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Corinne Ferdinand

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Corinne is Currently Reading

Corinne Ferdinand is currently reading

The Night We Met (Say You'll Remember Me #2)

by Abby Jimenez (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 16, 2026 09:59PM

Corinne Ferdinand is currently reading

Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: 2015, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2015

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Corinne Ferdinand said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" I don't know how I feel about this book now that I'm done reading it nor even when I started reading it, to be honest. As a former high school teacher it made me think back to some of my students and how I handled any bullying I witnessed. But even m I don't know how I feel about this book now that I'm done reading it nor even when I started reading it, to be honest. As a former high school teacher it made me think back to some of my students and how I handled any bullying I witnessed. But even more so, as someone who was a freshman in 1999 at the rival high school of Columbine when that tragedy occurred (the school they came to in the afternoons while we went in the morning to finish out that school year) my view of this book ,which I knew at the start, would be skewed; it just hit very close to home. Elements of Picoult's story mirror Columbine exactly (such as the kid falling out of the second story window or even of the shooter running into a friend beforehand and warning him to leave the school grounds both of which happened at Columbine) elements that I can vividly picture and recall and that I will never be able to erase from my memories of that day just as the survivors from that event and the fictional characters in this book will never be able to erase.

(WARNING: This next bit contains SPOILERS!!!!)

Yet, Picoult, as always, spun an intriguing tale that was hard to put down, and even more than that she gave a voice to the unwanted victim: Peter (another mirrored piece from the aftermath of Columbine was the controversy surrounding the two crosses that were put up to symbolize the shooters amongst the other crosses erected to commemorate the victims who were killed... After all, just as you see Lacy and Lewis going through it, the parents of the shooters lost their children too). I remember my mom pointing that out after Columbine and it always stuck with me, which was why I did enjoy this book: we were given that insider perspective that no one wants to think about. We got to see the pain and anguish from the shooter's own family, plus we get glimpses into Peter's entire life of torture and humiliation in order to comprehend how something like this can truly happen.

However, I am not saying that Peter (or Harris and Klebold at Columbine) were blameless and shoudn't be exempt from the consequences and hatred experienced in the aftermath. Yet in this novel Picoult allows for us to acknowledge that there are always two sides to a story and that though denial can be a nice place sometimes, there is always way more to these types of situations than what we want to know and accept. It's why I applaud how Picoult dealt with the murder charges. Peter ends up having to take responsibility for the majority of it, but with the charges concerning his main tormentors being lessened a bit too in order to acknowledge that others were at fault as well is a step in the right direction to finally being able to understand and maybe one day prevent incidences like these from occurring again.

My only wish is that there was a bit more about the suicide in the end. Though we finally see that Peter has found peace in his demise as symbolized by his "dream," it seems slightly out of place. Why one month after the sentencing? When did Peter make that final decision and why? How do the Houghtons feel after? I see why she did it that way... sort of... It's just the one part I would have liked to have been handled differently.

But overall it was an excellent book, though one I don't think I will ever be able to stomach reading again. ...more "

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(44%)
— Mar 28, 2026 03:14PM

Jan 10, 2015 09:12PM · see review