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A Thousand Cuts

3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 · rating details · 972 ratings · 227 reviews

A stunning debut novel that unravels the hidden story behind a school shooting

It should be an open-and-shut case. Samuel Szajkowski, a recently hired history teacher, walked into a school assembly with a gun and murdered three students and a colleague before turning the weapon on himself. It was a tragedy that could not have been predicted. Szajkowski, it seems clear, w...more

Hardcover, 295 pages

Published March 4th 2010 by Viking Adult (first published 2010)

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Jun 06, 2011 Blair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller-etc

I literally read Rupture in one sitting: decided to start it at a quarter to midnight because I couldn't sleep, and finally turned the light off at 3am after turning the last page. So I don't need to point out that it's compelling. Ostensibly, this is a crime novel; the story of a man called Samuel Szajkowski, a young history teacher who one day carries a gun into his school and kills three pupils and a fellow teacher before shooting himself. It's also the story of Lucia May, the police inspecto...more I literally read Rupture in one sitting: decided to start it at a quarter to midnight because I couldn't sleep, and finally turned the light off at 3am after turning the last page. So I don't need to point out that it's compelling. Ostensibly, this is a crime novel; the story of a man called Samuel Szajkowski, a young history teacher who one day carries a gun into his school and kills three pupils and a fellow teacher before shooting himself. It's also the story of Lucia May, the police inspector assigned to the case, who - unlike everyone else around her - doesn't see the shooting as an open-and-shut case, and increasingly comes to believe that it could have been prevented. The narrative takes the form of a series of witness statements, told exactly as they are related (dialect, slang, swearing and all) rather than as conversations, alternated with third-person chapters observing Lucia's efforts to uncover the truth.

What the book is really about - for me, at least - is bullying. This is a constant, very strong, theme running throughout the story. As Lucia investigates, she discovers that Samuel was the victim of merciless bullying by his pupils. She also takes an interest in the case of Elliot, a boy tormented so severely he is hospitalised and later commits suicide. Donovan - the ringleader of the persecution of both Samuel and Elliot, and one of the pupils Samuel murders - at first appears to be an almost demonically horrible figure, but through the witness statements, Lelic subtly shows us Donovan's awful background and miserable family life, and how his father is also a bully. Meanwhile, the experience of the students and Samuel is mirrored in the treatment Lucia herself suffers at the hands of a horrendously misogynistic colleague, Walter. The unifying theme of all these experiences is negligence, lack of action by those in the best position to take it. The school, personified by bullish headmaster Travis, dismisses the bullying and sweeps Elliot's injuries under the carpet; some of the teachers, particularly oafish PE teacher TJ (the kind of man who imagines the pupils see him as 'one of the lads') join in the mocking of Samuel; Lucia is offered no support at work and is taken off the case when she fails to conform to the viewpoint expected of her. As Lucia pieces together the circumstances that led to Samuel's attack and Elliot's suicide, she starts to see exactly how much those in authority are accountable for the victims' suffering.

This book struck a particular chord with me because I too was bullied at a school that turned a blind eye and prioritised its reputation and image over the obvious suffering of some of its pupils. A number of other reviewers have argued that the extent of the bullying is unrealistic, that nobody would get away with this behaviour; in my opinion, it's all too believable. Lelic does a fantastic job of highlighting how powerless the victims find themselves and how routinely they are let down. Samuel tries to speak out and ask for help on numerous occasions, only to be ridiculed by a headmaster who dismisses the very idea that an adult could be intimidated by teenagers. When things come to a head for Lucia, as she reads the text messages that drove Elliot to kill himself, the conclusions she has drawn from what she's seen - and the message of the book - are crystallised in a particularly striking passage:

More than alone, Elliot had been forsaken. Why should he have had to ask for help? Why had help not been forthcoming? It was no secret, after all. Those who had the power to intervene: they knew. Why was the onus always on the weak when it was the strong who had liberty to act? Why were the weak obliged to be so brave when the strong had licence to behave like such cowards?

