Columbine

May 26, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: true-crime

What does it matter that two crazy teenagers shot 12 other teenagers and one teacher to death at a school somewhere in the American Midwest over ten years ago? It was just another school shooting and since then we have had Virginia Tech which accounted for nearly three times as many victims, didn’t it, not to mention any amount of death and catastrophe in places other than schools. Why should anyone want to write a book about this particular school shooting a decade down the line? Why should we...more

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Jun 29, 2009 Gus Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, politics-and-current-events

Right off the bat, I will state that "Columbine" is one of the most riveting, fascinating, heartbreaking and revolting works of non-fiction you will ever read.

What sets "Columbine" apart from all of the investigative reporting done during the aftermath of perhaps the most notorious school shooting in US history is Dave Cullen's skillful ability to cut through the mythology and hysteria surrounding the entire event. Many of the myths that were accepted as "fact" - that Eric Harris and Dylan Kleb...more Right off the bat, I will state that "Columbine" is one of the most riveting, fascinating, heartbreaking and revolting works of non-fiction you will ever read.

What sets "Columbine" apart from all of the investigative reporting done during the aftermath of perhaps the most notorious school shooting in US history is Dave Cullen's skillful ability to cut through the mythology and hysteria surrounding the entire event. Many of the myths that were accepted as "fact" - that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were bullied loners who sought revenge against the jocks and the elites of Columbine - are irrevocably shattered. Utilizing countless pages and hours of testimony from survivors and others directly involved in the school shooting, including the infamous "Basement Tapes" recorded by Harris and Klebold just days before their rampage, Cullen paints in vivid detail the story of how an idyllic suburb suddenly became a buzzword for everything that was bad about everything; high school, parents, gun control, religion, etc.

Cullen smartly deflects the blame cast on Harris and Klebold's parents. If anything, the journals those two kept demonstrate teenagers have a tremendous capacity to mask their true feelings in the face of authority. In Eric Harris' case, he masked a case of classic textbook psychopathy; no amount of intervention or psychological evaluation could have revealed both his lack of empathy towards others and his massive superiority complex, both which led him to eventually conclude that he was indeed like a God, ready to enact his wrath on a world he deemed too stupid and lazy to live. Klebold, on the other hand, was, on the surface, just melancholy, but hid suicidal thoughts and tendencies, and saw his own death as the only way of truly achieving any peace and tranquility in his life. Apart, the deadly rampage at Columbine may never have taken place; together, with Harris' cold-blooded planning and Klebold's eagerness, Columbine became all but inevitable.

There is blame to be cast, and the villain0 of this story is the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. Their incompetence during the shooting and after inadvertently gave rise to much of the hostility and mythology that took place during the aftermath of the shooting.

Regardless of all the details, Dave Cullen, on every page, painted a masterful image of the human tragedy that was Columbine. We became riveted with what Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold unleashed upon Columbine on April 20, 1999; Cullen reminds us that it's the "who" and the "why" of this event that gave it the gravity it deserved.

"Columbine" is recommended ready for everyone. Everyone.(less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: truthiness

I have to hand it to you, April. You truly know how to test human endurance. After my usual routine of blasting NPR all week at work while entering data, I decided yesterday that I had well beyond reached my horror, disgust, frustration, and doomsday-fears capacity, shut off the station, plugged up my ears, and listened to 69 Love Songs and múm's discography all the way through instead. Despite the fact that I keyed in the date hundreds of times, it never crossed my mind what the symbol I was re...more I have to hand it to you, April. You truly know how to test human endurance. After my usual routine of blasting NPR all week at work while entering data, I decided yesterday that I had well beyond reached my horror, disgust, frustration, and doomsday-fears capacity, shut off the station, plugged up my ears, and listened to 69 Love Songs and múm's discography all the way through instead. Despite the fact that I keyed in the date hundreds of times, it never crossed my mind what the symbol I was repeatedly creating actually stands for in the context of my lifetime. April 19th, April 19th, April 19th. Only once I arrived home and was halfway through my all-nighter read of the last 1/3rd of this book did the light-bulb illuminating reality decide to flicker back on, and I realized my disturbingly appropriate timing. I finished reading Dave Cullen's sobering journalistic piece on the Columbine Massacre in the early morning hours of the 14th anniversary of the Columbine Massacre. Not just that, but I had spent the entire previous evening typing in the 20 year anniversary date of the siege at Waco, and the 18th year after the Murrah bombing. And I grew up in Oklahoma City. The world is currently so chaotic that I completely blanked on all the other major tragedies I had grown up around, and even seen firsthand. Jaded, or simply overwhelmed by the flood of refuse we have recently been forced to swim through, I don't like the idea that so much misery could slip from memory so easily. However, I know am not alone in forgetting. As Cullen points out, not one change was made to gun laws in the wake of Columbine. People just...moved on to other things.

Of course, leeway regarding my temporary amnesia is a given considering the events of the last week, nay, the last year or so. I did, however, realize beforehand that my eyes had stopped on and selected this title on my bookshelf due to the recent resurgence of futile debates centering on gun control in the United States. It felt like an appropriate time to revisit this many times since trumped tragedy, as it seems to be the point where the world really began to notice what was already an epidemic of glorification of and widespread access to semiautomatic weapons in this country. No, I do not wish to debate this matter. I don't want to take your gun away. I do, however, think popular opinion regarding things like background checks and the future sale of military-grade assault weapons to civilians has made its voice well known, and in a shout, at that. Regardless, it doesn't really matter what I think anyway. Apparently, it doesn't even matter one whit what most of us think. In the weeks before the shooting in Colorado, Eric Harris wrote in his journal to lament the existence of background checks in his state, then went on to examine the Brady Bill in detail, eventually celebrating all the loopholes present for gun shows. The semiautomatic rifle and two shotguns used by the killers would, as a result, come from gun shows. Interpret and respond to that information however you will. Again, it won't matter.

