Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Columbine by Dave Cullen

15 reviews

savreads28's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Antisemitism, Cursing, Death, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Mental illness, War, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Mass/school shootings, Racism, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

toxxicwasste's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Blood, Death, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Gaslighting, Child death, Grief, Toxic friendship, Genocide, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Bullying, and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Hate crime, Racism, and Rape

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

greenan26's review

dark informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Racism, Antisemitism, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

msradiosilence's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Alcohol, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Ableism, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Suicide, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Blood, Medical content, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Mental illness, Drug use, and Bullying

librarymouse's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

I picked up this book after reading Sue Klebold's memoir. This less biased perspective on the tragedy calls into question much of how she characterizes her son. The focus on those who survived the tragedy, alternating chapters between the aftermath and the events of April 20, 1999 shows how varied reactions to the tragedy were, and personalizes tragedy in a way that the sensationalized news coverage of the events did not.

I find it very unsettling that so many pastors used the tragedy is an excuse to recruit people. Whilr I understand the idea that church can be comforting, the ways that they went about it feels predatory.

The actions of the police in terms of not following up on the repeated warnings about Eric Harris, and the willful destruction of evidence and dragging their feet in releasing their report is reprehensible.

While incredibly informative, and thoughtfully written I don't know that I would recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

Minor: Bullying and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

georgewhite92's review

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Really informative book that tries to document all the details while also trying to disprove the mythos around the tragedy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Grief, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, and Homophobia

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.

dianapiskor's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This was a reread for me and a tough one. The first time I read this was in 2012 when I was just figuring out the world as a senior in high school. Now as an adult, and a teacher who may be teaching this to her AP kids, this book hits different, but is still thought provoking. The issues discussed in this book have not gone away. Not only that, but no real progress has been made on many levels to address the stigmas of mental health, the accessibility to get guns through legal loopholes, the misinformation of public officials, and the harmful power of the media. 

However, it doesn’t mean that this book is all doom and gloom. It addresses the human condition in all it’s glory both positive and negative. A definite must read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Violence