This is an emotive read about the aftermath of a school killing spree; so topical in view of a recent incident and the anti-gun demonstrations in USA. The school incident is reported as seen through the eyes of 7 year old Zach who is a survivor. It shows vividly how he and his family deal with the grief of losing their eldest son Andy but in their different ways. In its clever way the book also outlines that it's not enough to ensure guns laws need changing so they don't get into the wrong hands but importantly that mental health issues should be addressed more thoroughly. It isn't always the case that a family with a disturbed child with behavioural problems like ODD fails to deal with it. Where do you turn? Many of them need the knowledge and support that is like gold dust to find and for people to understand. I personally find public outpouring of grief are uncomfortable and perhaps unhealthy. It must prolong the agony of grief for those directly affected when year after year the media raise the issue so they have to repeatedly relive the dreadful day. It's bad enough that the brain retains this information without public reminders. I don't know how people can move on with the sensationalism of the media on their backs. Finding the secrets of happiness was an innovative idea. Very thought provoking. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers.

Such a sad read, not my usual type of book but as this seems to happen more and more in the real world I was drawn to read it. It was interesting and well written taken from the child's perspective, just a tough read due to the subject.

What an emotional read! I was slightly wary about starting this as I knew it was going to be sad!
It starts with Zach an 8 year old who is at school when the worst thing happens , a gun man enters the school and starts shooting. Zach and his classmates are huddled with their teacher in a closet. They survive but some of the children don't. The book is about how Zachs family deal with the effect it has on their family. Its all written from Zachs point of view. A powerful read. If you liked Lovely Bones and Room you might like this book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

This is a story of two sons who go to school and only one comes home. Zach who is only seven tells you how he feels about his brother, his mother and father, and being an only child. It is very sad and also interesting to read how a seven year old reacts to loosing his brother, his emotions to death and blood, his fears and his comfort.

Although a work of fiction after the recent shootings in the USA it was very poignant. The author's first work and if it is anything to go by will not be her last. A very difficult subject to read about but it was very well written and very compassionate. As they say from the mouths of babes I couldn't put it down although it was heart wrenching and brought a lump to my throat. A book of its time.

Written from the point of view of a young child caught up in the aftermath of a devastating tragedy this storyline slowly draws the reader in and holds their attention throughout. This is a cleverly constructed debut novel about a very current subject (school shootings) but written in such a way as to toy with the readers emotions. The story is told with the innocence and honesty of a child
This book is heart breaking and I have to admit I was brought to tears on several occasions.
My thanks to NetGalley and the author for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Highly recommended.

Great book, beautifully written from the view point of Zach when a gun man enters his school. I loved this book, I read it quickly as I could not put it down.

Gripping, raw and current this book takes you on an emotional journey through the eyes of a child

Scarily topical, dealing with the aftermath and impacts a school shooting has on one family, told through the voice of a young boy who loses his brother.

It was a harrowing, heart wrenching, compelling and truly emotive read - the human failings and events portrayed felt totally realistic - Zach's innocent view of the events and the way he deals with them and tries to make things right is truly heart breaking but I'd still recommend this wonderful book to anyone and everyone. The writing, characters, pace and story line are spot on, the emotions are deftly portrayed and despite this being a difficult subject I was completely and utterly absorbed in the story and needed to know how this shattered family came through the fall out of this horrific event. I was amazed when I saw that this truly accomplished book is a debut and I will definitely look for the next books written by Rhiannon Navin.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Mantle for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book

A well written book about a sad could happen. The characters were very well thought out, made the event so believable. Clever title too!

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. What a powerful and brilliant novel especially in the Society that we live in and how easy it is to own a gun

Told through the thoughts and actions of a 6 year old, Zach, I found this book to be both sad and uplifting in equal measures. It starts with a tragedy, the massacre of children in a school, Zach escapes by hiding in a cupboard with his teacher but his elder brother is one of the victims. Traumatised, but isolated because his parents are struggling with their own grief and fail to interpret his, he retreats into his own world. With his world and his parents marriage crumbling around him, Zach's innate innocence and sense of what is right enable him to overcome his fears and pursue a course of action which ultimately manages to enable his parents to reunite and help them learn how to deal with their grief. I really liked this book and recommend it highly.

