Dave’s answer to “Hi Dave, I just finished "Columbine," and found it riveting all the way through. Very well done! Th…” > Likes and Comments

That makes total sense l; I'd be more worried about the reaction of the families than anything else. But I'm very surprised the Brown family didn't like the book. Your presentation of them is very favorable... in fact, according to your text, they were arguably the closest to averting the shooting... or at least noticing the threat that Eric Harris posed.

Another quick question for you: you published "Columbine," ten years after the shooting and were finally able to tell a complete and accurate account, but were the survivors happy that the "true story" was finally told? Or do they find books that keep getting published about the tragedy only makes moving-on all the more difficult? I know I keep asking you to answer questions from survivors perspective (sorry about that), but I'm very curious about your thoughts.

Thanks so much for responding!

The Browns for some reason reject the idea of Eric and psychopath. Randy railed online about the horror of labeling Eric (crazy, I think was the word he used). That made me think he didn't read it, though, since I stress strongly that psychopaths are not crazy. Randy felt that let him off the hook too easy and so forth. I think that is essentially none of my business: my job is to strive to find the truth, or our best evidence/analysis of the truth, and report that whether we like it or not. It's not up to me to decide if something is a "good" or "bad" answer, and then report what is "good."

As for survivors, all the feedback was positive about finally learning the truth. There is a LOT of pushback on mass media repeatedly pulling the bandaid off on the wound, but I literally have never heard that issue with a book. The biggest issue is TV, where it just comes on, unavoidably--and secondarily in the local papers. (The first year, the local papers' constant reporting really bothered many.) As far as a book being on the shelves, the chance of that interrupting their life is sort of zero to none.

Actually, I've also heard only minor push-back about the various hour-long TV documentaries that have been done. They appreciate deep dives that really try to do something useful, and as long as there's not a zillion commercials running, the tradeoff is worthwhile.

This is really interesting/enlightening for me because whenever I start reading a book like "Columbine," I can't help feel apprehensive that I'm going to be entertained by a horrible tragedy that actually happened, or that the victims are going to be exploited in some way. Which is probably something a lot of readers fear. But knowing that the survivors WANT this story told, and want it told as precisely as possible is important to know (at least for me it is).

It must be a difficult/sensitive area because a community wants to move on, but at the same time, they don't want to forget and they never want the victims forgotten either, so I can see why they'd feel positive about the book (well... almost everyone felt positive, that is).

Thanks again for the response! I really appreciate you taking the time to thoughtfully answer all my questions.