Shooter is a story about a school shooting that didn't actually happen but is portrayed in a way that suggests that it might be a true story. It borrows from real life tragedies and begins with various newspaper clippings. The book is shown to be something of a compendium for everything the community said about the recent school shooting.
After some newspaper articles, an interview begins with Cameron Porter, a somewhat shy and unsure young man. He's black, but not many others in his school are, and that does make him feel lonely, although he says that the school does not seem to be especially prejudiced, he does feel set apart from the rest. At home, things aren't so pretty. His mom and dad often fight, and although they spend lavish money on themselves, his parents aren't going to send him to a good college.
Cameron falls in with the eventual gunman, a boy named Len. Len is unsurprisingly troubled. He is white, but he's way more of a pariah than Cameron. Len's girlfriend is named Carla, and she's a gothic kind of gal. She usually wears black on black, with black makeup. Her parents are terrible at parenting. When the police respond to a threat, Carla resists them, almost like she's seen someone resisting the authorities before.
Then Len's diary is shown. His writing demonstrates unhinged emotion, and his letters are wild and random. He writes in all caps. Len describes his school, his enemies, the frustrations of his life, sprinkled with cruel jokes and puns, and amusing iconoclastic language. The book ends with the school shooting.