The book isn't perfect. I disliked the chapter that consisted almost entirely of dialogue between Lucia and her arrogant, sleazy ex-boyfriend, Philip, who seemed to me a very misjudged character (if I'm right in assuming he was supposed to be likeable). Walter was so unremittingly horrible that he sometimes felt like a caricature. There were moments of awkwardness and underdevelopment, though there were some outstanding passages (see above) and the witness statements worked well and felt authentic - not an easy feat with so many individual voices to create. Overall, this is much more than a generic crime novel. It's an extremely powerful story which makes you think and asks difficult questions - some, perhaps, impossible to answer. The method of its delivery is both original and effective. I picked this up after reading good reviews, half-expecting it to be dull because I'm not a great fan of police procedurals. If you're the same, I urge you to seek it out - you will enjoy this book more than you'd expect - and if you're into crime fiction, it should go on your must-read list.(less)

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Nov 16, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, fiction, four-star-plus-reads

Paolo Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl, Shipbreaker, The Drowned Cities) blows me away; when he commented on Twitter he was reading someone named Simon Lelic I made a beeline for the library. And by great good luck my local had a copy of A Thousand Cuts, Lelic's debut novel.

Ostensibly this is a murder mystery about a British police inspector investigating a school shooting. The shooter, a first-year teacher, fired upon students and faculty at an assembly, killing three students, a colleague, and then...more Paolo Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl, Shipbreaker, The Drowned Cities) blows me away; when he commented on Twitter he was reading someone named Simon Lelic I made a beeline for the library. And by great good luck my local had a copy of A Thousand Cuts, Lelic's debut novel.

Ostensibly this is a murder mystery about a British police inspector investigating a school shooting. The shooter, a first-year teacher, fired upon students and faculty at an assembly, killing three students, a colleague, and then himself. Much of the story unfolds through witness statements collected by the inspector, but as she gets more involved with the case some of the chapters describe her working and personal life.

Very quickly, I realized this was a story about bullying. It is endemic at the school and ignored ... no, tolerated, even encouraged ... by the headmaster. The new teacher, the man who finally snapped, was the subject of particularly brutal bullying, unable to stand up to it, and unable to get anyone to take action against the bullies, student or faculty. What initially appears to be an open and shut case suddenly appears less so when it emerges that a bullied student had been brutally attacked, and part of his face cut off with a knife, just a few days before the shooting. The inspector tries to get at the bottom of the sickness infecting the school, but her superiors just want her to go away. As we get into the personal and working life of the inspector, we learn that she herself is the frequent target of a male colleague's bullying.

It is Simon Lelic's gift to be able to show readers how intimidating and awful sustained bullying can be, how it can rob life of all pleasure and inspire a daily sense of dread in adult and child victims alike. I count myself lucky I haven't encountered much of this sort of thing in my life; Lelic is convincing enough that I now believe I understand why some victims of bullying commit suicide.

I'm not just impressed with Lelic's story. I'm impressed with his writing. Those witness statements I alluded to earlier rival the best of Elmore Leonard's inspired dialog. Lelic has a great ear. I had the hardest time putting this book down for even the most urgent breaks; I would literally take it to the bathroom with me. I skipped meals in order to keep reading.

In short, A Thousand Cuts is gobsmackingly good. Simon Lelic joins Paolo Bacigalupi and David Mitchell on my short list of buy-everything-they-write authors.(less)

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

Shelves: crime, realistic-fiction

Intriguing and frustrating writing style...no speech marks, almost all monologues, with the occassional dialogue, yet the speakers are never explicitly named, which makes it very confusing.

The story of the investigation following a school shooting. Bleak, dark, helpless, frustrating and depressing are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind.

