The scene-writing is compelling in this tick-tock reconstruction of the experiences of the Virginia Tech class that lost the greatest number of people in the shooting. We found keeping track of all the characters a bit challenging—but the characters are well-rendered and three-dimensional. We particularly liked Hayasaki’s ending; it’s moving without being mawkish.
Erika Hayasaki is a New York-based national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times who covers breaking news and feature stories out of the northeast. For six years, she wrote about youth and education for the newspaper's metro section. In 2004, she won the Los Angeles Times "Best Writing" award for her stories about a new teacher's plight, a boy's dangerous journey to school and a cultural divide at a Latino high school. She has been a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and in 2006 was a recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors "Team Breaking News Award" for coverage of a train crash in Glendale, Calif. Hayasaki is a graduate of the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., where she earned a bachelor's degree in journalism.