the end of the story it states " thats it" Laura said "your just going to let the killer of my brother go with any any consequences. Jehran was judged as a minor and put in an orphanage,but later walked away and was never seen again.This shows that not all stories are fairy tales that end with "and they lived happily ever after".

This story is told in third person so it is a narrator watching from above. It is third person omniscient which is a like a God because he knows the thoughts of all characters which makes it omniscient. The third person point of view affects the story because it can show what the characters are thinking about and says what he sees which means that in third person point of view there is no opinions said.The characters motivation is to find the terrorist who killed Billy because she wants revenge to who ever killed Billy.The author's tone is revengeful.In the text it states that "laura said "i will kill who ever murdered Billy." This shows that Laura wants to kill who ever murdered Billy with a revengeful tone and is very determined to find the killer.

I was surprised when Laura suspects Jehran as the suspect because she was supposedly Laura's new best friend after Billy died which was even more weird because she hated americans and never talked to Laura and all of a sudden she talks to an american AND becomes "best friends" with Laura.I added the detail of adding quotes around best friend because Jehran was only using Laura for Billy's passport. It became shocking to me because that the killer will become with the friends the victim's sister!!!. I'd compare this author with mystery/realistic fiction because this story contains both elements.The character i identify most as is Con because i would support my friends if something happened to them.I thought the ending of the book was suspenseful because it ended all of a sudden with no punishment for Jehran and she escaped freely from the orphanage where she was sent after the drama at the airport where she was getting yelled at by Laura.

I would rate this book 1 out of 5 because the problem is not resolved the way I thought it would be, i thought this book should have ended with Laura getting revenge on Jehran an a loud arguement between the two old "friends" and maybe even a fight because after what jehran did to the William's family i think Laura would want to throw a punch at Jehran. I would recommend this book to someone who likes mystrey.I did not like this book because the conflict was introduced to quickly and had TO MANY suspenseful moments which is something that i do not like in a book, i think suspenses should be introduced throughout the story

;-)

[Dove Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is pretty awful. It’s offensive to literally any country it mentions, including America.

According to the dedication, Cooney lived in London for a year. I can only assume that during that year she either never went out or exclusively encountered pod people, because literally every assertion she makes about the Brits in general, or Londoners in specific, is breathtakingly wrong.

It is irritating to read a book that is constantly making comments about the weird shit your country does, when not a single word of it is true. We Brits are proud of our weird. But Cooney seems to have missed that in favour of making up nonsense.

And that’s the good points of this awful book. Everything else is downright offensive.

Literally everyone is a stereotype, including the lead character, who tends to idiotically mosey through the plot by basically humming the Star Spangled Banner and being pleased that American is the Bestest Thing Evah and doesn’t have terrorists. Her brother, the victim, sounds like the type of kid you want to drown in a lake (maybe with some of those bricks he stole for no reason?). Her friends are cardboard cutouts, mostly defined by how much like a terrorist they look.

The short version of this book?

Terrorists are terrorist because they are terrorists. Also, they do acts of terror because of the terrorism that they’re totally into. It’s really that simple.

Urgh. This book should be banned. But because it sucks and Cooney should be embarrassed. Not because it’s thought-provoking.

[Cameron Coulter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Caroline B. Cooney's controversial book The Terrorist was banned by numerous organizations because of its broad stereotypes, particularly of Muslims. It follows the story of Laura Williams, an American student living in London, whose brother was killed by an anonymous package bomb in a subway station. Laura becomes obsessed with revenge and suspects everyone.
As exciting as that may seem in a summary, this book was wholly and utterly uninteresting and insipid. This has to be the blandest writing style I have encountered in a long time. The characters are one-dimensional, some of the dialogue is stilted, and almost every stereotype under the sun is utilized with everyone--whether Muslim, American, British, teenage girls, or countries as a whole.
Laura's vengeful hunt consists of several interrogations with her foreign classmates, in which she seeks knowledge of their cultural ideals and religious practices. This is where most of the blunt standardizations begin. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria are labeled as terrorist countries. For many, this book would definitely be offensive.
The most interesting thing about the book is that it was written before the 9/11 terrorism episode. Terrorism certainly existed before then, but not noticeably to Americans. Perhaps it was a more mysterious area to explore in literature back then.
Also, there is one part where a character successfully smuggles a disguised fugitive out of London without any trouble. Nowadays, partly thanks to 9/11's security escalation, that would be less likely.
That about wraps up my thoughts on Cooney's 1997 novel The Terrorist. Once again, just because a book was banned, does not mean it is worth reading. There is nothing inherently wrong about this one, but it is probably a waste of time--even though it is less than 150 pages.

