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Loading... Nineteen Minutesby Jodi Picoult
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  Moniica | Nov 23, 2009 |  Reviewed by Maria (Class of 2012) Almost every year school shootings happen in America. This shocking book 19 minutes was based on real stories. For example the shooting that happened at Virginia Tech University where 33 people were killed in one day the deadliest rampage in America. 19 minutes can be related to Virginia Tech. The book tells the story of Peter, who shot students at a school… But why did he shoot them? What did they do to him? Why wouldn’t he kill Josie? This book was full of suspense and mystery. I like this book because it takes you from when their moms were pregnant until the day when the shooting happened. It tells you how Peter and Josie grow up and about their lives until the day of the shooting. The only thing I dislike about this book was when you find out who was the actual killer of Matt. Despite this, the book never gets boring and it’s hard to put it down. (  ) HHS-Students | Nov 19, 2009 | Me and my friends passed this book around for the 3 weeks we were in England together, all of us getting a chance to read it. This novel tells the story of a teenage boy who shot other students at his school, and the reasons that he did it. This book gave an excellent portrayal of family, love, fear, and friendship, through the shifting viewpoints of a mother, a child, a friend, and a boyfriend. Terribly sad, and at times a bit funny, my only problem with this book came at the end. Definitely a shocking close, it's not what I was expecting, nor what I hoped for, but it made the rest of the book appear in a new light. Worth reading. elliehughes | Nov 12, 2009 | 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. (  )1  melydia | Oct 28, 2009 | 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. (  ) GeniusJen | Oct 14, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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On Peter Houghton's first day of kindergarten, he watched helplessly as an older boy ripped his lunch box out of his hands and threw it out the window. From that day on, his life was a series of humiliations, from having his pants pulled down in the cafeteria, to being called a freak at every turn. But can endless bullying justify murder? As Picoult attempts to answer this question, she shows us all sides of the equation, from the ruthless jock who loses his ability to speak after being shot in the head, to the mother who both blames and pities herself for producing what most would call a monster. Surrounding Peter's story is that of Josie Cormier, a former friend whose acceptance into the popular crowd hangs on a string that makes it impossible for her to reconcile her beliefs with her actions.
At times, Nineteen Minutes can seem tediously stereotypical-- jocks versus nerds, parent versus child, teacher versus student. Part of Picoult's gift is showing us the subtleties of these common dynamics, and the startling effects they often have on the moral landscape. As Peter's mother says at the end of this spellbinding novel, "Everyone would remember Peter for nineteen minutes of his life, but what about the other nine million?" --Gisele Toueg
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)
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My Opinion: Yet another of Jodi Picoult's I'd-rather-read-than-waste-my-time-sleeping books that leaves you questioning your own actions and position in life. (