I recently finished reading an advance copy of Bring a Gun to School Day, an outstanding debut novel (novella) from Darian Worden. I review it in this week’s edition of The Libertarian Enterprise:
Erik Shylding, like Holden Caulfield before him, is the perfect embodiment of the alienated male teen of his day. Of course, in Holden Caulfield’s day, a fascination with guns would have characterized him as a healthy, normal young man. Times have changed.
Erik Shylding likes guns a lot, which in itself would be enough to get him branded a weirdo by his teachers and peers. He also likes hardcore music and black clothing, has the wrong friends, and goes through his school days simmering with anger. In other words, he “resembles” a typical school shooter, such as the one who just committed the worst school shooting ever at the novel’s opening.
The faculty and students at Suburban Regional High School have pegged Erik as a ticking time bomb. In their infinite collectivist wisdom, they deal with this perceived threat through a combination of condescension, ostracism and police state tactics that could only make matters worse and would have seemed absurdly over-the-top a generation ago. Today they seem entirely believable, if no less outrageous.
Read the rest of my review here.
Bring a Gun to School Day goes on sale May 20, but you can place advance orders at Amazon.