There are a few distinct items that I would like to address about this book which form a sort of trinity of deception and misconception concerning the event, much of which is still popular, though indisputably refuted, belief regarding the hows and whys. When Cullen is at his most fierce, he is taking on the Media's misleading and exploitative coverage, the law enforcement cover-ups of their own ineptitude via literal document-shredding combined with the revealing information they "protected" us from for years after the massacre, and the Church's non-stop capitalizing on the inevitable shock and aftershock. Having been in high school during the shooting, it is not a faint memory. We all remember a few things about the tragedy: the boys who did this were social outcasts. The boys who did this targeted "jocks" and "popular kids." One girl pronounced her love of God just before being executed, thereby becoming a modern-day martyr. It was presented as a classic good vs. evil, wholesome vs. strange, God vs. The Devil dichotomy of humanity. Oh, and the media ate it up. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department allowed it to swell to a frenzy of widely-embraced misinformation, despite striking amounts of (classified, naturally) hard evidence to the contrary. The Church used it as a recruitment tool, at times callously reveling in their good fortune in the aftermath of the tragedy. A perfect storm of nonsense rained down.

The facts? Cassie Bernall was not the girl who professed her Christianity, despite what the Church and publishers of her biography will have you believe even to this day. The real source of this pronouncement of faith did not die, and the last word Cassie Bernall heard before being shot in the head was not "God," but "peekaboo." The killers were not social outcasts, were not part of the high school "goth" clique known as "The Trench Coat Mafia," their targets were not specific and retribution-based, but rather: blind, indiscriminate. Their aim was maximum carnage, the highest possible body count. Both boys came from stable, supportive two-parent homes. They were not bullied, they didn't listen to Marilyn Manson or worship Satan, they were not isolated from or ridiculed by their peers any more than every other high schooler endures at one point or another. Dylan Klebold attended his prom two days before the shooting. Eric Harris had a belt on which were many notches, and his female schoolmates widely considered him desirable. These were not vengeful weirdos, but a certifiable psychopath and the suicidal depressive who clung to the former's shadow for sustenance. The emotionally void alpha and the over-emotioned and erratic submissive, each on his own quest for death: one to die in infamy, the other simply to die.

Cullen's narrative, though presented in a nonlinear fashion, manages to lay out a timeline for the events, to examine the real, inevitably complex psychology behind the tragedy, and to debunk the entire, entirely false widespread memory that is the events of April 20th, 1999. Considering the facts, and by that I mean the real facts, can be terrifying. I understand why a lot of people would love to believe that simple things like anti-bullying programs or church camp could work to prevent another such shooting. Of course, those of us who have been paying attention know beyond a shadow of a doubt that things have only gotten worse since Klebold and Harris took their own lives. The simple fact is that two neurologically impaired juvenile felons were allowed ready access to high-powered weaponry designed for battlefields, making a warzone of their own high school, and because of, well, nothing really. The inanity alone is maddening. The true causes are no sources of comfort, but it is crucial that we as a society force ourselves to face them, and to take the appropriate precautionary steps, particularly regarding the availability of frighteningly effective means to spree kill. Especially now. Right now. Turn on your television and then tell me you don't at least see my point. (less)

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Dec 14, 2012 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was a senior in high school on April 20, 1999. I thought the same thoughts as every other student in the country: could it happen here? who among my classmates are potential threats? what would I do?

The Columbine Massacre remains the most famous school shooting in history. It goes beyond body counts. It wasn't the first shooting, it wasn't the last, and after Virginia Tech, it isn't the worst. Something about it, though, stands out. It marked an evolution in youth violence - a horrible meldin...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Joel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audiobooks, non-fiction, vote-getters

I used to think that the Columbine massacre would be the defining event of my generation, the one friends and I would discuss years later, trading "where you when?" stories like I'd heard my parents do when remembering John F. Kennedy. It seemed so... monumental at the time. I was a senior in high school, the same age as the killers. The media attention was omnipresent and relentless and soon even at my small town school (and when I say "small town," I mean it, not the way the news will describe...more I used to think that the Columbine massacre would be the defining event of my generation, the one friends and I would discuss years later, trading "where you when?" stories like I'd heard my parents do when remembering John F. Kennedy. It seemed so... monumental at the time. I was a senior in high school, the same age as the killers. The media attention was omnipresent and relentless and soon even at my small town school (and when I say "small town," I mean it, not the way the news will describe a sleepy hamlet of 30,000), everyone began looking askance at the outsiders, the loners, the kids who came to school dressed in black and roamed the halls with a look on their faces like they hated the world, and it deserved it.

How surreal was it to turn on the television about a year later, after class in my freshman dorm room, to see the students from my high school running from the building, fleeing danger while news copters circled overheard? Turned out the "bombing incident" was the result of an idiot with a cherry bomb and access to a toilet, but Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had already shown us that there is no such thing as a harmless threat when it comes to violence in high school. Columbine (or rather, the media circus it became) had changed everything.

Then one day, it was September 11, and I had a new definition for generation-defining tragedy, and Columbine stopped being something I thought about much.