-Also, why is it so easy for Laura to find her family's passports in their house?

[Roberta love youuuu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I REALLY loved this book. It is one of the best I've reas in a very long time.

[Mattie Vandiver · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 maybe
I have enjoyed some of her other books for younger students/middle grade, but this one is just a miss. Laura's little brother Billy is murdered via package bomb in London, which sends Laura into a spiral to find her brother's killer. Unbelievable in many parts, and unnecessarily graphic for middle grades (talking about her brother's body parts exploding across the underground terminal ???). This book was also written in 1997, so many ideas and thoughts around terrorists/terrorism are just not the same as they are today.

Classroom library notes: imo not for middle grade due to some graphic content and just the general content of the story, no language, no sex. Going on my high school shelf

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really not sure why I wasted my time when people whose opinions I trust have told me how terrible this one is. I guess I just had to find out for myself. This somehow manages to be offensive to nearly all nationalities on the planet, so that's quite the achievement I suppose.

Also, the protagonist thinking that England doesn't have the ingredients to make brownies is baffling. What ingredient does she think isn't sold in England? Flour? Sugar? Cocoa? Eggs? Milk? Baking powder? IDK; I'm not a baker.

Laura also at one point states that being multilingual is unpatriotic, so there's that. USA! USA! USA! 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

[Jackie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Outdated language and ideologies aside, this book was boring as sin.

[Jean Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

After i read this book, i realised that the 'terrorist' that the author is talking about is not necessary those in army uniforms, holding huge bazookas and snipers and those who look especially tough and mean. A terrorist is just anyone with the intention of harming someone else. The author makes the idea clear that a terrorist can live in just anyone's heart, as seen in the case of Jehran, a sweet small girl whom noone would ever guess was the one who paid the guards to plant a bomb in Billy's hands. Everyone has a personal agenda. We learnt this from our literature text, The Enemy of the People, in school. This book illustrates this idea, that Jehran killed Billy because she wanted his passport to escape from her brother, who wanted her to marry a rich old man. Jehran has her own personal motive for everything she does and say to Laura. This book brings the idea clearly across that someone with his or her own personal agenda will do anything to accomplish it.
I am amazed by Billy Williams. Even though he is only a mere 11 year old boy, he is full of compassion. Like all other young boys, he is playful and enjoys tormenting her sister Laura. And he has a weird and interesting hobby of collecting everything under the sun. But he is alert and smart, when someone handed him a brown package, he instinctively knows what is in the bag, 'in a sickening moment, Billy remembers the terrorist warnings he had seen posted around London'. On seeing the baby stroller and the baby's mother in front of him, and the mess of people around him, he hugs the package to his chest and was blown to bits and pieces. He did not want the others to die as he knew that if he threw it away, the bomb would still explode and kill others. He is a very brave boy, as even at the instant he knew what was in the bag, he did not shrink away and fling it elsewhere. He'd rather he be the one who got blown up and not the mother and child in front of him or the unknowing people in the crowd. 'he could not throw the package into the innocent crowd'. At the rather touching moment, he thought of his mom before he wrapped himself around the package, and it blew up. He is compassionate, brave and i admire him a lot. Under those circumstances, not many would be willing to protect the others by hugging the bomb to himself.
The story is a fast-paced one. Laura has a long list of suspects of who killed her brother and it was fiiled with names of her schoolmates. The suspect keeps moving from one person to the other, and no one had suspected Jehran. Laura herself had not been a least bit suspicious when Jehran had requested to 'borrow' Billy's passport [Jehran is small and boyish looking though she is frail and thin. she looks a little like Billy]. This shows that even if a person looks sweet, innocent and cute, he or she should still be kept at arms distance [not literary]. There was no foreshadowin or clues on who the killer might be. And that is the whole thrill of this book, unknowing.

Great Lines from the book:
'But thoughts of Billy did not lie gently. Billy might rest in peace, but the world did not. Every senseless act of violence the world over made her heart burst for her brother. Laura would shout, "No!" into the wind, but nothing Laura ever said or did could bring a child back from death.'
'Every winter for years, the Williams family had gone skiing in New Hampshire. There was no Billy, but there was still snow, and cold, and beauty, and the hard glorious work of skiing. Coming down the slope, Laura would try to cast grief into the snow-laden wind.'

[Bec · Rating 1 out of 5]

What is this book???

