Monday 9 June 2008

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult


Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until a student enters the local high school with an arsenal of guns and starts shooting, changing the lives of everyone inside and out. The daughter of the judge sitting on the case is the state's best witness -- but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. Or can she?

The very first book I read by Jodi Picoult was The Pact and it was the book that got me hooked on Jodi' books and whilst having read My Sisters Keeper, Salem Falls etc. and whilst these were excellent I never found a book that matched up in my opinion to The Pact, that was until I read Nineteen Minutes ...

This book was written so brilliantly and Jodi just has this way of making you think.

The basis of this story is something similar that we have all read about - school shootings - and I'm the first to admit to thinking when I hear of these of what kind of a warped person could actually do this to their fellow schoolmates.

This is a shocking storyline that not only covers the story of a school shooting that leaves many children dead but, also another sensitive storyline and that of bullying. The shooter here is the recipient of quite violent bullying and it certainly got me thinking that in this storyline all the people involved were victims, even Peter, the boy who shot his schoolmates.

It has a great cast with some brilliant characters the storyline was so powerful, definitely one of my favourites of Jodi's books.

Some of Jodi's books has I felt a little too many scenes in the courtroom and whilst this story like her others end up in the courtroom there were not so many scenes that it got too boring, I loved how the story switched back to describing events leading up to the shooting as well as what was happening after as well.

Fantastic!

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