I almost gave it 4.5 stars because the topic of bullying in schools and the workplace is so important and terrifyingly portrayed, and the author doesn...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Picoult's Nineteen Minutes was an emotional read as she examined a school shooting and the life of the shooter. You never felt like the shooter was absolved but, throughout the book, you felt saddened by the situation, heartbroken that nothing was done to stop the culture of bullying apparent in the school. Throughout this novel, you felt similarly BUT it didn't quite grab my heartstrings like NM did. The structure of the novel was unique. The perspective shifted back and forth between witness i...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Cameron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book I found it difficult to engage with at first (although in the end I did succumb). The style is somewhat erratic, told mostly in transcripts from a tape recorder, which means a lot of different narrative voices. We have kids, teachers, parents all telling what they know about certain events. But of course they only make sense when the pieces are all put together. It is for this reason we have the detective Lucia, who has problems of her own to contend with. It falters a bit in plac...more

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May 29, 2012 Phyllis rated it 5 of 5 stars

I own this book and I have read it twice over the last two years. The description of the book says it is about a school shooting, but believe me it is about much more. I have never seen a book or any other medium do such a good job showing how widespread bullying is in Western culture; the book not only shows that bullying is widespread but it shows that bullying is accepted and expected because being strong and being able to take care of yourself is part of growing up; and part of growing up is...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Jennie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, literary-fiction

Even with disturbing tales of student suicides evoked by ruthless bullying screaming from recent headlines, few of us are willing to delve into the unremarkable daily tortures behind the spectacle. Lelic brings the issue of bullying—in the school and in workplace, by children and adults—home with his unsettling, penetrating debut novel. Through his protagonist, police investigator Lucia, he asks, “Why was the onus always on the weak when it was the strong who had a liberty to act? Why were the w...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Lelic, Simon. A THOUSAND CUTS. (2010). ****. This is an excellent first novel from this author who has worked as a journalist and now lives in Brighton. It is both a psychological and sociological crime novel about a topic that is very current in today’s news – violence in the schoolplace. Samuel Szajkowski, a recently hired history teacher, walks into a school assembly with a gun, and murders three students and a colleague before turning the gun on himself. It was a tragedy that could not have...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books

I read this all in one evening when I should have been doing something else. Excellently paced story...thriller? mystery? It's one of those stories where the voice of the narrator seems to shift a lot but it is the voice of several interviewees. That is the sort of device that I quite enjoy, though I know it can bother other people.

It takes place around an incident in a British public high school, where a teacher opens fire on a school assembly and kills three students, a teacher, and himself....more

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Nov 05, 2010 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

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Oct 14, 2010 Trish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mysteries

An outstanding piece of work. As direct and in-your-face as a Broadway show, and as searing and unforgettable. At times I found myself imagining the staging--I loved the author giving chapters to different voices. Even without knowing who was speaking initally, we are drawn in until there was no question who the speaker could be. Life in a corporation was never so baldly drawn, and one can believe life in a public corporation like the police force would reflect some of the insanity it deals with...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Beth by: murderblog@yahoo.com

Simon Lelic’s first book, A THOUSAND CUTS, is a perfect story for our time. Samuel Szajkowski, the grandson of a Polish immigrant and a history teacher, walks into an assembly and kills three students and a teacher before killing himself. Detective Inspector Lucia May is assigned the case, an easy one, because there is no doubt about the identity of the killer. Still, Lucia finds herself returning day after day, drawn to the school because she can’t make herself believe that the crime is as simp...more

Simon Lelic’s first book, A THOUSAND CUTS, is a perfect story for our time. Samuel Szajkowski, the grandson of a Polish immigrant and a history teacher, walks into an assembly and kills three students and a teacher before killing himself. Detective Inspector Lucia May is assigned the case, an easy one, because there is no doubt about the identity of the killer. Still, Lucia finds herself returning day after day, drawn to the school because she can’t make herself believe that the crime is as simple as it appears.

Interviewing students and faculty, Lucia learns that Szajkowski was the victim of constant harassment and bullying from his students who have the tacit approval of the headmaster. A victim of sexual harassment as the only woman on the detective squad, Inspector May refuses to rush her report, refuses to take things at face value, refuses to ignore that the atmosphere at the school was poisonous. Neither teachers nor students were safe from the bullies, and Lucia’s boss is giving into pressure from the headmaster. As she probes, Lucia discovers that there has been a conspiracy of silence surrounding the beating of another student and she becomes more determined to prove that the teacher was a victim, goaded into killing because he believed that in killing some he was protecting others.