Dave Cullen never stopped thinking about it. He was a reporter on the scene that very first day, April 20, 1999, when bodies began dropping from library windows and no one knew what the hell was happening. For ten years, he followed the case, the accusations of a police coverup, the lives of those who survived, the sorrows of the families of those who did not.

Columbine, the book, is an exhausting, heartbreaking, minute-by-minute, year-by-year analysis snaking into the past and future from the pivot point of April 20. Meticulously, he explains how everything we thought we knew about the violence that day -- you probably remember: outcasts targeting jocks, the Trench Coat Mafia, Marilyn Manson -- is totally wrong, the truth a victim of a media whirlwind that descended upon the tragedy, picked up garbled rumors and incorrect assumptions and flung them onto TVs and broadsheets across the country. No, Eric and Dylan were not outsiders; they were popular with a certain crowd and Eric even dated. No, they were not part of a cabal that hated jocks; the killings were random and the only real target was humanity. The killers didn't even like Marilyn Manson, preferring KMFDM.

If you have read anything about the case in the last decade, you probably know this already, but for many, the initial reporting of rumors and suppositions (fueling a 24-hour cable news cycle that was just gearing up in 1999) is what they remember, and has become the "truth" of the whole bloody affair.

People read, and probably write, books like this because they want to know why. After a decade of analyzing police records, psychological profiles, and the killers' own writings, Cullen presents an answer, but you aren't going to like it: Eric Harris was a psychopath, and Dylan Klebold was a manic-depressive hanger-on. That... doesn't make me feel any better. Wouldn't it be easier to think, those kids were picked on, it was wrong, but you can see it, they just snapped, it could happen to any of us? But no. Eric Harris didn't snap. He was a bright kid, a smooth talker, and he fooled the world while he spent a full year planning his masterpiece. Did you know that Columbine wasn't even a school shooting, not really? The actual plan was to blow up the building, killing hundreds indiscriminately. The guns were just an afterthought, to pick off the survivors. You know, for fun. Like Doom (there's another rumor for you).

This book is heartbreaking (the stories of the survivors and the grief-stricken nearly brought me to tears more than once, and not because Cullen is slick with his prose). This book is infuriating (details of a police coverup provide more than enough evidence that this tragedy probably could have been prevented). This book is strangely cathartic (I hate using sports as shorthand for healing, but I choked up when Columbine won the state football championships the year after the murders, and the crowd of students chanted together: "We.. are.. COLUMBINE!" Reclaiming the word, making it theirs again.)

I also wonder, and I am adding this a few days after the rest of the review, how necessary it really is. Why is Columbine such a big deal? As a day, it was certainly a pretty crappy day. But there have been a lot of other crappy days before and since, days that killed a lot more than 13 people, that we don't know about or can't remember. It was a seismic event because we let it be one -- I don't think it taught anyone anything, not really. Except maybe how useless constant as-it-happens reporting was going to turn out to be. I don't like that the book, in essence, continues to give Eric Harris exactly what he wanted, which was recognition that he had done something important. As an analysis of the fallout on a formerly unknown town, it's less troubling. As a warning against future violence, it's useless, since it's pretty clear there wasn't much that could be done to change the way it all turned out.

Whenever I see footage from 9/11 (something I try to avoid, but hey, it happens), my breath catches and my heart stops. Every time I see those burning towers, part of me thinks, hopes, that maybe this time, they won't fall. But no. They always fall.(less)

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Joel well, considering the position his parents were in, it's not that surprising. in many minds, the parents will always be to blame for not seeing what w...more
Jun 05, 2012 11:54am

Vicki G The only ones I blame for it are the people who decided to do it, but I guess I'm considered weird in that thought too. I mean I've been deemed as suc...more
Jun 05, 2012 12:50pm

Oct 02, 2011 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, audiobook, history-usa, true-crime, 2006-2010

4.0 stars. This poignant, extremely well done true crime/history takes a comprehensive look at the Columbine massacre. As a rule, I do not read a lot of true crime stories or follow too closely these kinds of national tragedies when they occur (I just find it too depressing). Thus, before I picked up this book, my knowledge of the events surrounding Columbine was limited to “headlines” and “10 minute news segments” that dealt with very little beyond the surface of the shooting.

This award winnin...more 4.0 stars. This poignant, extremely well done true crime/history takes a comprehensive look at the Columbine massacre. As a rule, I do not read a lot of true crime stories or follow too closely these kinds of national tragedies when they occur (I just find it too depressing). Thus, before I picked up this book, my knowledge of the events surrounding Columbine was limited to “headlines” and “10 minute news segments” that dealt with very little beyond the surface of the shooting.

This award winning book written in 2009 is widely considered the definitive study of the Columbine shooting and follows two distinct narrative tracks. First, it details the lives of the two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, from several years before the shooting, through the planning of the attack and the eventual consummation of the murders on April 20, 1999. The second storyline follows a group of survivors and their families from right before the shooting through the aftermath over the next ten years. The book is structured so that the chapters alternate between the two story-lines which I thought was very effective.

The survivors storyline would itself make an interesting book as it chronicles the significant and permanent changes wrought on a small town community in the wake of a major tragedy. These include discussions of the following: (1) the numerous lawsuits stemming from law enforcement’s handling of the shooting (including an alleged cover-up regarding destruction of evidence); (2) fundamentalist religious movements using the “myth” of one of the victims professing her love for God right before being killed as a “rallying cry” for their members (I say myth because the book details how the event was later discovered never to have happened); (3) the battle between local leaders and the National Rifle Association when the NRA was scheduled to have their annual conference in Columbine shortly after the massacre and would not cancel the event; and (4) the radically different path that the survivors and their families lives followed after the shooting (both inspiring and tragic). All of these stories were extremely well researched and very deftly handled by the author who left me with the feeling that he truly cared about the material about which he was writing.

