Customer Reviews

Reunion

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This novel starts out heartbreaking! Jump ahead twenty years and it turns suspenseful, and oh so creepy. It was so great, I loved the shift! The characters are so well written that they reminded me of the kids I went to high school with. David Ray is a character that you have to hate because of what he does, but at the same time you feel so bad for him. He's been through so much and treated so badly in his short life. I loved how Jeff Bennington gave the survivors each strengths to go along with the weaknesses of their PTSD. Reunion is a book that will have you glued to the pages, and will leave you thinking about it long after you've finished.

I usually don't write reviews but this is a must read. It was recommended on booklending.com and was .99 for the Kindle version so I thought why not. It is by far the best book I have ever paid a dollar for.

It starts out with a terrible shooting at a high school where several students were killed and injured. The shooter David Ray turned the gun on himself at the end of his rampage. Twenty years later some of the survivors are still trying to deal with the aftermath of the shooting and decided to have a reunion for closure. Several have witnessed a haunting at the high school that was closed after the shooting. There are more murders that cannot be explained. Can a ghost kill someone? Is it David's ghost or a demon?

I gave this book a five and rarely rate a book that high. Bennington doesn't bore you with details that are not needed. If he tells you something remember it because it will come back into play later. Again, this is a great book. Reunion will keep you on your toes and it definitely grabs your attention from the beginning.

This book of fiction takes us into a world that is all too realistic in the horrifying trend of school violence that has been taking place too often in our society.
Bullying and violence have no place in our schools and the practice should be stamped out before it causes violence.
The author starts out with a terrible shooting at a high school where several students were killed and injured. Thankfully, at the end of the horrific rampage, the deranged shooter turns the gun on himself. However, later on, the killer becomes a menacing ghost that haunts the school, even though it was closed after the shooting.
I liked the way the author tells you something that pops up later in the book. Twenty years after the shooting, some of the survivors are still trying to deal with the aftermath. The scars are still open sores for the survivors and the trauma is not over, but beginning again after they decide to have a reunion to get final closure. I don't want to give away the ending, but this book will certainly grab and keep your attention.

As an educator and former school secretary, I have spent the last 40 years in
school settings, seen all kinds of student behavior, met parents who behaved in
very bad taste, worked with Principals who tried to hide serious problems and
felt the frustration of teachers who wondered where would this all lead to?
It leads to terror in our schools.

In "Reunion" by Jeff Bennington, Mr. Bennington tackles the very painful issue of
school shootings and what happens when a group of survivors go back years later for
a reunion. In such acts of terror, many people look for closure, some sense of
peace, an answer to why anyone would come to school with a weapon...but
Mr. Bennington surprises us with the results of this reunion.

This book is a must for all parents, educators, religious leaders, politicians and
students to be aware and report unusual behavior or strangers on school premises.
Sad to say, all schools should have metal detectors, and to report any unfamiliar
persons hanging around the school grounds.

School shootings remains an ongoing terror. Mr. Bennington is to be commended for
dealing with the issue of the survivors. How they deal with this years later and
what they find out is what YOU need to find out. The answers are in Reunion by
Jeff Bennington. And I wish to say it was an honor to review this book.

I am donating my copy of Reunion to The Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn Public Library
for catalog consideration. To me, the best place for a book to be is in the library
where it can be shared with people of all ages. This book needs to be shared with as
many people as possible.

My name is Professor Irene Brodsky. I teach writing skills (thesis & essay) and write
books.

Author of:
"Poetry Unplugged"
"The Adventures of Silly Kitty, Princess Jasmine and First Puppy"
"Queen Esther's New Coloring Book"
and the upcoming "16 Candles Shine Forever" In memory of Johnny Maestro

David Ray walked into school, pulled out a gun and killed eight students; that's how this paranormal thriller, written by Jeff Bennington begins. From the first sentence you know this won't be your ordinary tale of the paranormal. Bennington melds great prose with a social voice that explores the trauma that survivors of school shootings deal with every day.

It's evident that Bennington did his research for this story. The pain and the range of emotions the characters exhibit is raw, and as real as it gets in a fictional story. The characters are so believable they could have been ripped from the pages of the Virginia Tech shooting, or a news story from Columbine. These characters make you feel their pain, their suffering, and the fear they still live with day after day.

Bennington is able to mix this tragic story with a paranormal twist, while not disrespecting the sensitive subject matter of the story. For that, I applaud him. He didn't just write a horror story that happened to revolve around a school shooting. He wrote about a school shooting, and all the pain that goes with such an unthinkable act while adding a paranormal twist. The result is a story that will leave you shaken, and hopeful all in the same moment. This is a story, of tragedy, hopelessness, pain, and in the end, victory. I urge you to read Reunion. You'll be glad you did.

