Walter Dean Myers is the award-winning author of Monster, a chilling and engrossing book. He has continued his wonderful writing in Shooter. A story that gets into the minds, of three misfit teens.


The reader gets to know the shooter, Leonard, by interviews with his best friend, Cameron and his ex-girl friend, Carla. The interviews were conducted by a school psychologist, and FBI agent, a threat analysis specialist and the town sheriff, the meetings show the voices of Cameron and Carla as the start to reveal the story of the shooting and reveal their hope and desire to belong to some kind of group.


Len introduces them to guns and shows them violent things. He brought Cameron and Carla to the Patriots' target shooting club, and teaches them how to shoot guns. But while they were learning to shoot, Cameron and Carla knew something must have been wrong, because each time they asked what was in the small orange bags, Len would start to freak out and just say flour. But their minds were not convinced. At the end of learning how to shoot, Cameron and Carla found out that there were turtles in the small orange bags. Nobody made a big deal about it.


Shooter explores the pain of many high school students, as the jock, Brad, was shot. It gives a wonderful lesson showing people the extreme of what could really happen from bullying. This book has you at the edge of your seat as you go through the minds of these teenagers. I enjoyed the book as you read through the interviews and new paper clippings. You can really get a visual of what is happening and it seems like you are actually in the book.

You go through heart-twisting pain as you read through Len's “die-ary.” If you love to read about what could really happen in the world, or contemporary fiction you would really enjoy this book. It is for more of a mature mind as you see the violent crimes of this twisted teen.