First of all it is a sad attempt at *forced diversity* with also being a very upsetting mystery as in there was no plot to it. It was Laura, the white American making comments on every country and skin color in her school. The only savior of this book was Billy's character.

The rest of the novel is bland, bland, with more blandness and there is nothing that really happens in the story. I can tell you that most of this book is comments on other characters and how they are being "suspected". Very boring and nothing is really found out. The book itself is all TELLING the audience what is going on and not really showing us. Annoying.

Seemed like the author just thought to herself, "Hm. How can I make this MORE offensive?" then smashed the keyboard with the first object she could find.

Do not pick up this book; it was written with a hotdog.

[Thien Doan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending has a different approach than I expected, which I'm going to like this ending. Because the author made less action involved, but more main on oral speech. I know that can be lame, but I liked it. "Jehran said nothing." The scene has built a lot of imagery. The way of how the character expresses themselves. Larua was pretty darn mad once she had figured it out. She was mad the whole time in this book. Which I found key of book. This has drag lots of emotion of out of here. "What you talking about, Mohammed? All I do now is suspect people! I spend all day and night making lists! Lists of people who thought Billy was a nuisance! Lists of people who might know how to make bombs! I suspect sixth graders who bought Ritz crackers from Billy. I suspect neighbors, Mohammed. I suspect teachers. I suspect you." -Laura. Tons of energy and emotion just by reading that. I think that's my favorite part. It showed a lot about her as a character
"Laura stood with Eddie, waiting for the bus. Billy had loved London buses and sat in the top front seat of double-decker's."
This book has repeated itself too much I think. I think it's over use. The overuse of Billy, but again I began to see that what author writes is what Laura thinks. So if this was abuse a lot that means shows a lot meaning about Billy. Re-scene the time with Billy and Laura. So I understand why this and I would do found that pretty clever. I realize that after I finish the book. I was looking back all the moments in this book, and I see a pattern. If the book was written differently of not overuse of Billy, then Laura itself doesn't care about Billy and we be going through a Journey of no emotion about Billy, so in conclusion it will get dull in the book.

[Celeste_pewter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an ARC through NetGalley and Open Road Media in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

***

Okay. I need to state right at the start of this review: I feel guilty for not liking this book, because Caroline B. Cooney's Both Sides of Time quartet was my go-to time travel series when I was younger.

However, The Terrorist just isn't that well-written.

The beginning of the story is compelling - the protagonist's little brother Billy, witnesses a terrorist attack on the verge of being carried out. He does his best to stop it, by putting himself between the bomb and others.

However, once the story switches to Laura's POV, I started yawning my way through it.

Laura's obsessed with finding answers about the terrorist act and her brother's death, but not in a normal sort of way. She carries out a lot of physical actions - including borderline stalking of others- which made me wonder why 1) her parents didn't realize that she was acting irrationally, and 2) why an adult - any adult - didn't do something to stop/help this girl.


Laura also constantly makes assumptions and leaps of logic which seriously had me questioning her sanity at some points. There are several instances of the book where she added 1 + 2 and came up with 5. That's how weird/random her leaps of logic were.

Ultimately, Cooney treats the very serious subject of terrorism as more of a obsessive focus/side project for a teenage girl, verses something that is genuinely very serious and should be treated as such.

Can't recommend this book.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caroline B. Cooney paints a horrifying tale of revenge as Laura Williams, a 16 year old British international student, finds out that her brother was targeted by a terrorist attack and killed. The first scene of the book has Laura's brother running through a train with his friend. A strange man hands him a package and tells him that his friend dropped it and leaves. Laura's brother remembers all the drills he had at school and realizes the package is a bomb, but didn't want anyone else to die. So, he lays on top of the package to absorb most of the blow and save the baby and mother that were closest to him. The scene really helps my writing because it shows how a single scene can take simple drills in school, that all of us have had, and make them into a horrifying incident. It also shows me how single scenes can reveal a character's true nature and instantly makes the reader fall in love with the brother. It also makes Laura's grief real and it makes the reader understand Laura's need for revenge.

[Rong7 · Rating 2 out of 5]

SWBST

All Laura wanted was to go back to the States, but when her little brother Billy dies, she wants to find the killer. Laura also wants to help her friend, a girl named Jehran, escape to the States with Billy's passport.. Billy was on the way to school when someone handed him a package, and inside that was a bomb. He hugged it tight so no-one would die when it exploded. So Laura's parents help police solve the case of Billy's murder while Laura helps Jehran escape. Then, when Laura and Jehran are at he airport, Jehran leaks information about what happened during Billy's murder and it's shocking.
The terrorist is about love, hatred, and jealousy.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story, I found some of the plot twists stretched the feeling of realism, but the description of London as an international community as well as the portrayal of Americans, American attitudes, and the attitudes of others towards Americans feels honest and authentic. A good introduction to these ideas for young readers trying to understand our place in the world.