The structure of the book is unusual and it brings an immediacy to the means by which Lucia gathers the information. The story is told with alternating points of views, from the first person interviews of the students, faculty, and parents to the narrative of Lucia’s investigation in the third person. It is very effective, especially as it is the words of those involved who move the story further and further away from the obvious solution presented in the beginning of the story.

Death by A THOUSAND CUTS is a perfect description of what happens to those who are hounded by those without a moral compass. It is a police procedural only in the most general meaning. It is really about heroism in facing the thing one most fears. There are few who are innocent and many who are guilty because they turned the other way. From the first page, the reader will be compelled to continue to the end.

The book is an indictment of society. Bullies seek out the weak and they are enabled by the adults who tacitly and overtly encourage it and by parents who don’t demand moral responsibility from their children and adults in leadership positions who are afraid to take on the bullies for fear of being bullied themselves.(less)

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Aug 02, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010-mysteries

A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic, A-minus, narrated by the following narrators: Patricia Conolly, James Clamp, John Curless, Elizabeth Jasciki, Colin McPhillamy, Charlotte Parry; produced by Recorded Books, downloaded from audible.com

This is a debut novel, and one not to be easily surpassed. A teacher walks into school assembly one day and shoots three students, a teacher colleague, and finally himself. Everyone wants to view it as an open and shut case. The school is looking to expand its capita...more

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May 09, 2010 Taracuda rated it 4 of 5 stars

The premise is a cop investigating a school shooting, and in the course of her investigation, she discovers a bullying epidemic. The set up is topical, bordering on cliche, but how the story progresses really pulls you in. It's also set in England, which added some complexity to me as an American reader.

The story is told from both the investigating reporter's POV and from her reports as she interviews all the usual suspects. There are the bratty undisciplined kids, the jock of a gym teacher, the...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Lennongirl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medium-kindle, type-fiction, g-thriller-horror, 4-stars-really-liked, read-in-2011, read-in-german, made-me-fret

A very gripping, painful read that made me angry. Not at the book itself, but at a lot of its characters, their helplessness, their stuborness, their easy way of looking the other way and the general unfairness of it all. It really touched me and made me so, so angry. Wah. I wanted to slap so many of these evil people in this book. And hug a lot of others.

Mobbing and psychical abuse are the main themes of this book. Both are written very clear and palpable, as reader, you can feel the pain that...more

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Jan 24, 2012 S. J. Bolton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There's been a lot of hype about Simon Lelic lately, especially on social networking sites. Personally, I hate it when authors just don't live up to the hype; but I hate it a whole lot more when they do! Rupture, I have to admit, is truly excellent.

A London school is reeling in the aftermath of a savage act of violence. Apparently without warning, the history teacher walked into school assembly, shot three pupils and a teacher, before turning the gun on himself. For the school authorities and t...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Resa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lucia is a detective working what should have been an open and shut case. History teacher Simon has a reputation for being a little odd and when he comes to a school assembly and starts shooting no one can say they are completely surprised. This tragedy shakes everyone involved to their core and while Lucia is expected to just write the report and move on she chooses to dig a little deeper. Lucia discovers that Simon has been harassed not only by his students but by other teachers and these inci...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Spuddie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The book was originally published with the title "Rupture" in the UK--a much more appropriate title, I thought. Blast publishers who feel the need to tweak titles in different countries!

This is a first novel, a police mystery about a school shooting in London where the perpetrator was a teacher who shot several students, a fellow teacher, and then himself. The teacher, Samuel Szajkowski, was the new history teacher at an exclusive prep school and had apparently endured unremitting bullying and...more

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Feb 03, 2012 JChipol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Detective Inspector Lucia May investigates a school shooting, and as she investigates the assumed 'text book case' she realises that she has sympathy for the assailant. As DI May discovers, the murderer was mercilessly bullied and she realises that others have to take part in the blame. Sadly her superiors do not agree.

