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A review by nicoleostrowski
Columbine by Dave Cullen
I'll start this review with my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the twelve students killed: Rachel Scott, Daniel Rohrbough, Kyle Velasquez, Steven Curnow, Cassie Bernall, Isaiah Shoels, Matthew Kechter, Lauren Townsend, John Tomlin, Kelly Fleming, Daniel Mauser, and Corey DePooter; and the one teacher killed, Dave Sanders. To lose them to this crime is devastating beyond my imagination. My thoughts are with the students and faculty who survived this incident, many with serious injuries, who now live with the experience in the years that pass, each in their own ways. And my condolences to the loved ones of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris; the families endured the unthinkable experience of both the suicides of their sons and coping with the terrible crimes committed by them.
It took me a long time to read this book; it is painful, and I took breaks. I am not sure why I picked it up in the first place- I am not a true crime enjoyer at all. The commodification of pain is often done in ways I find unsettling at best and reprehensible at worst. I took it on faith that Cullen would handle the topic in good taste, and he fortunately lived up to that faith. He treats every subject of this novel with professionalism and empathy. So many true crime works are so focused on the killers that the victims are rendered nameless and forgotten. Cullen dedicates tremendous amounts of pages to the legacies of the victims, the healing of the survivors, and the shared trauma of a community.
The book is incredibly thorough. It details not only the crime itself, but the lives of those touched by it, the litigation in its aftermath, the failures of law enforcement both before and during the crime, and the psychological profiles of the killers. It outlines the attitudes of its survivors and the loved ones of the deceased (some who forgave the killers, and many who did not). It further dispels many widely held and erroneous myths about the event, which, while I did not personally hold as I was very young when this happened, I recognize are the commonplace misunderstanding of many people.
Very well done. I would recommend this book to any non-fiction reader.
It took me a long time to read this book; it is painful, and I took breaks. I am not sure why I picked it up in the first place- I am not a true crime enjoyer at all. The commodification of pain is often done in ways I find unsettling at best and reprehensible at worst. I took it on faith that Cullen would handle the topic in good taste, and he fortunately lived up to that faith. He treats every subject of this novel with professionalism and empathy. So many true crime works are so focused on the killers that the victims are rendered nameless and forgotten. Cullen dedicates tremendous amounts of pages to the legacies of the victims, the healing of the survivors, and the shared trauma of a community.
The book is incredibly thorough. It details not only the crime itself, but the lives of those touched by it, the litigation in its aftermath, the failures of law enforcement both before and during the crime, and the psychological profiles of the killers. It outlines the attitudes of its survivors and the loved ones of the deceased (some who forgave the killers, and many who did not). It further dispels many widely held and erroneous myths about the event, which, while I did not personally hold as I was very young when this happened, I recognize are the commonplace misunderstanding of many people.
Very well done. I would recommend this book to any non-fiction reader.