As interesting and important as the above narrative track was, the story of Eric and Dylan and their road to the massacre was what I found the most compelling (as well as deeply disturbing). Through the detailed journals and home made videos of the two boys, we are given an inside look into two very disturbed minds. This is especially true in the case of Eric Harris who, as I mention below, was an actual SOCIOPATH (yes like Dahmer, Gacy and Bundy). I found these sections to be ABSOLUTELY RIVETING. It is in telling the story of these two boys that the author explodes many of the “myths” surrounding the Columbine massacre that I think many people still believe (I know I did before I read this).

MYTH #1: The Columbine Massacre was the result of the killers being bullied and was directed against the jocks and popular kids at the school. TRUTH: The massacre was orchestrated by Eric Harris (more on him below) who was smart, popular and of average looks. Neither of the two shooters were subjected to bullying or abuse as their journals (discovered after the shooting) make clear.

MYTH #2: The Columbine Massacre was perpetrated by basically decent kids who were simply deeply “troubled” depressed and suicidal. TRUTH: Dylan Klebold fits this image and while he can not be considered a victim by any stretch of the imagination, he was “recruited” by Eric Harris to help him with the massacre. Eric Harris, on the other hand WAS A PSYCHOPATH PURE AND SIMPLE. He was a real life younger version of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho who wanted nothing more than to conduct the greatest mass murder in American History. Through Eric’s detailed and extraordinarily disturbing journals and home made videos, we see a person with all of the traits of a classic, sadistic sociopath including, (a) a calm, controlled exterior; (b)someone who is extremely manipulative and able to convince people of almost anything; (c) being totally without empathy or any strong emotional feelings; (d) a complete inability to feel any guilt or remorse and (e) believing himself superior to the entire world which (in his words) didn’t deserve to even live.

MYTH #3: The Columbine killers had “target” lists of specific people they intended to kill. TRUTH: The Columbine massacre was not even intended to be a “shooting.” The killers intended to “blow up” the school and use the guns only to kill stragglers who survived the initial blast. They set up home-made pipe bombs that were planted around the school cafeteria and set to go off at a precise moment when the cafeteria would be the most crowded. One of their goals was to kill more people than the Oklahoma bombing of 1995 and they had no specific targets in mind. Fortunately, the bombs did not go off which is why this fact is not as well known.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating and book and a disturbing look inside the mind of a teenage killer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! (less)

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Sep 02, 2012 Maciek rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, true-crime, read-in-2012, reviewed

On April 20th, 1999, two students of Columbine High arrived at their school for the last time. They were about to begin what would be known as the deadliest schooting in an American high school, killing one teacher and twelve students. What is less known is that Columbine has originally been planned as a bombing; the pair has left two petrol bombs in the school cafeteria, and positioned themselves outside the entrances so they could shoot possible survivors: it is probable that had the bombs exp...more

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Stephen M "Write a five page essay on [insert a paragraph length essay prompt]"

That's my idea of a joke! And my essay was on Descartes' theory of innate ideas,...more
Mar 19, 2013 12:10am

Maciek Jennifer, I would like to thank you for taking the time to post such lengthy and detailed commentary on the book. It forms an invaluable addition to t...more
Mar 19, 2013 07:23am

Apr 24, 2010 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kookey-kristians, life-is-shit, libraries, myths-legends, true-crime

1. Last night I googled "Eric Harris Columbine", I was curious what the little monster looked like. He looked so average and normal, no wonder I hadn't remembered what he looked like from the incessant news coverage 11 years ago. One can see pictures of him and Dylan Kebold dead in the library from at least two different angles in google images. Apparently some people believe that there is still more to the Columbine story, that something else happened to two boys to make this happen.

2. I've re...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, non-fiction

April 20th 1999 was a Tuesday. I remember this fact because my day off was Tuesday. I was probably doing some laundry and cleaning with the TV on in the background. Then I remember stopping and watching as the news came across the TV. There had been a school shooting......a bad one. My first thought was "bad things always happen on Tuesdays."

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 and injured 24. Eric was the mastermind behind the massacre and young psychopath. Dylan was depressed, seemingly a b...more April 20th 1999 was a Tuesday. I remember this fact because my day off was Tuesday. I was probably doing some laundry and cleaning with the TV on in the background. Then I remember stopping and watching as the news came across the TV. There had been a school shooting......a bad one. My first thought was "bad things always happen on Tuesdays."

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 and injured 24. Eric was the mastermind behind the massacre and young psychopath. Dylan was depressed, seemingly a bipolar individual. Eric planned the day extensively for a couple of years and they both documented everything with journals and videos. These were used by the author who did a fantastic bit of journalism with this book.

There was so much more to what happened than we were told. This wasn't supposed to be a shooting, or at least not just a shooting, Eric had a vision of total destruction. The two had planted bombs in the school inside duffle bags as well as in their cars. The bombs were designed to kill 500 people. Eric wanted to kill everyone and thankfully he failed to figure out how to detonate his bombs. So Eric and Dylan were forced to use their guns instead, guns they could only get at a gun show.

