Kody Keplinger’s That’s Not What Happened (2018) is a contemporary young adult (YA) novel examining the events during and after a school shooting in a rural Indiana high school. Survivor Leanne Bauer wants to correct the false narrative propagated by the media, victims’ families, and friends. In telling the truth about the school shooting, however, she struggles against resistant peers and community members who want to believe a different story that brings them comfort despite being untrue. The novel, which is a Junior Library Guild Young Adult Selection, establishes themes of The Complexities of Truth and Perspective, The Role of Stereotyping in Shaping Narrative, and The Impact of Trauma on Individual Identity.

This guide references the 2018 Scholastic Press edition.

Content Warning: This guide includes discussion of school shootings, death and injury by gun violence, trauma, mental and emotional health, bullying, grief, and substance use disorder.

Plot Summary

Three years after a shooting at Virgil County High School in rural Indiana, survivor Leanne “Lee” Bauer holds four letters from survivors that correct false narratives about the tragedy. Debating whether to release them to the public, Lee starts her own letter with the hope of reaching a decision in the process.

Lee’s letter relays events starting on March 15, the shooting’s third anniversary. That day, Lee goes with fellow survivors Denny and Miles to a peaceful spot in the woods, which they found after the shooting. They represent three of the six survivors who were wounded or in the direct path of the shooter. Ashley is home with her baby girl, and Eden is at college. Lee feels guilty that Kellie, the sixth survivor, moved away.

That night, Lee learns that the McHales—the parents of her deceased best friend, Sarah—agreed to a book deal for Sarah’s biography. Sarah is the most famous victim of the tragedy: Everyone believes that police found her cross necklace in the girls’ restroom and that she asserted her Christian faith to the shooter. Lee knows these details are untrue because she hid in the stall with Sarah and witnessed her death. Lee recalls how, after the shooting, she tried but failed to tell the McHales that the story about Sarah was fabricated.

Days later, Denny asks Lee for feedback on a scholarship application letter. In it, Denny describes the shooting from his perspective. While many assumed he behaved bravely, he played a passive role. Denny feels he deserves the scholarship not because he is a person who is blind or a survivor of a shooting but because he is hardworking and motivated.

Lee tells Denny the truth: The necklace was not Sarah’s, and Sarah did not speak to the shooter. Lee wants to share the truth formally to avoid the false story’s publication in Sarah’s biography, so Lee visits Detective Jenner, who headed the investigation. Jenner cautions Lee against spreading the truth because it will upset too many people. Lee disregards this advice and tells Sarah’s parents. They refuse to listen and insist she leave.

Lee asks Miles, Eden, and Ashley for letters revealing their perspective of the shooting and aftermath. Ashley, who does not yet know that Lee shared the truth about Sarah, returns her letter first. She describes talking to Lee and Sarah in the restroom, where she also saw Kellie Gaynor smoking; after leaving the restroom, Ashley was shot in the hall. Lee is shocked to learn from the letter that Ashley assumed that the girl talking to the shooter in the restroom was Sarah, leading Ashley to tell everyone about Sarah’s actions. Ashley is still furious with Kellie, who tried to claim the cross necklace was hers.

Brother Lloyd, a pastor at the McHales’ church, accosts Lee and demands she stop lying. Lee insists she is telling the truth. Lee goes to Eden’s college for a planned visit. Eden takes Lee to a party where Eden becomes intoxicated. Lee learns that Eden often gets drunk. While Eden is sleeping, Lee takes Kellie’s contact information from Eden’s phone. Back home, Lee receives Eden’s letter; Eden discusses the loss of her cousin Rosi in the shooting. She struggles with stress, pressure, and trauma. Writing the letter helps Eden decide to seek treatment.

Lee decides to go to prom with Miles as friends. Lee asks him for his letter, but Miles does not want to write one. He suggests that Kellie—who has not returned any of Lee’s texts, calls, or emails—does not want to write one either. Lee rejects this. People egg Lee’s house and key her truck; she finally tells her mother the truth about Sarah: Her mother supports Lee’s choice to tell the truth. Lee recalls seeing adults harass Kellie after the shooting, calling her a liar for claiming the necklace was hers.

Lee encounters Ashley while shopping. Ashley knows that Lee is spreading a story about Sarah that conflicts with her version. Ashley insists that Lee is lying. Lee reminds Ashley that she was the one in the bathroom stall with Sarah, not Ashley. Ashley leaves. At prom, Ashley’s sister calls Lee a liar and says Lee should have died instead of Sarah. Lee has a comforting slow dance with Miles. However, they later argue about Miles’s refusal to write a letter. Miles walks home. Kellie finally texts Lee.

Lee recalls the events of the shooting. Sarah and Lee hid. The shooter fired over the stall, and the bullet intended for Lee missed. Lee did not hear what the shooter discussed with Kellie.

Kellie meets Lee in a café. Kellie brushes off Lee’s request for a letter, saying she tells no one in her new life about the shooting. Lee wants to apologize to Miles, but he hands her the letter. In it, he details how others presumed his heroism, but his actions were passive. Lee feels closer to him for his honesty. Lee is uncertain whether to release the letters publicly; Denny says writing hers will help her decide. Once she does, Lee realizes it is Kellie who should decide whether to release the letters.

Kellie’s letter reveals how Lee gave her a USB drive containing the letters. Kellie relays the shooting from her perspective: The necklace was hers; she asserted her faith to the shooter. She tried to correct the false narrative—the “Sarah story”—in the aftermath, but the accusations of lying and harassment grew so intense that she and her family left town. She appreciates the chance to regain the power of her voice now. Her letter’s last line indicates that she chose to release the letters publicly.