Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting
by Kindra Neely
Finished 1/2/23
my rating 3.5 out of 5 stars
Kindra Neely never expected it to happen to her. No one does. Sure, she’d sometimes been close to gun violence, like when the house down the street from her childhood home in Texas was targeted in a drive-by shooting. But now she lived in Oregon, where she spent her time swimming in rivers with friends or attending classes at the bucolic Umpqua Community College.
And then, one day, it happend: a mass shooting shattered her college campus. Over the span of a few minutes, on October 1, 2015, eight students and a professor lost their lives. And suddenly, Kindra became a survivor. This empathetic and ultimately hopeful graphic memoir recounts Kindra’s journey forward from those few minutes that changed everything.
It wasn’t easy. Every time Kindra took a step toward peace and wholeness, a new mass shooting devastated her again. Las Vegas. Parkland. She was hopeless at times, feeling as if no one was listening. Not even at the worldwide demonstration March for Our Lives. But finally, Kindra learned that—for her—the path toward hope wound through art, helping others, and sharing her story.
This is a difficult but important read. From someone who was at the Umpqua community college shooting, you get to see how she works her way through her feelings. All the feelings. Things like school shootings are too common and we need to have the voices of the people who have experienced them to help others who end up having to go through the same things. I loved the way this book followed Kindra through not only her before, but her experience and her after. The after is sometimes what we need to hear about most. I think so many people struggle with these symptoms but don't know where to go with them. I hope this book opens some doors to conversations that need to be had.
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