Saan

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga, published in 2021.

“There should be a word for when you miss a person in the future. Not just missing memories of them, but missing memories you never got to have with them.” -The Shape of Thunder

The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga is an amazingly written book with chapters alternating between two girls’ perspectives. Former best friends Cora, is coping with her sister Mabel’s death, and Quinn, who is being forced to live out punishments for what her brother did. This book seemed to be unfolding before my eyes, and it was scarily real—at least to me.

Cora’s sister was 14 during the school shooting. Cora was, of course, horribly shaken—especially because she had gotten into an argument with her sister the morning of the school shooting. To make it worse, her neighbor and once best friend Quinn’s brother is the reason Cora no longer has her sister beside her. The two best friends haven’t talked since that day. Cora has never felt so alone.

Meanwhile, Quinn is desperately wishing that she could fix this mess. She misses her brother, Parker, even though she is furious at him for the unforgivable thing he did. She also misses Cora, so, so much, and wishes that they could be friends again. Nearly everyone has been avoiding her since that day, even though it was her brother who did everything.his was only making her life worse, especially when considering the secret that she has kept from everyone. A secret that she had kept even from Cora, especially Cora. Quinn has never been so alone.

The idea of time travel, however, is what brings the two once inseparable friends together again: they want to fix this. So maybe, if they could figure out how, they could travel back in time—prevent Parker from doing what he did, and save both Parker and Mabel’s lives. However, it certainly isn’t as easy as it sounds..

They soon realize that they cannot time travel (and no, this book is not sci-fi even if it does have the idea of time travel in it), but they also realize that their friendship is really all they needed to overcome their feelings.

Personally, I thought the ending was a little abrupt, but otherwise, the book was a fantastic read. I would recommend this book to around 8+, as it’s widely suggested online. The Shape of Thunder was stunningly written, and it was overall a very beautiful story. It can be found at AADL, online, or in the Clague library.