Haunting and Disturbing
What a book! I nearly abandoned this book several times in the beginning, but I am so glad that I stuck with it. The ending was quite satisfying, as far as reading goes, and believable.

I cannot say I "enjoyed" this book -- the subject matter is not enjoyable, and the voice of the character is biting. But I will say this is a book that will definitely stay with me for a long time. It poses so many questions -- far more than it answers -- and is exquisitely written. The ending is one that will stay with me forever, I have no doubt. This is a book about a mother - son relationship, about what makes kids "good" or "bad," about motherhood, about the public school system... about a mass murder not unlike Virginia Tech and Columbine. Be prepared to hear it unfold one letter at a time -- the whole book is comprised of letters from the mother to the father... the history as she remembers it. Powerful. Haunting. Infuriating. Believable. Sad. DISTURBING

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depressing, dark, disturbing, disgusting........need I say more? I cannot imagine what kind of bizarre mind wrote this book. My book club read this book because the author is local and the story takes place in our county, it was just a horrible ordeal for me to read it. The author was very pretentious in her writing, each sentence was an attempt to "dazzle us" with her intellect. I was not dazzled.....dont waste your precious time reading this horror story, there is nothing redeamable about it in my humble opinion.

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While I agree that someone needed to talk about (and TO HIM about, oh 15 years earlier) Kevin, I wonder if we really needed to talk about him THIS much. I found myself screaming sometimes in the beginning of this book "NO! We do NOT need to talk about Kevin! Shut up!" The first half of this book could have easily been cut by 25%. It's meandering and I only finished it because I wanted to know the ending. I hated the main characters in this book (except for the daughter). The mother's ambivalence, the father's blindness, the son's - well, everything about him. I wanted to smack that child, deck the mother and castrate the father. The book made me very angry. Can you tell?

Once you get past the first half, things really pick up - esp those last 80 pages or so. The author just spends too much time getting us there. I think part of me knew the "twist" ending, but I didn't want to know it, so I was surprised. I, honestly, am not 100% sure I'd recommend the book, HOWEVER, this would be a really really great book club book. Conversation inducing. I probably won't recommend it to my club because I don't wanna read the blasted thing again.

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Ok, to be honest...it took effort to get through not so much "parts" of this book, but perhaps "lengths" of this book. I am the type of reader who likes to be on the edge of my seat or at least have a very good "picture" painted for me making me dread putting the book down. The author writes in the narrative of Kevin's mother with letters to his father. Before i got to the end of this book, i did feel that Shriver's use of an overly descript vocabulary was exhausting. There's a line to be crossed between vivid portrayal of characters and events and sounding "gramatically self-absorbed". I am, however, verrry glad i finished this book, because the ENDING was unbelieveable...and i do feel, now that perhaps this style was pertinent in the portrayal of Eva's character.
As far as "talking about Kevin", the subject matter is thought-provoking, no doubt forcing one to stop and look at how we view motherhood and children's behavior, leaving us to wonder how much of a warning sign "bad" behavoir can be....

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Haunting and Disturbing
What a book! I nearly abandoned this book several times in the beginning, but I am so glad that I stuck with it. The ending was quite satisfying, as far as reading goes, and believable.

I cannot say I "enjoyed" this book -- the subject matter is not enjoyable, and the voice of the character is biting. But I will say this is a book that will definitely stay with me for a long time. It poses so many questions -- far more than it answers -- and is exquisitely written. The ending is one that will stay with me forever, I have no doubt. This is a book about a mother - son relationship, about what makes kids "good" or "bad," about motherhood, about the public school system... about a mass murder not unlike Virginia Tech and Columbine. Be prepared to hear it unfold one letter at a time -- the whole book is comprised of letters from the mother to the father... the history as she remembers it. Powerful. Haunting. Infuriating. Believable. Sad. DISTURBING

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This is an interesting, but difficult read. you are reading a journal of a mother who's son shot up his school.

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Horrifying. Thoroughly unlikeable characters, but a riveting and harrowing novel. I couldn't put it down.

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This was a great book with a twist at the end. So sad!

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This book starts slow but ends with a bang. Worth sticking out.

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Haunting and Disturbing
What a book! I nearly abandoned this book several times in the beginning, but I am so glad that I stuck with it. The ending was quite satisfying, as far as reading goes, and believable.

I cannot say I "enjoyed" this book -- the subject matter is not enjoyable, and the voice of the character is biting. But I will say this is a book that will definitely stay with me for a long time. It poses so many questions -- far more than it answers -- and is exquisitely written. The ending is one that will stay with me forever, I have no doubt. This is a book about a mother - son relationship, about what makes kids "good" or "bad," about motherhood, about the public school system... about a mass murder not unlike Virginia Tech and Columbine. Be prepared to hear it unfold one letter at a time -- the whole book is comprised of letters from the mother to the father... the history as she remembers it. Powerful. Haunting. Infuriating. Believable. Sad. DISTURBING

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Troubling and thought provoking.

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Absolutely riveting. It is a masterpiece.

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This book is very well written, but the story is absolutely horrifying, and I couldn't put it down. It's fiction, but so real a story, about a 15 year old boy who kills classmates and teachers. The storyteller is his mother who relives his life, wondering how much she is to blame for his actions. Fascinating!

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Another book club winner insofar as we actually talked about the book all night and it will still come up in conversation. This book will haunt you, whether you are a parent or not. An interesting fact: The author wrote this book while she was trying to decide whether she wanted to have a child. She was interested in the fact that much of the commentary about the Columbine massacre involved blaming the parents. Her point was that when you have a child, you open the door of your life to a total stranger and that door will never be closed - your life is entwined with the life of an individual who you do not know at all when you forge this lifelong bond. She decided that having a child involves a leap of faith she did not want to make. This book loses the final star for me because the narrative pace is irregular - it starts off extrenely slow and by the end, it almost moves too fast. It is hard to keep picking up for the first third and then becomes impossible to put down.

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It's well written, creative and scary. In fact, is one of the most violent books I've read including mysteries yet it won the Orange Prize. I have to wonder about that.

Was Kevin born bad, a bad seed, or was his mother's reaction to his birth and childhood responsible? And, his father's enthusiasm, too much to believe even for a child, might be at fault as well. Since this is fiction we can only speculate. I do know that some of the early signs of disturbance can be attributed to childhood and the changes a child experiences. Without a doubt, Kevin was pampered in every way, especially by his father. Why should a parent take so much responsibility for a what a child does? Why should society place full blame on the mother? Or, does it?

Did I like this book? I'm still trying to decide but I gave it three stars nonetheless. Can I recommend it to others? I'm not sure. Am I glad I read it? Again, I'm not sure. Maybe time will help me answer these questions.

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Although it took me 2 weeks to finish this book, it was a very good book. Story about Eva who is the mother of Kevin. At almost 16, Kevin murdered his classmates and teacher at his school. Eva tries to come to terms with this horror by writing letters to her husband. I wonder if the movie they made is as good as the book.

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