[Rachel]

Good, but sad. A family of parent, an older sister and her brother living on a military base somewhere in the world. The kids go to an international school where
they meet people from around the world. Suddenly, the family is effected by terrorism when someone in the subway tunnel
gives the little boy a package. Nothing big enough to show the family. Could someone have done this on purpose?

[Ali C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely my favorite book by caroline b. cooney. I cried (just a little), got mad.. basically related to the character.. No I haven't dealt with anything like that but I could only imagine how she felt.

[KyleeJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why this book what challenged. Even at 34 I could only read it in small chunks. I'm sure my 16yo could handle THE TERRORIST, but I wouldn't want her to be required to read it.

[Allie]

So far this book is really good, it is a really easy read, and it keeps your attention. My friend told me about it, and now i cant put it down. I can't wait to find out in the end.!

[Renae · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was really sad but also very well told, you could really tell how much pain the main character "laura was in"

[Katriina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't live in London , England.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this was an average book. The middle was a little slow but the ending was made up for it.

[William Sarson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. But it was mostly a filler book while I waited to get a new one. So I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have if it was a want to read book.

[Junior Camino-Chavira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the terrorist was very miserios

[Adelyne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea where to start with reviewing this one, other than to say I really didn’t enjoy it. It starts of promisingly, describing a bright young boy called Billy and his life as an American child in London as his father is on a work assignment. He seems full of life, genuinely enjoys the adventures he gets up to in London, and has the mind of an entrepreneur that is so cute to read about. Then a terrorist hands him a bomb as he is exiting a Tube station to get to school, Billy consciously chooses to take the brunt of the explosion to shield the people around him (a baby in a pram, specifically), and both he and this story dies.

The rest of the book is essentially his sister Laura’s efforts to find out who killed her brother, somehow convinced that she knows the killer amongst the millions who live in London. The logic was supposed to be that Billy seemed to have been specifically targeted among the many people in the station during rush hour: I didn’t see why it couldn’t purely have been random, but happy enough to go along with this at this point – as we need a story somehow. My main problem comes with Laura being properly irrational, acting nowhere close to the sixteen-year-old that she is supposed to be (I thought for a while that she was younger than Billy, she seemed to be far less mature than he was!), going on this weird wild goose chase that is not feasible in any way, shape or form.

When reading books written for children/young adults, particularly those with a protagonist in that age range, I often feel like the characters are too mature beyond their ages i.e. an adult’s mind in a child’s body sort of character. Laura is the complete opposite of this, there was no effort to even think through the logic of her actions. Seriously, what on earth made her think that buying a ticket in her dead brother’s name to smuggle a girl out of the country was a good idea?! Never mind that entire chaperoning + 24-hour turnaround madness. That being said, many illogical things were allowed to happen in this book’s universe, and eventually it was one too many to accept. I finished it because it was really short and I was curious as to Jahren would get caught (huge spoiler: she never does, just waltzes out into the crowds presumably never to be seen again), and by this time I was fuming from the ears at how properly ridiculous this ending was.

I totally understand why this book was banned, the us-versus-them notion that it tries to portray is so strong and divided among the lines of race and religion. Every character was so stereotyped, there was zero effort on the part of the author to even disguise this: “American kids are naïve, Muslims are bad, teenage girls are gullible…”. The premise gave this one a lot of potential to include points to think about – how all communities are made of a mix of good and bad, cultural differences, how students bind together to help out one in distress etc. but there was no effort to address any of the above. I only about an hour to read this, any longer I probably would have just given up. 1.5 stars, 2 on Goodreads since I did finish it.

