THE SHAPE OF THUNDER

Two best friends haven’t spoken in the year since the tragedy that upended their lives.

Cora Hamed lives with her Lebanese father and White American maternal grandmother; her mother left years earlier. She is mourning the loss of her older sister, Mabel, who died in a school shooting. Quinn McCauley, who is White, is coping with the emotional fallout of her brother Parker’s life-changing actions. While Cora’s family grieves openly and makes sure she sees a therapist regularly, Quinn’s parents fight constantly over who is to blame for what Parker did. The story unfolds in chapters that alternate between the two girls’ viewpoints; Quinn’s chapters open with movingly honest letters to Parker. On Cora’s 12th birthday, she finds a box on her front porch: Quinn believes she has discovered a way to fix everything, but she needs Cora’s help. Eventually the two begin to work together on a time-travel project, seeking a wormhole that will allow them to travel back in time and prevent the shooting. Throughout, Quinn struggles with her guilt and a secret she’s keeping while Cora struggles with her last interaction with Mabel, wondering whether she can still be friends with Quinn, and understanding the Lebanese heritage she knows relatively little about but that shapes people’s perceptions of her. Both characters are well developed, and Warga skillfully handles both their delicate, emotional friendship and larger subjects of grief and gun violence.

Powerful and emotionally complex.