David Cullen a reporter on the scene April 20th 1999 made it his mission to learn everything there was to learn about this tragedy. He spent the next ten years doing just that with this book being the result. Columbine not only takes us into the minds of the killers but into police cover-ups on prior incidents with Eric and Dylan and how glaringly obvious it was that they were going to do very bad things. It follows up on the families of the victims and what has become of them over the years.

A bit of a personal rant here. I am not a gun fan. If I had my way I'd melt every last one of them down. I know this isn't a terribly popular opinion in this country but it is how I feel. I don't understand the love affair many people in the United States have with these things designed for nothing but destruction. I know that melting down all the guns won't happen (yet), but I do believe we have to start coming up with some strong regulations to stop future Eric-s and Dylan-s, James-s and Adam-s. Because no matter their mental state, their killings would not have been possible if they didn't have access to an arsenal.

After reading Columbine I came to another conclusion. Every parent needs to go through their kids personal stuff. Screw privacy. I can't figure out how these two guys could have amassed the fire power and bomb makings, video taped themselves and wrote the whole plan out in journals in their parents houses and their parents didn't know! They were basically screaming "I am going to kill as many people as I can!!"

I would be one nosy, annoying mom if I had any children.....boy would they hate me and I wouldn't care.
(less)

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Apr 26, 2011 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Monica by: Very Short List, EarlyWord

Shelves: 2009, nonfiction, genrex

I know this book may not be for everyone but it was such an informative, compelling, and heartbreaking piece of work. It feels important.

As other reviewers here have pointed out the author has been covering this material for Salon for nine years. He destroys commonly held misconceptions about what happened that day, and frames it in a timeline that unfolds along with our understanding of what really happened and who the killers really were. Cullen is visceral but never sensational, and writes f...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Bill Kerwin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

The definitive book on the most memorable US school shooting (at least before Newtown) by a reporter who has followed the story for the last ten years. Dave Cullen demonstrates conclusively that almost everything we thought we knew about Columbine was wrong: the shooters weren't particular objects of bullying, obvious misfits, members of "the trench coat mafia" or Marilyn Manson fans, 2)the shooters didn't target jocks or minorities (they hated a lot of things, including Country Music, Puff Dadd...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Jenn "Awww Yeaaahhh" rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-enough-stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Columbine is one of the most compelling and chilling true crime novels I've ever read. This non-fiction reads like a novel and traces the history leading up to the event as well as it's aftermath. An impressive work of investigative journalism, the book is written from information from the killers' journals, videotapes (Basement Videos), website, police files, and interviews with survivors, their families, classmates, administrators, law enforcement, and experts.

Cullen debunks a lot of the theo...more Columbine is one of the most compelling and chilling true crime novels I've ever read. This non-fiction reads like a novel and traces the history leading up to the event as well as it's aftermath. An impressive work of investigative journalism, the book is written from information from the killers' journals, videotapes (Basement Videos), website, police files, and interviews with survivors, their families, classmates, administrators, law enforcement, and experts.

Cullen debunks a lot of the theories that floated around after the shooting -- no thanks to the sheriff's department and the irresponsible behavior of the media -- that they were Goths, into heavy metal, persecuted by the jocks, bullied, loners, or druggies. It wasn't even a school shooting; it was a year-long detailed and planned school bombing, culminating in a dream of terrorizing a nation. I felt that the author tried to be as fair to everyone as possible, especially to the Harris and Klebold family. And this is where it gets to be most interesting to me. Motive. Cullen theorizes that it also wasn't their parents' upbringing that led the boys down their chosen path of destruction (as do the boys themselves). Dylan Klebold is described as depressive and suicidal, while Eric Harris is plainly diagnosed as a psychopath and the mastermind. Psychopaths lie to and hurt others simply for their own enjoyment, there is no rhyme or reason, except for their own massive ego and a superiority complex. They are amoral and without conscience or emotion. They are hard to identify and almost impossible to treat. In fact, therapy makes them worse, because it teaches them how to manipulate authority. Harris was calculating and rational when he planned his attack to kill hundreds of people and I think understanding what kind of person he was was most troubling, and interesting, to me. It's scary to think that the friendly and intelligent teenager next door could be planning to blow up kids for his own pleasure and it's just as scary to think that there are those who refuse to believe that these kind of people exist. It's safer for a lot of people to think that "Satan made me do it", easier to place blame on the Goths or the jocks, than to confront something you don't understand.

Harris also wrote about his desire of raping and killing women. Psychiatrists believe that if Columbine had been thwarted, Harris might have lived and gone on to further develop his skills, perhaps fully realizing his murderous dreams and ambitions. Terrifying to think about what could have been.(less)

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Jun 14, 2009 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: police-and-thieves, politics-and-society, non-fiction

If you only read one book on the Columbine massacre, this should be the one. Cullen has devoted almost ten years of research to the subject and cuts through the crap that has grown up around the tragedy and the two boys who committed the crimes. It makes for depressing reading, but it is highly readable despite that.

The widely held picture of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold is of a pair of angry loners, the products of parental neglect, who were bullied at school and who killed out of revenge. Cul...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Jake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

For all the eye-opening/jaw dropping material this book delivers, I'm most fascinated with Mr. Cullen's arrangement. He weaves past, present, and future together, jumping back and forth, and across multiple perspectives. And it all seems to work. My sense is this book is Pulitzer worthy, given its intelligence, accessibility, maturity, and comprehensiveness. I think it is extremely significant that the book offers no photos to tell a story most of us only know from the flawed and often mistaken...more

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Apr 06, 2009 Tamora Pierce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-crime

This is the first complete coverage of the 1999 Columbine high school shooting that's been published, with information on the journals and videotapes seized by the police, on the survivors and their families, on the political changes in the town, on the school before and after. It debunks the jock revenge and heavy metal theories that the media generated in the information vacuum after the shootings and gives the information that proves there was no conspiracy.

