Carnegie Medal Nonfiction Longlist 2023The Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Books of
2022Publishers Weekly Best Books 2022Kirkus Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022Slate Best Books
2022Chicago Tribune Best Books 2022Los Angeles Times Best Books 2022Based on hundreds of hours
of research interviews and access to exclusive sources and materials Sandy Hook is Elizabeth
Williamson s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting the work of Sandy
Hook parents who fought to defend themselves and the truth of their children s fate against
the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists. On December 14 2012 a
gunman killed twenty first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown
Connecticut. Ten years later Sandy Hook has become a foundational story of how false
conspiracy narratives and malicious misinformation have gained traction in society. One of the
nation s most devastating mass shootings Sandy Hook was used to create destructive and painful
myths. Driven by ideology or profit or for no sound reason at all some people insisted it
never occurred or was staged by the federal government as a pretext for seizing Americans
firearms. They tormented the victims relatives online accosted them on the street and at
memorial events accusing them of faking their loved ones murders. Some family members have
been stalked and forced into hiding. A gun was fired into the home of one parent. Present at
the creation of this terrible crusade was Alex Jones s Infowars a far-right outlet that aired
noxious Sandy Hook theories to millions and raised money for the conspiracy theorists quest to
prove the shooting didn t happen. Enabled by Facebook YouTube and other social media
companies failure to curb harmful content the conspiracists questions grew into suspicion
suspicion grew into demands for more proof and unanswered demands turned into rage. This
pattern of denial and attack would come to characterize some Americans response to almost every
major event from mass shootings to the coronavirus pandemic to the 2020 presidential election
in which President Trump s false claims of a rigged result prompted the January 6 2021
assault on a bastion of democracy the U.S. Capitol. The Sandy Hook families led by the father
of the youngest victim refused to accept this. Sandy Hook is the story of their battle to
preserve their loved ones legacies even in the face of threats to their own lives. Through
exhaustive reporting narrative storytelling and intimate portraits Sandy Hook is the
definitive book on one of the most shocking cultural ruptures of the internet era.
