From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lionel Shriver

Discussion: 2016 Read Harder Challenge

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2016 Read Harder Challenge

* Read Harder Challenge Plans: 2016
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What Members Thought

Jun 07, 2007 Susanne Clower rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I thought I was done with school shooting books, as that scenario is often used as an easy "shocker" ending, but this tale is unique and totally absorbing. The story, set in the aftermath of the killings, is told by the killer's mother who visits her son Kevin in prison and then writes letters to her estranged husband recalling Kevin's upbringing. The careful plotting and unreliable narrator reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro. I was also drawn in by the parents' inability to discuss their son's probl ...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Halsted Bernard rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really do not know what to write about this book. On the one hand, it is a known quantity; no one starts reading it without knowing, at least in the most general sense, what it is about. On the other, it answers none of the questions the reader will have about its horrific central narrative.

Shriver is, undoubtedly, a talented writer. The story made me feel ambivalence for every single character introduced, no small feat considering how easy it would be to create a maudlin mother or monstrous s ...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Cardi rated it liked it

Very light spoilers ahead.

Well, I have to admit I read about 170 pages and then simply leafed through the rest through to the bitter end. Why? The book is certainly well written and compelling enough, but I found it unpleasant reading (like most on here!) and felt the unloving mother/innately evil son thing was over the top. This last element lost the realism developed when the novel's focus was elsewhere. Ultimately I felt I wasn't getting enough out of the book to justify slogging through ano ...more

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