Review: "Kent State," by Deborah Wiles

Kent State - May 4, 1970. The day the US government shot and killed 4 unarmed protestors on the Indiana college campus. I listened to this audiobook and it was short (only 2 hours) but really harsh to listen to. It's told from multiple perspectives and the people telling the story are not friends. They disagree on what really went down on the Kent State campus on May 4, 1970, so it's harsh because there's a lot of arguing and name-calling. I understand the author's choice to tell the story this way - because that's how history is. The story depends on everyone's perspectives of the events because that's how the story survives - by telling others what happened and what they saw. So, in this book, we hear from townsfolk who blame the college kids, college kids who say they were peacefully protesting the Vietnam War, a National Guardsman who was there shooting, and the voices of the dead students themselves. There were several "What?!" moments in this book as I learned that there were other shootings on two other college campuses around the same time, but Kent State is the only one I'd known about. There are misconceptions and rumors in the novel as well, because the author stayed true to all of the conflicting accounts of what happened that day.

Mrs. Denney's Rating: **

#review #historicalfiction #violence #death