"Reunion" by Jeff Bennington is a novel beginning with a tragic, Columbine (and other schools)-like shooting of a number of high school students by a lone, disturbed teenager. As the survivors mature into adults, they have a reunion twenty years later to help find closure of the horrific event. Afterwards the story takes on more of a horror-novel feel, with the evil of the past still awaiting in the shadows, and how every person involved brings the horrific events two decades prior to their own, separate ends. The creativity of combining real and paranormal horror is an excellent mode of storytelling, and my only critique is a few predictable clichés that should not dissuade readers. Understandably popular, four stars!

I really enjoyed this debut novel from Jeff Bennington. It really started of as creepy with really complex characters and a "perpetrator" of a school crime that I actually had some sympathy towards. I thought it lost its' edginess a bit in the middle, as he continued to weave the story, but then it picked up again at the end.

Upon first reading the synopsis on REUNION I was a little unsettled by the plot. School shootings are a sore topic for many people, especially families that have actually lived them. Although the book is fiction, school shootings unfortunately have been a reality in our current society. It took me to at least get through the first couple of chapters before I took REUNION as being more than just a depiction of a school shooting. REUNION is a fictional thriller where Bennington simulates what a real school shooting might look and feel like from the perspective of the shooter, students, teachers and others in the community. Bennington later places the reader in the lives of a handful of students that survived the shooting 20 years later. Some of these students still live in the small community and others have moved away after the shooting. Taken into account is how much the lives of these survivors have changed and the trauma they endure, even 20 years later. Since the shooting took place shortly before their graduation, some survivors never fulfilled their previous plans, including attending college. These adults now live their lives riding an emotional roller coaster they can't seem to get under control. Eventually coming together, most of the handful of these survivors decide on a class reunion at the school where the shooting occurred.

Their high school had been abandoned since the shooting incident and had never reopened. Until now, that the students receive permission to hold their reunion in the high school. Even though strange things happen in preparation of the high school for the event, the students wanting to face their fears, hold hope that walking inside their school again will help them heal. However the ghost of the shooter David, who was constantly bullied by some of his school peers still seems to linger at the school where he also took his own life. Many events point to David's evil presence still lurking in the hallways of the high school 20 years later, even a death on the school grounds. All the while the sheriff and one of the officers, also a survivor, struggle to cover up the happening as things get worse. As the survivors continue to make their reunion plans, the sherrif decides there is something more going on in his town, and uses his suspicions to stir up the past. Why did the sheriff before him retire so suddenly after the school shooting? REUNION has a twist which will leave you wondering, could this really happen or has it happened? I was left wondering how students, teachers and family members of actual past school shootings truly deal with their emotions and trauma 10, 20 years later. The main point of REUNION is the effect bullying can have on the life of any student and how much more it affects the lives of those students already dealing abuse and neglect at home. What left me truly disturbed was the scenario of the cover-up in REUNION and the probability of it actually occurring in our current society, a scary possibility, a creepy thought. I give this book 4.5 stars. Since amazon does not let my rate halves I have noted this here.

This book gives you even more than expected. When reading a ghost book usually deep intellectual thoughts, romance, and religion isn't a part of the book. In Reunion Jeff Bennington tells much more than your usual ghost story. This book tackles many issues like bullying, and PTSD, and even the question 'is there a god?'. The ending is not predictable in any way. Jeff explains characters so well that you begin not only to feel like you know them, but to long for what they want. Reunion is a book that will not dissapoint. You'll want to read with the light on, I screamed a few times.Prepare to read for awhile too, because you wont want to put this book down.

The author takes you around the gagged edge of a disturbed teenager's wrecked childhood, that ultimately destroys him and 8 of his classmates. When David Ray's last knot comes undone, 8 people are dead, including the Shooter. 20 years later, a group of survivors get together for what they hoped would be a chance to finally put the dead to rest. What they didn't bargain for was that the dead had other plans.

The author takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions, where you find yourself torn between loathing and sympathy for the characters.

Events played out with the speed of a runaway train with a new surprise around each curve. Just when the reader thinks they know where the story is heading, it takes a turn that was totally unexpected.

I wasn't sure exactly what was going on at first; was this an actual haunting, or was it a twisted psychological thrill ride through a comatose-induced veil into a very dark world?

I had to smile at the end, as it all became crystal clear. :)