I was disappointed at first by the...more

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Aug 28, 2010 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mmx, contemporary, goodread-authors, gr-friend-recommendations, holy-shit, rubbernecking

About and around 19 years ago, I used to go to TT’s in Cambridge, MA on Mondays for Stone Soup Poetry. Maurice used to read during open mike and Brother Blue would perform and after awhile you’d get to know all the ‘regulars’---There was the really cute quiet guy who totally copped the beatnik look and would madly scribble in his notebook while others performed--only to shatter on stage. I’m talking complete, make-yourself-hoarse kind of raging, spitting his words out, knocking down chairs… Quit...more

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Mar 30, 2011 jo marked it as read-enough · review of another edition

Shelves: not-fiction

i gave this book a good go but maybe it's not for me. there is a problem in telling the story of another, and sometimes the problem is that we want to "get" that other. i think i'm not big on "getting." i'm not big on pinning people down. i know one wants to, i know it's human nature; i know that much of what we do when we engage in human interactions is trying to figure out who the other person *is*. but our best writers, and maybe we at our best, resist this drive. the good writers present cha...more

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view all 5 comments

jo you don't think he became hooked to the equation: dylan = deep depressive in look for a leader; eric = psychopath?

is there an analysis of their family...more
Jun 10, 2009 04:00pm

Chris jo -- I'm not really sure I "get" your review and it doesn't sound like you read the second half of the book, but there seems to be little doubt that...more
Jun 24, 2009 06:43pm

Nov 30, 2009 dara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: death, suicide, read-in-2009, reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
It is interesting and yet alarming how long the misconceptions behind Columbine were allowed to remain portrayed by the media as fact. Ten years later may be a little late to set the record straight considering this book will never get as much attention as the initial coverage of the incident.

The killers were not the misfits I was led to believe as a child. Quite the opposite was true. The two had thriving social lives and spent time ridiculing "inferiors." Those blaming video games and parenti...more
It is interesting and yet alarming how long the misconceptions behind Columbine were allowed to remain portrayed by the media as fact. Ten years later may be a little late to set the record straight considering this book will never get as much attention as the initial coverage of the incident.

The killers were not the misfits I was led to believe as a child. Quite the opposite was true. The two had thriving social lives and spent time ridiculing "inferiors." Those blaming video games and parenting fail to realize that Eric Harris was a psychopath. He hid behind charm and lies. The few people who saw through it reported it to the proper authorities, but for various reasons action was never taken. The other shooter, Dylan Klebold, even intentionally leaked information which may have prevented the massacre if it had been taken seriously enough. The parents didn't have knowledge of the pipe bombs the police had found. The police's inaction is not at all helped by the lies they later told in an attempt to coverup proof that they had been warned of Eric's threatening website which bragged about his illegal activities. Their poor response to the incident itself was inadequate. In their defense, there was no working procedure in place at the time, which was addressed after Columbine. Still, it is particularly tragic that teacher Dave Sanders was allowed to bleed to death inside of the school, waiting for help that promised to be there within ten minutes but which didn't arrive until three hours later.

What most people may not realize (or at least I was certainly clueless) is that the attack on Columbine was really a failed bombing. The guns were initially only to shoot people fleeing from the destruction and chaos of the various bombs. The media covered the event like any other school shooting, but it was McVeigh who Eric Harris hoped to outdo. The two killers seemed to grow bored of shooting their victims. It wasn't dramatic enough.

Cullen provides the reason why which the police kept to themselves for so long. Harris was a psychopath. The bombing was to destroy inferiors, with vague plans of going down in crossfire with the police. Klebold was a depressed suicidal, who may have never directed his self-loathing and violence outward if not for the unfortunate pairing.

Cullen also tells the story of the survivors, who for the most part, just got on with their lives despite emotional and physical pain, and overwhelming odds against them. (less)

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Dec 02, 2010 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Sorry, but pretty much everything you know about Columbine is probably wrong.

For example, you know the Trench Coat Mafia -- the one that shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold belonged to? Well, although there was such a thing, they didn't belong to it (and actually, they were dusters, not trench coats). Nor were Harris and Klebold bullied (they bullied others, actually), nor did they target jocks, or Christians, or anyone else (the shootings were random). And the martyr Cassie Bernall, who was...more Sorry, but pretty much everything you know about Columbine is probably wrong.

For example, you know the Trench Coat Mafia -- the one that shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold belonged to? Well, although there was such a thing, they didn't belong to it (and actually, they were dusters, not trench coats). Nor were Harris and Klebold bullied (they bullied others, actually), nor did they target jocks, or Christians, or anyone else (the shootings were random). And the martyr Cassie Bernall, who was murdered professing her belief in God? Nope, that one isn't true either (she didn't say a word before Harris killed her, nor did Harris ask her whether she believed in God).

Even more interesting, to me at least, was that the common wisdom about Harris and Klebold's parents -- they were too busy watching TV in the den to notice that their kids were amassing small armories upstairs -- also misses the mark. Harris and Klebold didn't build pipe bombs under the noses of their neglectful parents; quite to the contrary, their parents were pretty typical middle-class people trying to do their best. Harris, a full-blown psychopath at 17, managed to flimflam nearly everyone, including his strict father. And Klebold's parents, like many other parents, tried but failed to discern the depths of their son's depression.