Two parallels run alongside the case: a young boy, at the same school, is bullied and beaten to the point of committing suicide. At the same time, DI May is being sexually harasse...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Laura C. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I started Simon Lelic’s novel and almost didn’t finish it. It seemed too brutally predictable, in spite of a genius first chapter. “A Thousand Cuts” is the story of a young history teacher who inexplicably walks into an assembly at his school and shoots down 3 students and a teacher before turning the gun on himself. It is also the story of a young detective who is assigned to the case and simple cannot get to the foregone conclusion. As she investigates the shooters’ background and interviews t...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

Shelves: reads-of-2010, mystery-and-suspense, realistic-fiction, read-from-library, reviewed

The writing style of this novel was very refreshing. Just about each chapter is someone else talking to Lucia, a homicide detective. Lucia's questions to the witnesses are families are rarely recorded in this novel, but it does not make it hard to follow at all. Leaving the authority- Lucia- out of the testimonials makes the novel edgy and raw. The testimonials seem more raw and emotional this way. I also liked how Lelic took a controversial issue in our schools today and showed us what can happ...more

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Aug 03, 2010 Franchesca Guerrero rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: bullied victims, parents, teachers, school personell, previous bulliers

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

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Jun 09, 2010 Liz Nutting rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-thriller, kindle

A Thousand Cuts is compelling and timely reading. Lelic uses the conventions of a detective novel to explore some of the most relevant social themes of our era, bullying and the violence it begets. There's no real "mystery" to the book. As it opens, the central event has already taken place: a teacher has opened fire on a school assembly, killing three students, another teacher and himself. Lucia May is the homicide detective assigned to the case, a case that everyone from the school principal t...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Brad Hodges rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't know if I've recently read a book as unrelentingly grim as A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic (well, not since I read Box 21 last fall). The latter was about the trafficking of prostitutes, this one is a much more immediate and universal topic--school bullying.

There is a difference here, though. Lelic has structured his book around a crime, but it's a teacher taking a gun and shooting up a school assembly. Detective Inspector Lucia May investigates the case, and as she interviews witnesses...more I don't know if I've recently read a book as unrelentingly grim as A Thousand Cuts, by Simon Lelic (well, not since I read Box 21 last fall). The latter was about the trafficking of prostitutes, this one is a much more immediate and universal topic--school bullying.

There is a difference here, though. Lelic has structured his book around a crime, but it's a teacher taking a gun and shooting up a school assembly. Detective Inspector Lucia May investigates the case, and as she interviews witnesses (alternating chapters feature the voices of the witnesses, unadorned) she finds that the teacher was himself bullied.

Two parallels run alongside the case. At the same school, a young boy is mercilessly teased and beaten to the point of suicide. May comes to blame the school and its arrogant headmaster for both crimes, for ignoring the signs. The second parallel is May's own torment at the hands of a colleague who sexually harasses her.

The book is polemical and who can disagree with the author's point? But I have some reservations. It appears that the book is set in England, but I was never completely sure, and I also assume it's set in the present. Therefore I have a hard time believing a school could so blithely ignore bullying to the point of a child going to a hospital. More unbelievable is that May has no recourse to the sexual harassment. I only have American standards to go by, but no one could get away with that kind of treatment here, especially in a public service job.

Beyond that, the book is so heavy in its grief and outrage that it was very unpleasant to read. Lelic never allows his prose to breathe--every character seems to be at the edge of despair, if not over it, except for the guy who sexually harasses May, and he's a caricature. At one point he sends her an envelope full of pubic hair. Now tell me, how many women would receive that and not turn the guy in, especially if she was a policewoman?

