Review: No One Ever Asked by Katie Ganshert

 Dear Lit Loves,

Greetings!  I survived an Iridotomy!  Yes, it's true.  This medical anomaly just keeps getting handed unusual diagnoses.  I learned in May 2022 that I have developed narrow-angle closure glaucoma in my left eye (the one that had been normal up till then).  I already have Uveitic glaucoma in my right eye.  My glaucoma surgeon broke the new diagnosis to me and it was like a sucker-punch to the gut and a left hook to the face.  Narrow angle closure glaucoma can quickly lead to closed angle glaucoma so I had to put a rush on undergoing treatment for it.  It is essentially when the pupil and iris of the eye begin tilting forward and sealing off the ocular fluid drain (trabecular meshwork).  Most people do not know they have it until the eye drain is completely blocked. An Iridotomy involved shrinking my pupil, having the eye numbed, and my glaucoma surgeon using two lasers on the left eye - one to prevent bleeding and the other to create a drain via my iris for ocular fluid in the left eye.  It was a scary experience, but I did not suffer optical nerve damage thankfully.

Meanwhile, I made my way through reading No One Ever Asked by Katie Ganshert.  I had never read any book by this author, but the premise intrigued me.  The story revolved around the crises of three women and two school districts.  One school district is in an impoverished area and has lost its accreditation.  The other school district is an elite school operating with students from middle to high socioeconomic backgrounds.  When South Fork School System loses accreditation, the district must pay for any of its students to attend the Crystal Ridge School System's high-performing schools.  And this creates tensions between parents and students from both districts.

There are three women whose lives are affected by the local area school crisis.  Camille, a woman from a high socioeconomic background who is well-known for leading the PTA at Crystal Ridge Schools and leading local fundraising activities, but her marriage is falling apart and she is having a chaotic time trying to parent three kids.  She seems to have the perfect life, but not when the reader learns what is really happening in her life.  Next is Jen, a woman who is an experienced nurse who moves to the area after her husband and she adopt a black child who has experienced a great deal of trauma prior to her adoption. Jen is attempting to be a school nurse at a Crystal Ridge high school and be a mom to a child who may have outbursts if an event triggers traumas from her past.  Finally, there is Anaya, a young black educator who teaches second grade at an elementary school in Crystal Ridge.  She longs to teach at South Fork School District where her father was a leader up until his recent death.

The plot centers around a host of issues including racial equality in schools, discrimination, adoption, sexual harassment, and family trauma.  Will Camille learn to recognize the discriminatory behavior in herself and her closest friends?  Will her marriage survive a separation that comes about due to her over-involvement in just about everything?  Will Jen learn to be a mother to her newly adopted daughter?  How will she navigate parenting a child who has regular outbursts due to the trauma the child endured at an orphanage? How will Jen and her husband cope when their daughter is disparaged by some classmates simply due to the color of her skin?  Will Anaya be able to teach a group of second graders in a school district where parents and students exhibit racist attitudes and behaviors?  Will she be able to find peace with the death of her father and the traumatic incident that happened to her during her year of student teaching?  

This is a whirlwind of a book, but it will make you think and reflect on what you would do if you found youself in any of the highly charged situations the three main characters face.  Interestingly, the ending of the book is loaded with some bombshell revelations. Finally, I felt the ending of the book was too tidy for three female lead characters who were grappling with such complicated realities.  And as a reader, I still had questions regarding each character that were never answered.  I respect the author for tackling such complicated issues in a work of fiction that very well reflects the realities women and our communities are grappling with today 

Till my next review,

Grace (Amy)