Dave Cullen's book is painstakingly researched and extremely well-written; the accounts of the shootings are painful to read. As for the reportage, Cullen probes, but doesn't accuse, at least not unfairly. For example, while his portrayal of the Jefferson County Sheriff's office is less than flattering (with good reason), he's generally evenhanded in his criticism, acknowledging the nearly impossible circumstances that faced all the players in Littleton during and after the shooting. Cullen also fixes his eye on the media's behavior after the shooting -- most notably, the eagerness to make Cassie Bernall into a martyr, despite eyewitness testimony casting doubt on the story.

Very well done.(less)

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Nov 11, 2011 Krok Zero rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fall-2011

The fascination with true crime is really about unknowability. We will never, ever know the identity of the Zodiac killer. We will never know who killed Elizbeth Short (the Black Dahlia -- or was that name supposed to refer to the killer?) and bisected her body with such indelible gruesomeness. It's not about solving a mystery, it's about the futile striving to fill a void that by definition cannot be filled, to ascribe meaning to events that are either meaningless or might as well be. David Fin...more The fascination with true crime is really about unknowability. We will never, ever know the identity of the Zodiac killer. We will never know who killed Elizbeth Short (the Black Dahlia -- or was that name supposed to refer to the killer?) and bisected her body with such indelible gruesomeness. It's not about solving a mystery, it's about the futile striving to fill a void that by definition cannot be filled, to ascribe meaning to events that are either meaningless or might as well be. David Fincher understood this when he made his masterpiece Zodiac, a film which not only demonstrates this unknowability but is in fact about it.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold executed the massacre at Columbine -- this much we know. Why? Dave Cullen wanted answers and tried to supply them, but his conclusions are no less speculative than Robert Graysmith's fingering of Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac. Cullen lays out a plausible case, but his denial of the "bullying" narrative has been challenged, and one wonders what information Cullen omitted that may not have fit the contours of his argument. You can read Eric's journal, you can consult with the leading psychologists, you can study the play-by-play of the before, during and after. But you cannot know. I'm not sure if Dave Cullen understands this or not. It's a hard truth to face; even Fincher wimps out at the end of Zodiac, offering a solution of relative certainty rebuked by the film's primary theme.

To be fair, answering the fallacious "why" question is only a fraction of what Cullen accomplishes in this remarkable book. Much of his work is devoted to the meticulous debunking of myths. The shooting was not a shooting, but a failed bombing; the murders were not targeted, but random duck-hunts after the bombs failed; the "Trench Coat Mafia" did not include Eric and Dylan and was not dangerous; the killers were not Goths; they were not hated outcasts but boys with active social lives, and one of them had dated and scored with girls; and on and on. This is the book's other interesting subtext, related to the unknowability issue but a little less depressing: catastrophes produce misinformation, but it is possible to puncture the mythology and discover something closer to some version of the truth.

Cullen also does a nice job charting the aftermath and the response by the Columbine community over the years. Columbine is in fundamentalist Christian territory so that factored into everything. The killers' parents remain largely opaque and Cullen acknowledges this. There were infuriating police fuck-ups and cover-ups, and Cullen's anger is palpable just below the surface of his measured journalistic prose. It's fascinating reportage. He ends on a literal blue sky, which is a bit much. Scrupulous research can take you pretty far, but one wishes this topic had been handled by a writer with a bit more panache, a bit more curiosity beyond the facts (as he sees them). His big stylistic gambit is to inhabit the points of view of the "characters," as a novelist would -- third-person omniscient, where the omniscience is based on research. He's caught some flak for this but I didn't have a problem with it.

This is journalism, not art. If it were art, it would have a sense of its own futility. But as journalism, it's very good, perhaps even essential. Everything you know about Columbine is wrong. That will change if you read this book, even if it doesn't fill the void.(less)

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Feb 24, 2010 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

Even this removed in time (2010) from the Columbine tragedy is still freshly horrifying. There were so many good things about this book but the best was learning some real facts after listening for years to all the media hype. Cullen provides one of the best descriptions of Psychopathy I think I've ever read and uses it to analyze Eric Harris' reasoning. He also separately explores Harris and Klebold's motivations. They were very different people whose illnesses dovetailed and played off one ano...more

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Jun 17, 2011 kari rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, 5-star, non-fiction

If I could give this one more than five stars I would. It truly is that good.
This is a very compelling read and I was very surprised by that. It's something of a page-turner and since the ending is already known, that is quite an accomplishment by the author.
Often times non-fiction can be something of a chore to push through. I might want to know the information, but sometimes it's presented in a way that is dry or doesn't grab me as a reader. Nothing like that happens here.
I wanted to understa...more If I could give this one more than five stars I would. It truly is that good.
This is a very compelling read and I was very surprised by that. It's something of a page-turner and since the ending is already known, that is quite an accomplishment by the author.
Often times non-fiction can be something of a chore to push through. I might want to know the information, but sometimes it's presented in a way that is dry or doesn't grab me as a reader. Nothing like that happens here.
I wanted to understand what happened with this event. That was the total of my interest in reading, just to know what happened and try to make sense of it. But there is so much more here than simply explanation of events.
I'm going to try to say what I like while giving out no spoilers. You'll want to read this for youself. If, like me, you find out you believed in lots of myths and misinformation, you'll be in for some shocks.
The story is told is a few different directions at the same time. We get the timeline of the last few days before the attack and then the events at the school, what the killers did and when, etc.
There is another thread that goes back to the childhoods and how they developed and their psychological profiles developed after the killings.
While the timeline of the killers' backstory continues and the time in the school continues, there is also what happens after for the survivors, the victim's families and the local area.
All of these threads weave in and out and it sounds like it would be confusing, but it is handled so well that the changes are seamless.
I was moved to tears several times while reading, although the story isn't sad nor is it inspirational. The events as presented are what got to me, what happened and the things leading up to that day. There are moments when I'd think if only...
Brilliantly researched.
It is fascinating.

