The Stone Catchers

In a span of minutes, the lives of four members of Brickton Community College change forever when an active shooter enters the campus and opens fire. Running on adrenaline and fear, the group—a crew of students and their teacher—subdues the perpetrator in a violent frenzy that leads to the man's death. Reeling from the shock of their collective actions, the group is thrown into turmoil when they realize that the person they have killed is someone they all knew.

Narrated in alternating voices and set against the backdrop of an economically depressed Appalachian town, Laura Leigh Morris's The Stone Catchers explores the immeasurable pain and trauma experienced by the survivors of a school shooting. Forced to process the horror of the event, mourn, and to reconcile themselves to their newfound recognition as local heroes, the survivors grapple with the losses suffered by their community and their own actions. They come face to face with the unquantifiable cost gun violence exacts on the families, friends, and futures of a town fractured by tragedy.