Lastly, there's no real mystery to this book. We simply read through to see if the characters set up as monsters get any justice, and the filler is just not compelling enough to make it a good read.(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Joan Hanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Thousand Cuts is as much a look into the social hierarchy of labeling and disenfranchisement that exists today as a comment on the frustration of children and adults alike when faced with a bully that seems to hold all the power. Lelic takes us from schoolyard bullies, to mean-spirited teachers to Lucia’s co-worker who has taken abuse in the workplace to a terrorizing level. This book will get under your skin. You will feel empathy for Lucia, you will feel sorry for Szajkowski, and your heart...more

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May 15, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-have-listened-to-while-comm, campus-crime

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

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Jan 13, 2011 Olivier Brisson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Par un été torride, Samuel Szajkowski, prof d’histoire dans une école secondaire, entre en salle de réunion, ouvre le feu et tue trois élèves et un collègue avant de retourner son arme contre lui. Les voix de quinze témoins interrogés par Lucia May illustrent la complexité du drame. Souvenirs flous, mensonge, omissions, incohérences, mauvaise volonté des professeurs, des élèves et du directeur de l’école, convainquent Lucia de la nécessité de poursuivre l’enquête. Malgré la version officielle :...more

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Dec 03, 2010 Sera rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who wants an insight into an important issue that currently exists in our society

Recommended to Sera by: BOMC

Shelves: audio, favorites, literary-fiction, library

Wow, just when I thought that I had run out of 5-star reads to read this year, along comes this masterpiece. I listened to it on audio and it was captivating for reasons that I will describe it more detail below. Basically, this is a story of a school shooting, but not your typical story along this line or what you might see on television, because of the person who does the shooting and why. More importantly, however, this book is about bullying, extreme bullying toward the point of abhorrent hu...more Wow, just when I thought that I had run out of 5-star reads to read this year, along comes this masterpiece. I listened to it on audio and it was captivating for reasons that I will describe it more detail below. Basically, this is a story of a school shooting, but not your typical story along this line or what you might see on television, because of the person who does the shooting and why. More importantly, however, this book is about bullying, extreme bullying toward the point of abhorrent humiliation and at times, physical violence. And, the horrible treatment of others goes outside of the school in question and into the workplace, where even those people who are meant to protect us are violaters of the same rules that they espouse to enforce.

At first, I found the book a little difficult to get into because it was read in British English, which took me a chapter or so to get used to. After that, I started to really appreciate not only the story itself, but the author's approach to his storytelling. The story unfolds through a series of interviews that the Inspector is conducting, and although the Inspector never speaks, the author lets you know that she is there through the speaking character's interactions with her. On audio, different readers take on the roles of each character, which makes the listening to the story an incredible experience. Intermingled throughout the interviews is the Inspector's own personal story told in the 3rd person. The story builds and builds until it ended on a satisfying note for this reader.

The writing is superb. The descriptions are fresh, completely believable and spot on to the point where I frequently felt that I had a front row seat to the action. Each sentence is carefully thought out and well-crafted to the point that the writing was on the level that very few can dream of touching.

The only downside to the book is that it very depressing. At times, I felt as hopeless as the characters, out of ideas on what to do to address the situations with which they were faced and drained to the point of exhaustion due to their inability to find a way to even to feel, or to actually be, safe. Other times, I became angry - angry at the lack of help that the victims in this story were given and the humor that seemed to accompany many of the interviewees telling of what they had seen or experienced in the treatment of the victimized. However, some characters seemed to symphathize and almost even understand why the shooter did what he did - and in the end, I, as a reader, felt that way, too.

If you are up to the challenge, this is a must read, not only because of its importance in the story, but also the way in which that story is told. (less)

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Jan 02, 2011 Summer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 2011

I picked this book up wandering through the library on a whim. It took me about 75 pages to really get into it, and to be honest I only kept reading because of the reviews I found online. Half-way through the book I was totally hooked and the last 75-100 pages were heart wrenching as you finally were able to fully realize what had happened to not only Mr. Szajkowski, but to the other students and how teachers and the headmaster all turned a blind eye to it. This book was heart-breaking and as I...more

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Mar 06, 2011 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

A Thousand Cuts is a story of bullying that leads to a school shooting. And, as if having one person getting relentlessly bullied wasn't enough to drive home a message, there are multiple characters suffering almost constant torment from their peers and coworkers. The teacher who executes the shooting has been bullied mercilessly by the students and the school principal, a child who dies in the shooting was bullied and urinated on during a school bus ride, another student was severely beaten and...more

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Quotes from A Thousand Cuts