Scan barcode
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
5.0
This is an amazing and horrifying book that not only gives an account of the massacre at Columbine High School in '99 but the onset and the aftermath as well. Cullen reported on the tragedy the day of the shooting, but it's taken him nine years to research and compile this book, which is thorough, dispels many myths, and brings to light information that has only recently been released.
I listened to this audio-book, though I want to re-read it in "actual" book format. Cullen doesn't approach the story chronologically and this organization was, at first, frustrating and difficult to tell when he was switching between times and characters; however, once I got to know the ten or so characters he was focusing on, it was much easier, and about a quarter of the way through reading the book I was thankful he organized it that way. It was hard enough--emotionally--to listen to the shot-by-shot account of the massacre, but I don't think I'd have been able to listen to it at all if it had been built up to for seven or thirteen hours and then came at the middle or the end (another reason I want to read the hard copy is so that I can clarify some timeline questions I have but skip some of the more gruesome sections). Also, by breaking up the massacre into bits and splicing them among stories about the planning leading up to the event and the survivors and community dealing with the aftermath, Cullen's story is much richer and I got a very full sense of each character and of the school and community themselves.
Cullen's writing is both poetic and objective. He uses the third person when writing about the media throughout the book, and it feels well removed. Too much--or any--first person would have made it feel overly sentimental and perhaps exploitative. There are still questions left unanswered, but I feel like I've got a handle on what happened and why it happened, which is some small sort of consolation.
This took me a very long time to get through because of the subject matter. It's a tremendously difficult book to read, but it's something that I feel everyone should read.
I listened to this audio-book, though I want to re-read it in "actual" book format. Cullen doesn't approach the story chronologically and this organization was, at first, frustrating and difficult to tell when he was switching between times and characters; however, once I got to know the ten or so characters he was focusing on, it was much easier, and about a quarter of the way through reading the book I was thankful he organized it that way. It was hard enough--emotionally--to listen to the shot-by-shot account of the massacre, but I don't think I'd have been able to listen to it at all if it had been built up to for seven or thirteen hours and then came at the middle or the end (another reason I want to read the hard copy is so that I can clarify some timeline questions I have but skip some of the more gruesome sections). Also, by breaking up the massacre into bits and splicing them among stories about the planning leading up to the event and the survivors and community dealing with the aftermath, Cullen's story is much richer and I got a very full sense of each character and of the school and community themselves.
Cullen's writing is both poetic and objective. He uses the third person when writing about the media throughout the book, and it feels well removed. Too much--or any--first person would have made it feel overly sentimental and perhaps exploitative. There are still questions left unanswered, but I feel like I've got a handle on what happened and why it happened, which is some small sort of consolation.
This took me a very long time to get through because of the subject matter. It's a tremendously difficult book to read, but it's something that I feel everyone should read.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
5.0
My experience teaching Columbine this semester has been terrific. Not only is it an important book that I'm happy to have had my students read (all 81 of them), but they responded with interesting and insightful comments and discussions. It's a great book for college students because they've got a little perspective on high school, but they're not that far removed from it. My veteran students were also great additions to the discussion when it turned to PTSD and gun control, especially conceal-carry laws. I overheard some students the other week during their small group work saying that this was the first book they've enjoyed reading in college, and although that's kind of a sad statement for them, I was a little--selfishly--pleased as well.
And thank you Dave Cullen, for the excellent teaching materials. I used a lot of them and they were very helpful. I've decided to teach this at least one more semester, possibly more, so I might add a third review. Why not? There's always something new to be found in great books.
And thank you Dave Cullen, for the excellent teaching materials. I used a lot of them and they were very helpful. I've decided to teach this at least one more semester, possibly more, so I might add a third review. Why not? There's always something new to be found in great books.
jenmangler's review against another edition
4.0
Everybody thinks they know the facts of the April 1999 Columbine school shooting. This book really challenges that assumption. Writing about one news report written 48 hours after the massacre, Cullen says, "The details were accurate, the conclusions wrong. Most of the media followed. It was accepted as fact." Powerful food for thought. Cullen writes powerfully & beautifully and helps to shed light not only on the events of that day but on the implications of the event. This is a marvelous and important book and I highly recommend it.
abicaro17's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.25
Wow. I mean a book about the Columbine High School shooting isn't going to be easy to read AT ALL but, this book is an amazingly interesting and informative collection of the facts and events of April 20th, 1999. The author both recounts events from eyewitness, police reports, and security footage. The book complies the psychological states of both Eric and Dylan, the effects on parents, students, and locals, and the global response following the events. As someone who was given the Rachel Scott presentation in middle school, I feel like misinformation on this event spreads even to this day. I was told that Eric and Dylan were loners who hated jocks and popular kids. They were infact psychopaths (or at least Eric was) who planned to blow up the school and didn't have a list at all. The whole book is so interesting and godawful its hard to like or dislike it. The rating is based solely on the slurs (which I assume are quotations but that's not always clear) and the actual nature of school shootings being a traumatic subject (specifically talk about VA Tech shooting).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide attempt, Violence, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Murder, Suicide, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Antisemitism, Gun violence, Medical content, and Religious bigotry
alexisswatsonn's review against another edition
5.0
Wow this book!
After a prof recommended this book while I took an advanced crim course I had an interest to read it. This book is definitely difficult to get through with the content and focusing on a heavy topic, understandably. I found the amount of detail and topics focused on really interesting and it described various perceptions at different stages of the Columbine event. The author was one of the first journalists to be given interviews, access to documents and he spent 10 years writing this book which is phenomenal when you think about how much he went through to write it in such an insightful way. He excluded himself from the book almost completely so some of the interactions he describes are actually of himself but you don’t realize that until reading through the end notes. I really appreciated this tactic because it made the book read as more of an account for he event as it was intended rather than a bunch of interviews.
Highly recommend if you’re looking for a sociological, psychological account of an event that puzzled many for years and still leaves big remaining questions that will never be answered. I could honestly read this five more times and still pick up more information than the time before.
**side note: this is one of the first editions of the book but the newest 25th anniversary edition focuses more on the lasting societal impact since he published back in 2009**
After a prof recommended this book while I took an advanced crim course I had an interest to read it. This book is definitely difficult to get through with the content and focusing on a heavy topic, understandably. I found the amount of detail and topics focused on really interesting and it described various perceptions at different stages of the Columbine event. The author was one of the first journalists to be given interviews, access to documents and he spent 10 years writing this book which is phenomenal when you think about how much he went through to write it in such an insightful way. He excluded himself from the book almost completely so some of the interactions he describes are actually of himself but you don’t realize that until reading through the end notes. I really appreciated this tactic because it made the book read as more of an account for he event as it was intended rather than a bunch of interviews.
Highly recommend if you’re looking for a sociological, psychological account of an event that puzzled many for years and still leaves big remaining questions that will never be answered. I could honestly read this five more times and still pick up more information than the time before.
**side note: this is one of the first editions of the book but the newest 25th anniversary edition focuses more on the lasting societal impact since he published back in 2009**
mariahmt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
rainjrop's review against another edition
5.0
Gripping, horrifying, heartbreaking. I learned so much and discovered that the little I thought I knew was nothing but regurgitated, cemented rumors perpetuated by the media and popular culture over the last two decades. Columbine changed school shootings forever and we continue to see the reverberations today. It's an excellently researched and cited account from a journalist who was there and continued to immerse himself in the aftermath over the following decade.