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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
I finished reading this book two weeks ago, and I'm still thinking about it.
This was one of the most compelling, yet disturbing, things I have read in a very long time. Cullen does an excellent job explaining how so much of the story that was told by the media was misrepresented or simply not reported at all. So much of what we thought we knew about Harris and Klebold are the result of the bogus impressions of hundreds of people who were interviewed, with their "stories" being reported with little or no attempt on the part of the media to separate fact from fiction.
I also like the way Cullen moved back and forth through time to tell the story, and I appreciated learning about the lives of the victims and their families in the last ten years.
This was one of the most compelling, yet disturbing, things I have read in a very long time. Cullen does an excellent job explaining how so much of the story that was told by the media was misrepresented or simply not reported at all. So much of what we thought we knew about Harris and Klebold are the result of the bogus impressions of hundreds of people who were interviewed, with their "stories" being reported with little or no attempt on the part of the media to separate fact from fiction.
I also like the way Cullen moved back and forth through time to tell the story, and I appreciated learning about the lives of the victims and their families in the last ten years.
Feels horrible to say it, but I couldn't put this book down. Cullen paints a compelling and at times even compassionate portrait of the Columbine killers, dispelling myths and holding the right people accountable while having mercy on the secondary victims like the killers' families, who themselves had little way to see the tragedy coming and took such a beating in the public eye.
It's hard to look at troubled kids because so many of us were a stone's throw from where Dylan and Eric wound up at least a few times... but Dave Cullen makes you look close for what tipped them over the edge, and what our collective responsibility is to make sure it doesn't happen within our own communities. But he also brings up the terrifying possibility that we can't stop it, that it's a cultural phenominon as set as tabloids and talk-television, and it'll take a major shift in values and behavior to remove the motives that drove these teens to kill.
Not a very satisfying ending, but I suppose that's how it went in life too. I wouldn't have wanted to wait another ten years for all of the documents to be released: we all needed answers on this, and Dave Cullen did some absolutely excellent journalistic work to deliver what he could of them.
It's hard to look at troubled kids because so many of us were a stone's throw from where Dylan and Eric wound up at least a few times... but Dave Cullen makes you look close for what tipped them over the edge, and what our collective responsibility is to make sure it doesn't happen within our own communities. But he also brings up the terrifying possibility that we can't stop it, that it's a cultural phenominon as set as tabloids and talk-television, and it'll take a major shift in values and behavior to remove the motives that drove these teens to kill.
Not a very satisfying ending, but I suppose that's how it went in life too. I wouldn't have wanted to wait another ten years for all of the documents to be released: we all needed answers on this, and Dave Cullen did some absolutely excellent journalistic work to deliver what he could of them.
This is a tough read b/c of the emotional subject matter, but Dave Cullen does an incredible job, in my opinion, of presenting all sides to help the reader understand the misconceptions we may have had of the event. It opened my eyes to how much the media influences my thoughts and how there is always so much more to the story. It also shows that knowing the signs that a violent act may be committed is so important and could save lives.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book is incredibly thorough and I could not put it down. Tragic. Heart breaking.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
3.5 stars. I liked this book a lot, but there are some things I found very annoying about the writing. More than anything, the author jumped around haphazardly in ways that didn’t make sense and didn’t seem to relate. Individual sections were great, but the changes were abrupt and weird. He also sometimes writes like a novelist and sometimes like a reporter. That was weird.
They were not goths. They were not bullied. It wasn't video games or Stephen King or Alice Cooper. They did not go bowling the morning of the murders. Cassie Bernall was not killed for defending her faith in God. Eric Harris was a textbook psychopath and Dylan Klebold was sucked into Eric's orbit—that is it.