Book Bearings
Cover of That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

That's Not What Happened

  • 336 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2018
  • 4 editions

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

It's been three years since the Virgil County High School Massacre. Three years since my best friend, Sarah, was killed in a bathroom stall during the mass shooting. Everyone knows Sarah's story--that she died proclaiming her faith.

But it's not true.

I know because I was with her when she died. I didn't say anything then, and people got hurt because of it. Now Sarah's parents are publishing a book about her, so this might be my last chance to set the record straight...but I'm not the only survivor with a story to tell about what did--and didn't--happen that day.

Except Sarah's martyrdom is important to a lot of people, people who don't take kindly to what I'm trying to do. And the more I learn, the less certain I am about what's right. I don't know what will be worse: the guilt of staying silent or the consequences of speaking up...

Good for readers who want: a mystery and a thriller.

  • Mystery
  • Mental health
  • Thrillers
  • Bullying
  • School shootings
  • Secrecy
  • Truthfulness and falsehood
  • Children's fiction

2 About Kody Keplinger

Born 1991

Kody Keplinger (born August 8, 1991, in Owensboro, Kentucky) is an American author of young adult and middle grade books. She is best known for her debut novel The DUFF, which she wrote when she was 17 years old. It was later turned into a movie of the same name. In 2021, she wrote a graphic novel for DC antihero Poison Ivy.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

3 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment