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A review by caitoconnor13
Columbine by Dave Cullen
5.0
I’m glad a book about this event finally did an objective deep dive into the entire scope of the shooting. And the author did not let Dylan Klebold off the hook, like so many media have done in excusing him as a follower. He helped plan this tragedy. I also appreciate that the author outlined the ways that these men and their white privilege were what led us there. So many signs and covered up records could have saved lives that day. And the fact that DK’s mother insists on centering her son’s suicide and not his murderous behavior is despicable. Years ago, I remember looking into AFSP’s financials after doing a lot of work with them in college and I noticed she donates like five figures to the organization...along with her memoir, she has tried to position herself as the mother of a young man who took his own life, not that of a cold-blooded murderer who laughed and delighted in shooting four people and killing them.
In this book, Cullen doesn’t let her off the hook either. She has spent a lot of the past 20 years trying to claim she is a survivor of suicide loss as if that overshadows her son’s murders. She has even said that it bothers her that the media focuses more on his actions as a killer than on his status as a victim of bullying or a troubled boy with a mental illness. Dylan Klebold is not a victim.
I loved the ways that this delved into so much of the stuff that the media got really wrong—from the Cassie Bernall / Val Schnurr story, to Coach Sanders, Dan Rohrbough, the NRA, and the evangelism of Colorado’s citizenry and its impact on the outcomes.
In this book, Cullen doesn’t let her off the hook either. She has spent a lot of the past 20 years trying to claim she is a survivor of suicide loss as if that overshadows her son’s murders. She has even said that it bothers her that the media focuses more on his actions as a killer than on his status as a victim of bullying or a troubled boy with a mental illness. Dylan Klebold is not a victim.
I loved the ways that this delved into so much of the stuff that the media got really wrong—from the Cassie Bernall / Val Schnurr story, to Coach Sanders, Dan Rohrbough, the NRA, and the evangelism of Colorado’s citizenry and its impact on the outcomes.