We Need to Talk About Kevin reviewed by raidergirl3

Dewey said in picking this book: I'm reading this book for the second time right now. The narrator is the mother of a boy who has committed a Columbine-like school shooting/mass murder. I teach high school. I was teaching high school the day the Columbine shooting happened, and we all stopped what we were doing in class and watched the news in horror. This book really freaked me out the first time I read it, because I'm also the mother of teenage boy -- a white, middle-class, suburban boy, which is what these school shooters tend to be. Although the narrator is really hard to like, I just feel for her anyway, because I can not even imagine what it must be like to be the parent of one of these boys. Yet I have to keep in mind at all times the possibility that something like this could out of the blue happen in my classroom at any time.

I'm a high school teacher too, and a mother of a son, so I can connect with Dewey on this one. And what a powerful book this was. I see several other people have selected this book as well, so I won't say too much, other than this was an amazing book. It took me about 100 pages to get into, because the mother is not the most likeable person, and it was hard to read what she said. She is brutally honest about herself and it can be uncomfortable. But nothing about these school incidents is comfortable.

Also, once some other people have read it, I'd love to talk to you about what happens in the book. There are lots of things to discuss in here, which should be what happens after a tragedy.

My full review is here at my blog