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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* Challenge Tasks: The Complete List
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What Members Thought

Aug 11, 2012 Emilie rated it really liked it

Who else has read this book? I would love to hear thoughts. I just devoured it, I thought about it constantly when I wasn't reading and couldn't wait to get back to it. The relationship between Eva and Kevin intrigues me as well as to what extent Eva's behavior toward Kevin as a child influenced his development into a psychopath. Or was he born a psychopath, as Eva, our narrator, suggests for the majority of the book?
I was also floored by Eva's revelation at the end of the book. Afterward, I fel ...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Allison Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, literary-fiction

This would be a GREAT book for a book club discussion although, with a bunch of women, it might end in a brawl. Not for the faint of heart--this book can get hairy but it's a very interesting look at a sociopathic child and how everyone in the family sees their relationships differently. A fictional account of a boy who pulls a Columbine type incident and his mother's letters to the father replaying their life up to that point as she tries to figure out what went wrong. VERY thought provoking an ...more

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Nov 12, 2013 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dysfunctional-family, america, tragedy, dramatic, psychology

Ok. I actually wanted to give more stars for this book. But the dark tone and the super intense (plus long) plot made me reducing the stars. It's too heavy for my taste, especially because Shriver loved to use lengthy sentences and very difficult words - which actually not really necessary in my opinion, because the issue itself is already really complicated - a mother's contemplation of her mass murderer son. Is it her fault that her son became a mass murderer? Or not? A question that for me, c ...more

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Jul 22, 2013 Jess rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-reads, 2013

It was hard to get through Eva's pretentious letters in the first half of this book - but once I did I couldn't put it down. So hard to tell who I disliked the most - Eva or Kevin - until the last 15 pages. Crazy! ...more

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