Where to start, I loved the book. The author has chosen to write from the perspective of a young child who finds themselves in the terrifying situation of hiding in a school closet whilst a gunman attacks the school. Throughout the book I questioned how one would get into the head of a child that age but if feels absolutely right. For example, any parent will recall their children talking about teacher's smell when an adult smells nothing strange; or how a child reacts to a voice. The reader is taken through the emotional roller coaster the child and his family goes through. It is a well written thought provoking book. The characters are all fully developed and the book feels very real. Could not put down, would highly recommend

Only child is one of those books that stays with you for a long time, this is an incredible book told solely from the view of seven year old Zach, a survivor of a school shooting. We all understand how horrific these all too common school massacres are but with all the “thoughts and prayers” that we are subjected to hearing about and not the real discussion of change, it’s easy to forgot the families left behind. This isn’t an easy read but an important one.

I DNF'd this one about 3/4 of the way through because I really did not have anything drawing me back to this novel. It's one of those books with such an excellent premise, something that feels incredibly relevant and interesting, but its execution is consistently a little underwhelming. It was a real fight to keep picking up this book because there was nothing dragging me forward.
The story is told through the narrative of Zach, a young boy who survives a school shooting at his elementary school, whilst his older brother is killed by a gunman with severe depression and mental issues. Because it's told through the eyes of a child, we miss a lot of the grief and struggles that come from exploring mass shootings, despite getting under the skin of a young person's experience of grief and the aftermath of something so horrifying.
Because the shooting happens right at the beginning of the novel, the events afterwards feel dragged out and contrived- I struggled to connect with any of the characters. If you want to read a book about the aftermath of a mass shooting, I would highly recommend something like Jodi Picoult's 'Nineteen Minutes'. Though 'Only Child' had good intentions, I only found it to be okay, rather than anything amazing.

Read this book, but only read it in places you don’t mind crying! This book brought me to tears more than once and crying on the bus is not a good look!

The story is timely, although unfortunately it seems it will always be timely. It follows the aftermath of a school shooting and how one family deals with the tragedy.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Zach a survivor of the shooting and I know some people have found this not very good I thought it was great, similar to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

His innocence and naivety are really powerful when exploring grief and people’s different reactions to it.

I highly recommend this book!

Thank you for the opportunity to read 'Only Child'. This was a good read and a topical book given yet another school shooting has taken place in the USA. I found the fact that the story was told from the point of a young boy an interesting approach. I found it slightly unconvincing though as the language Zach used was clearly not that of a 7 year-old boy. He was able to read signs and notices that most 7 year-olds would not be able to decipher.

I liked the character of Zach's father although we didn't ever get to the bottom of why he had an affair. Zach's mother was lost in a world of pain and needed to blame someone but would she really have ignored Zach to the extent that she did?

All in all, a good book and I look forward dot reading other books by Rhiannon Navin.

I’m never too sure about child narrators, as I think they have to be done exceptionally (like in To Kill a Mockingbird) to seem like the right decision. So I started out feeling a bit unsure about the story being told by seven-year-old Zach. But Navin pulled off that trick of revealing things to the reader that the narrator himself doesn’t understand, and I was impressed.

Only Child starts with Zach shut in a cupboard with his teacher and classmates while a gunman carries out a massacre in his school. Early on, we learn that one of the nineteen victims is Zach’s older brother Andy. The novel focuses on what happens to the family after the event, particularly on Zach’s mother obsessing over pinning the blame on the gunman’s parents. Zach’s parents’ marriage is pushed to its limits. Zach works through his complicated feelings about his brother’s death.

I really liked the complex nature of Zach’s grief. Andy was often mean to his younger brother, and Zach isn’t wholly sad that his brother is gone. At times, I felt his shame and loneliness so acutely. The journey he goes on is heartbreaking. Particularly when you know that there are so many families going through this in the US right now, and that nothing is being done about it.

When I started to read this book and realised that it was written through the eyes of a young boy I wondered if it was going to be the book for me. Not being able to put it down showed how wrong I was. The opening was quite topical - a shooting in a school, resulting in the death of several children, one of them being Zach's older brother Andy. The story revolves around Zach and his family and how each of them struggle to come to terms with what had happened and the different ways they cope with it. Zach withdraws and is left alone to,work out his feelings for his brother in his own way while his mother turns to blaming and campaigning as the way to block out the pain for her. The relationship between father and mother begins to deteriorate and the story shows how this one day manages to tear a family apart. Sensitively written but able to brutally show the impact that tragedy brings to a family.. A brilliant, thought provoking read

It says this maybe the most powerful book you'll read this year................. and I completely agree.

How the author has written this horrific life changing event. from a 7 year olds point of view, is absolutely extraordinary. The attention to all the emotions of the family is heart stopping and emotional.

What an incredible debut, and one that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you netgalley, mantle and Rhiannon Navin for allowing me to read and review this book.