Not one of her better books. There are a few things you can count on in your average Picoult novel: a family or two with teenage children, police and/or lawyers, at least one romance, and a heaping helping of dysfunction. I get the impression that Picoult reads a headline and decides to write a story about it. Which is fine, but this book's Weighty Topic is school shootings, which reads a lot like a cross between We Need to Talk About Kevin and a Law & Order episode, with a generous sprinkling of high school stereotypes. The main characters were the shooter and his mother, the shooter's crush and her mother (a judge) and boyfriend (a bully/jock), and the detective. The whole story was just so tragic that I stopped caring how things turned out. It didn't help that I called the twist ending around halfway through the book. I've read some excellent books by Picoult; this just didn't happen to be one of them. ( )

I always find it hard to read books dealing with school shootings, since I am the mother of two school-aged children. NINETEEN MINUTES, however, is an emotional story that should be required reading for teens, along with their watching of the movie REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

Reading this story of a bullied teen who finally has enough and takes out his anger on his high school is enlightening, and, at times, hard to read. I found it very easy to identify with many of the characters in the book: not just with the shooter, but with the judge's daughter, who wants only to fit in and be popular, and the jocks, who don't know how to be anything but what they are.

NINETEEN MINUTES is a great book. I can honestly say I enjoyed it, even while crying my way through several passages. Read it -- whether a teen or the parent of a teenager, and find out what REALLY happens in high schools around the US -- and what could be happening, quite possibly, in your own hometown. ( )

The book that I just got finished reading was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I chose to read this book because someone told me that it was really good so I wanted to read it. It was a very realistic book and I really enjoyed it.
The book had abunch of different characters and it told about each of their lives and how the school shooting affected them. Then towards the middle all the characters claborated. Then there was a huge twist at the end that I was not expecting at all.
This book really met my expectations. It was a very good book and I reccomend it to everyone. ( )

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

Peter Houghton had an extremely normal life. Raised in a normal town. Went to a normal high school. But he was always different. And because of that, he gets picked on.

And then he retaliates.

Many people are killed, and many more injured.

I don't want to give the whole story away, so just read this because it's so real. Everything that happens in NINETEEN MINUTES could easily happen in an actual high school (and, in many cases, already has).

I don't know what to say other then this is an amazing read. It is written in such a talented way that it could only be pulled off by Jodi Picoult. ( )

Quick Summary:

"In nineteen minutes, you can order a pizza and get it delivered. You can read a story to a child or have your oil changed. You can walk a mile. You can sew a hem. In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge." -- Quote from book jacket

In nineteen minutes, Peter trudged into his high school with a backpack full of guns. He then shot and killed his peers, who had tormented him for years. Josie, the only witness, has amnesia... and the trial is drawing near.

My reaction: This story doesn't revolve around the shooting so much as the events leading up to it, showing what caused a once shy seventeen year old to turn to such violence.

Picoult alternates her narrative between the past and the present -- she shows the bullying that Peter endured since the age of five, which continued to escalate throughout the years. On top of being teased, Peter has no social life and can't seem to do anything right. He's not good at school and can't fill the shoes of his dead brother. In the present, she leads us through the court case following the massacre, ultimately revealing what truly happened that day.

In this novel, things aren't always as they seem... you will grow to love and hate Peter. You will sympathize with him, yet you will not quite understand him and hate him for what he does. This is a very fun, thrilling read, but I would recommend reading Picoult's other book, Perfect Match, first, where she introduces some of her recurring characters' histories.

In my opinion, Jodi Picoult's greatest strength is her characters. These people are raw and real. You feel as if you are really living their situations. She delves deep into ethical issues without disappointing her readers. Are the parents to blame? Or was the kid just bad in the first place? Did years of hazing cause him to do what he did? Or did this kid have an anger problem? Should the figures of authority in Peter's life have intervened more?

I most appreciate this book for the questions is raises and how these questions may cause us to reflect upon our own lives and society. It's truly difficult to categorize any of the characters in this novel as good or bad. There's no happy ending but the voices of Peter, Josie, and the rest of the town will whisper in the back of your mind long after you've finished reading.

Who I would recommend this book to: I would recommend this book to teens or adults who enjoy considering ethical questions and contemplating the results of life shattering events. We have all been a bully or have been bullied so honestly, I think we could all learn something from this book.

Worth buying? Yes. Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. Her latest novels have failed to disappoint me. My only complaint is the cover -- I'm not seeing how it suits the subject matter.

Quotes from the book:

"If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn't be filled?"

""You don't need water to feel like you're drowning, do you?" "

"So much of the language of love was like that: you devoured someone with your eyes, you drank in the sight of him, you swallowed him whole. Love was substance, broken down and beating through your bloodstream."

"Something still exists as long as there's someone around to remember it. "

"When you don't fit in, you become superhuman. You can feel everyone else's eyes on you, stuck like Velcro. You can hear a whisper about you from a mile away. You can disappear, even when it looks like you're still standing right there. You can scream, and nobody hears a sound.
You become the mutant who fell into the vat of acid, the Joker who can't remove his mask, the bionic man who's missing all his limbs and none of his heart.
You are the thing that used to be normal, but that was so long ago, you can't even remember what it was like. " ( )