This was a wonderful yet disturbing book that raised some very interesting questions. I greatly enjoyed how it was written and was so wrapped up in Kevin and his mother’s relationship that I never saw the ending coming. I went through so many emotions reading this as well. Frustration, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, understanding...I don’t cry often reading books but I did a few times while reading this one. Ultimately, though, I would have enjoyed it much more had the writing seemed more...realistic? Less sophisticated? I’m not sure what the right word is but I felt like the author was trying to “show off” her vocabulary skills, as ridiculous as that may sound. It was just all so excessive. Additionally, I have a hard time believing someone would write letters in that fashion...especially in 1999/2000. Anyhow, the extravagant descriptions and the somewhat drawn out ramblings that popped up throughout the book caused my interest to sway here and there. Overall it was a story worth reading. ( )

UGH, not for me. Didn't get very far. Took a month before I gave up on it. ( )

I came late to this book . . . because I hated the cover (not the one shown above, by the way). Glad I overcame that. So brilliant, and so, so dark. Painful, haunting. I wanted to kill Kevin myself, long before he offed his classmates and . . . others. I had read another book by her, which was also dark and painful and so very good. Anyway, highly recommended but not at all easy. ( )

Not sure if this is a 2* or a 4* book. Don't feel it deserves a bland 3 - sometimes a 2 is better than a 3.

On the positives, the book is very engrossing. The two main characters (one the narrator) are nicely defined and complex. It's an interesting topic, and there is a good, page-turn-inducing sense of menace growing steadily.

On the downsides... Well, it's frankly unbelievable. Some of the reactions of people to the more... unusual events seem ludicrous, and that in turn makes other people's reactions to their reactions ludicrous. I feel that Shriver was trying to walk a line between foreshadowing, without undermining the plot, and I don't think she succeeded.

I think the book would have been more resonant, more powerful without the big school shooting. There is no suggestion that this is supposed to help understand why people commit such atrocities - each seems to be considered as sui generis (although banal in its unoriginality, and the predictability that they will reoccur). No, the book is more about bringing up a difficult and disturbing child, and I feel would have been better left at that. But, and this may be a trifle unfair no Shriver, that would have been less headline-grabbing.

I'm also not convinced of how realistic it is that Kevin's behaviour and psycopathic tendencies - kinda obvious as they are here - would have been undetected or ignored for so long. Again, Shriver seems to want to have her cake and eat it here.

Finally, I feel there's supposed to be a big reveal, but it was telegraphed so far in advance that it's not surprising when it happens (which I wouldn't mind, except it was built up so much). Again - I think I see the balance she was going for, but feel she missed it by a wide margin. Which, isn't a bad summation of how I feel about the book in general.

This book was, ...whew, well to say it was good or enjoyable doesn't quite fit, though it is stunningly well written in a technical sense. The reading certainly isn't "enjoyable", the whole thing extracts a toll on you even as you eagerly, apprehensively turn the next page, it is a profoundly searing, moving book, and as if by magic, the trauma on the pages wounds you as well. Lionel Shriver's prose is inspired and lambent and her skill for unsettling and unnerving, for taking a simple scene you're familiar with and turning it into a nightmare, is absolute. By all means read this book, but do not read it lightly, it will affect you, it will make you consider the worst case scenarios of parenting and relationships in general. ( )