This book is a hard book to put down because the entire time you're seeking answers. Why? What actually happened? What made it progress to this? Things like that. Things that people asked after Columbine, most recently after Virginia Tech, and after all the other school shootings. Once again Jodi Picoult tackles a sensitive and controversial issue, in an amazingly strong and dignified manner that doesn't have you choosing sides.

She did it to the reader in My Sister's Keeper, where the minute you began to go to one side, she presents something where you're suddenly seeing it all from a different angle. Every time you begin to thing Peter was in the right, an angry and upset parent stands up and says something to make you think again. A writer who can play devil's advocate to her own characters is a gifted writer indeed.

Nineteen Minutes ends with stunning results. We think we know exactly what happened, but as the story progresses and we delve deeper into various characters psyche we begin to realize everything is not what it seems. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you're like me you'll begin to suspect things earlier on. In the end the book will leave you with a feeling of sad hope, a feeling I never knew existed until I finished this book.

I'd say more, but as with other books I've reviewed, sometimes I just have to let the book speak for itself. It's such an amazingly sensitive story, to critique it too much might skew your own opinion going into it. The writing is beautiful, the characters complex and real. That's all I'm going to say, I think you need to find the rest out for yourself.