SarahJanet's Books

We Need to Talk About Kevin

This book is one of the most difficult reads I've ever experienced. Not in the sense that it was actually challenging to read, but it was sometimes physically painful to keep reading, knowing that there was no way for a happy ending.

This book, by Lionel Shriver, is the story of the mother of a school shooter. It is written as letters from Eva, the mother, to her estranged husband Franklin, as a retrospective on Kevin's life after the shooting. It is set up so you know exactly where things are going from the beginning, although it starts with a few painful details and becomes more fleshed out over the course of the story.

What makes this book so unbelieveable is how brutally believeable it is. It's hard to imagine how Lionel Shriver got so inside the head of this mother when you'd think it's the last thing you'd ever want to imagine.

I have now read this book twice, once over a year ago, once just a few weeks ago. The first time I read it, I literally read the last hundred pages through my fingers, barely able to force myself to keep reading while simultaneously unable to stop. The second time, I was expecting to find it a slightly less stressful read, given that I knew what happened. But it was almost worse a second time through - anticipating exactly what was going to happen, waiting for the painful other shoe to drop.

This book will haunt you and stay with you, but it is undeniably an outstanding book that will probably make you second-guess your decision to have children if you already have them or make you question if you ever want them if you don't. I am forcing my book club to read this in January (sorry, guys), but I am really looking forward to the discussion because I think this is a book that needs to be talked about.

posted by SarahJanet @ 12:34 AM