[Zoey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book the terrorist is amazing. It’s a mystery with a jaw dropping ending you never see it coming. The story first plays out with a little boy named Billy. The author does a really good job at making you fall in love with him. He’s the type of kid you would want to hang out with 24 7. That’s why it hurt so much when at the beginning of the book the author kill him off. Billy was handed a bomb by a terrorist while their family was in england because their dad got a new job. The most amazing thing about billy is when he realized it was a bomb he didn't throw it into the crowd of over a thousand people and let someone else die. Billy he surrounded his body over the package leaving no one else harmed but billy was blown to pieces. Leavings no body for his family to bury.
When Billy’s family finds out they are crushed especially his sister Laura Williams who swears she will get revenge on her brother's killer. As Laura goes around suspecting anyone who knew billy she puts all of her friendships on the line. But not one as a girl who goes to school with Laura at an international school in London. Jerhan befriends Laura in hops that she can use her dead brother’s passport to escape the country and her older brother who wants to sell her to a 54 year old muslim man. Jerhan goes to explain how this man has lots of power in their home country. And if she were to go she would be treated as a slave. Laura agrees to this with some hesitation and they go off planning how they will make their escape. The ending is freighting and injustice but that’s just the way the world works.
This book crushed me when Billy died I found myself depressed because it was so sad. I wasn't able to put the book down, because I also wanted justice for Billy’s death. The ending was a shock to me they found the killer but they got away with it in the court of law. IT was also very interesting to see Laura and her parents grieving process. I guess if they were able to grieve properly Laura wouldn’t have the motivation she needed to find Billy’s killer. Overall this was a wonderful book I recommend everybody reads it except small children.

[Norman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Firstly, the overall story of this book and the reason why a terrorist bombing happened was dumb in of itself.

What also annoyed me about this book (and the author), especially being from the uk, was the way the author criticised nearly everything about living in London;
• our food sucks apparently (literally all the characters have food mailed to them from home because they would happily pay extra to have it shipped over then to eat the local equivalent instead 🙄)
• digestive biscuits and marmite are even criticised, it's a biscuit and a spread! It's not that deep. Also she gets marmite completely wrong, not everyone like it, their moto is literally "you either love it or you don't"
• even our toilet paper gets criticised!

One of the only good things the main character, Laura, has to say about moving to London is about the friends that she's made... which are all foreigners. Hard to tell of that's meant as a compliment or a dig?
Book constantly has bit stating things like america is the best, luckiest, superior, etc.
One part had a character speak "American", not an American accent or american english, just American! It's like the author didn't want to have the word American next to the word English

Something I'm not sure about is that the author kept saying the English rather then the British, so I dunno if she simply think the things she talked about doesn't imply to the Welsh or Scottish (she surely points out the irish are different) or whether using english over british was just an oversight or something.

Overall a terrible pointless book!

[Bookmarvel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god this book had me hooked!! I thought that it would all be told from Laura’s view, the sister, but it wasn’t and it actually gave the book so much more dimension and the reader could know so much more than Laura did. Also I think this is a book for children, like a bit younger than high school, but it’s so well written and the topic is so interesting and also real, even before 9/11 and all the school shootings and other acts of terrorism that I don’t even know about bc I live in the US and don’t pay attention to what’s happening in the rest of the world.

I love this book a lot because it literally sucked me in, I was reading it in advisory and I got to like chapter 12 or 13 and everything started to come together but so much was still up in the air and then the period ending and I almost started to cry just a little because I wanted to finish it so bad but I had to go to gym first and I can’t remember the last book that made me feel like that. Maybe sorcery of thorns or the list but those I think I read from before that need-to-finish point to the end in one sitting so it wasn’t as bad.

Oh one more thing [SPOILERS], when you find out at the end how literally the entire book was tied together it’s so crazy like the whole thing was orchestrated and it was all a trick and it’s crazy to think about how it was done but also why someone would want to do that and why they would go that far to get what they wanted.

[Regis · Rating 5 out of 5]

It all starts out with Billy accepting a package from a stranger claiming that "it was dropped by his friend". A moment later after Billy accepts it, it explodes, taking the life of Billy and the legs of a woman nearby. When Billy's sister, Laura, discovers Billy's death she becomes very obsessed with finding Billy's killer. In addition to this, Laura becomes very scared of her surroundings and is suspicious of everyone. Later in the story Laura befriends a girl from her school called Jehran. Jehran invites Laura to a slumber party and explains to Laura that she must steals Billy's identity to go to America because her brother is trying to get her to marry a high ranking general in the Iran army so he won't be killed by Iran officials. Since Jehran inherited most of her family's money, she gives some to Laura and tells her to buy airplane tickets for both of them. When Laura and Jehran arrive at the airport to get on their plane, Jehran accidentally tells Laura in their argument that she had been planning for this a few months ago. Then suddenly Laura has this flashback about someone telling her that terrorists plan for their actions months before the action date. Then Laura uses this connection to connect to Billy's death, and realizes that Jehran used her money to tell a soldier to kill Billy so she can coax Laura into letting her use Billy's passport.