Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Columbine by Dave Cullen

8 reviews

haloblues's review

informative reflective

3.0

EDIT: Bumping down to a 3/5 due to the fact that a lot of my research since reading has shown this book actually repeats a lot of inaccuracies and false narratives. It was, however, still well-written and generally true.

Oof. I actually have no idea how to review this one -- it's the first non-fiction book I've read in what's probably years, and definitely the first one I've reviewed on here, so my general approach to reviews doesn't stand here (I can't exactly present stars based on how entertaining a plot and how likeable the characters were). But I've been experiencing an unprecedented craving for non-fiction and educational materials lately, a big part of which is true crime, and when I saw this I knew I had to read it, not least of which is because as a Scottish person I knew much less about it than my American friends did, and all of my knowledge came from the rumours and exaggerations that were debunked by precisely this book.

I barely put it down for days. It was informative, detailed, absorbing and thoughtful, taking care to go through each of the misconceptions and warped 'facts' one by one and pick them apart to get at the truth, even when that truth wasn't what people wanted to hear. There were a few parts that seemed contradictory -- referring to Eric as popular and 'only below the football team' on the social hierarchy only to say that most of the school didn't know he or Dylan later; saying Eric got "lots and lots of chicks" only to then detail their struggles finding girls/dates and Eric in particular's disinterest in relationships; saying the boys were not bullied at all when classmate accounts and the observations of Sue Klebold said otherwise -- but overall it seemed extremely well-researched and tightly bound by fact. The chronology could get confusing at times; it had a habit throughout the entire book of jumping between chronicling Eric and Dylan's escalation leading up to Columbine, the actual events at the school on the day, and the reactions and responses after the fact, often with no introduction or warning, so it was occasionally jarring to go from the shooting to immediate discussion of the boys getting ready for prom.

But regardless, I know far more about this than I did before reading it, and I found myself emotionally invested in the winding detail of the unfolding events and thinking of it when I had to be elsewhere, eager to get back to reading. I'm moving onto Sue Klebold's own book next, in the hopes of gaining yet another fresh perspective on everything that happened. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Suicide, Sexism, Grief, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

amweber's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Racism, and Violence

puglover's review

challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.0

It was just ok. Not great, but not horrible, either. I didn’t like the way that  the book was written (both the writing style and the pacing) and I’ve also heard that it’s not 100% factual, despite being nonfiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Self harm, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Racism, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

brynnbmn's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Racism

lenaah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gun violence, Murder, Grief, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Xenophobia and Misogyny

cghegan's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Gore

Moderate: Misogyny, Antisemitism, Cursing, Death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcohol

A grim but necessary read in light of the ongoing pandemic of gun violence.

grayscale08's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcohol and Misogyny

hannahkd's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Misogyny, Medical content, Hate crime, and Grief