From a Taller Tower traces the history of the American mass shooter — at Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland — without giving in to the notoriety that so many of them seek. With few exceptions, the murderers are never named. Instead, the book examines the beliefs many Americans hold onto about guns, mass shootings and mental illness, and confronts the circumstances that allow these catastrophes to continue.
~NPR
A memorable, necessary contribution to the national conversation on gun violence.
~Kirkus, Starred Review
It is a terrible testament to the frequency of [mass shootings] over the last couple of decades that for those of us not directly affected, some of them tend to blur. From a Taller Tower offers a clearheaded and thoughtful analysis of these crimes, and our culture.
~The American Conservative
A deeply reported examination of the many mass shootings in the United States...The book attempts to unpack our responses to these crimes and explain what’s missing from our understanding of these events, while also revealing more about who is behind these atrocities.
~She Reads
[From a Taller Tower] traces the history of the American mass shooter and the troubling ways we make sense of senseless violence...There’s a tragic timeliness to McGraw’s book.
~Inside Hook
From a Taller Tower is a careful, even cathartic, look at mass shooters and the culture that ushers them forth. McGraw dispels the myths “forged in gunfire” with a riveting examination of the before, during, and after of mass shootings.
~Amye Archer, co-editor of If I Don’t Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings
One of the most important books you can read this or any year. It’s impossible to read this work without nodding or wincing or even crying.
~Patrick Skinner, detective, Savannah, Georgia
An important and extraordinary book that takes us into the mind of the mass shooter and also explores our own complicity in the numbing tragedies that have become far too routine in America. Still, Seamus McGraw manages to leave us with hope that there's a way out of the despair.
~Perri Pelitz, director and producer, Axios on HBO
[From a Taller Tower] details how our culture of rage, victimhood, narcissism and love of guns has created an onslaught of violence that’s almost impossible to keep up with…[a] powerful new book.
~MEL Magazine