*note* If you're worried that it's very gruesome or that each murder is too detailed, it isn't. There is enough description so you know about their injuries, but not so much that it's disturbing.(Well, any book about people being murdered is disturbing, but it's not overdone in any way.)It's very straight-forward.(less)

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Feb 20, 2010 Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Reading this book was a haunting experience. I learned a lot from it and it turns out that most of the things I thought I knew about the shooting were wrong. The author did a fantastic job with the writing and the research. Horrible, but amazing at the same time. I would recommend this for anyone wanting to learn more about school shootings, psychopaths, or Columbine itself.

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Apr 14, 2009 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Columbine High School's story hits home for me in a number of ways: besides watching the whole thing on television during my first year of college (but who didn't, right?), I also now teach at a high school. Our school has protocols in place and gone through drills specifically designed to prepare for an attack. Considering how much time the author spent covering the story from the week it happened until the present day, he presents himself as the best authority and his research is as thorough a...more Columbine High School's story hits home for me in a number of ways: besides watching the whole thing on television during my first year of college (but who didn't, right?), I also now teach at a high school. Our school has protocols in place and gone through drills specifically designed to prepare for an attack. Considering how much time the author spent covering the story from the week it happened until the present day, he presents himself as the best authority and his research is as thorough as anyone could possibly want given the information available.

The strongest aspect of this book is in its construction and layout. It's very easy to look at the events leading up to Harris and Klebold's attack from beginning to end and then examine the aftermath of how people recovered (or failed to recover in some cases). However, Cullen crafts the events into an enthralling narrative that constantly shifts around chronologically, creating a gripping tale that is as heartwarming as it is heart wrenching. There's a sadness in every aspect of the book because of what these two boys did, but there's also a tremendous sense of hope, especially in the tale of Patrick Ireland, the student who managed to crawl out of the library window after being shot in the brain.

Cullen reveals an indictment of the media and how quick they were to cling to the myths created by a student body that itself was fueled on rumor and speculation. Of course, it's also a look into the inner workings of two killers, one a psychopathic leader and the other a desperate and depressed follower. The former is the most frightening, as Eric Harris, through rantings on his website and written journal, shows himself to have been a confident, self-assured, manipulative young man who wasn't bullied or treated as an outcast. In fact, therapists only gave him more tools to hide in plain sight.

I read this book in just over three days, which is no small feat for me. As cliche as it sounds, I couldn't put it down. I also found myself identifying with the principal of the school. He's the kind of administrator I'd want at my school, and I wound up writing him an email to tell him how much his particular story affected me since he's still principal at Columbine.

So...my thesis is read this book because it is good.(less)

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May 31, 2009 Dave Cullen added it · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

I wrote the book, so I'll forego rating it, just thought it should show up my list so you would find me. (But I'm new to goodreads, so tell me if I'm going about it all wrong.) Thanks.

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Sep 15, 2009 Librarian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adultnonfiction

This book made me feel sad and sick the entire time I was reading it, which I suppose is not surprising, considering.
It is undeniably riveting and well researched, and strips away all of the misguided mythology surrounding the Columbine shootings that we have all heard (for starters, the killers were not bullied, were not goths, and were not outcastes). Although I appreciated the in-depth descriptions on the killers, the parts that were the most interesting to me were the parts about the way tha...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

My experience teaching Columbine this semester has been terrific. Not only is it an important book that I'm happy to have had my students read (all 81 of them), but they responded with interesting and insightful comments and discussions. It's a great book for college students because they've got a little perspective on high school, but they're not that far removed from it. My veteran students were also great additions to the discussion when it turned to PTSD and gun control, especially conceal-...more

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May 27, 2012 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-owned

I was hesitant to read this book at first. As a student in Grade 9, less than 5 months before I entered high school, I can still remember the emotion of that day, even as a distant observer. Due to time zone differences, national coverage began around the same time I got out of school that day. So as I turned on the TV when I got home, it was everywhere. It's something I never wanted to see again.

I'm glad I got past that initial apprehension over reading this book. As a book on the tragedy it su...more

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Jan 16, 2010 Mia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I appreciate the research that went into telling the story behind the sensationalism and caricature-flogging of the initial news reporting. But overall I didn't trust Cullen's reporting either, because he seemed so determined to portray Dylan Klebold as another hapless victim of Eric Harris. I can't make that leap with him. Interesting how parents can simultaneously know that something is wrong (so that, for example they are keeping a journal of the sociopathic behavior their child is exhibiting...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Vincent O'Neil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While I viewed it on television as it happened, I've never explored the Columbine High School massacre until I read this book (Spt. 2011).

It is a very sincere attempt to explore what happened before, during and after the attack. Cullen has been very close to the original sources. About the only thing he hasn't seen is the Basement tapes, but then again, who has.

Be sure to read his Notes at the end of the book for even more clarity.

Their is little he doesn't cover, and if I missed a linkage here...more

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