Review: Columbine by Dave Cullen

Genre: Non-fiction, True Crime 
Publication: 04/06/2009 by Twelve
Pages: 417 Pages 
Source: Library Audiobook
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
Goodreads | Amazon | Indigo

Goodreads Summary:
On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine."

Now, in a riveting piece of journalism nearly ten years in the making, comes the story none of us knew. In this revelatory book, Dave Cullen has delivered a profile of teenage killers that goes to the heart of psychopathology. He lays bare the callous brutality of mastermind Eric Harris, and the quavering, suicidal Dylan Klebold, who went to prom three days earlier and obsessed about love in his journal. 

The result is an astonishing account of two good students with lots of friends, who came to stockpile a basement cache of weapons, to record their raging hatred, and to manipulate every adult who got in their way. They left signs everywhere, described by Cullen with a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists, and the boy's tapes and diaries, Cullen gives the first complete account of the Columbine tragedy.

My Thoughts: 
I don't know how I am suppose to rate or review this book. It's a difficult thing to do considering the tragedy that this book digs into. I picked this book up because of a recommendation from WhyMermaids' T5W post about Book with Mental Illness. I was interested in seeing what happened at Columbine and how people moved on afterwards. This book did exactly that, it talked about Eric and Dylan's transition into mass murder, it de-bunked many myths associated with the tragedy and it talked about the victims and how everyone began to move on with their lives. 

I am only really marking this book down based on my own enjoyment. I found it very difficult to listen to at times based on the material and I occasionally got lost in the narration. I didn't always know what the narrator was referring too so I was often confused. However, this is a well written book and if you are interested in finding out more about what happened at Columbine this is an excellent one to pick up. It truly is scary how this could have happened anywhere. I went to High School long after this happened, but I knew a lot of the policies that were put in place such as a lock down or evacuation procedures where put into place because of Columbine and other tragedies like it. 

Even though this book covered such a intense and emotional topic, it still ended with hope which I very much appreciated. "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light" - Albus Dumbledore

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