Corey Heinz asked Dave Cullen:

Hi Dave, I just finished "Columbine," and found it riveting all the way through. Very well done! The question I kept wondering while reading was, upon publication, what was the reaction like from the survivors you wrote about? Were they mostly pleased with the story you told? Did they feel that you gave an accurate depiction of all the events? Or were they upset with how you portrayed the community and tragedy? Thanks

Dave Cullen Hi Corey. The response was overwhelmingly positive, which was a huge relief. (That is always my biggest apprehension, before an article or book hits. It's rarely an issue, though, because I tend to work with my sources a LONG time, and repeatedly, so we understand each other. In this case, I'd literally spent years with most of them.)

One of the most common responses I got was that they had obviously known their own part of the story, but were unaware of many of the other points of view--what it had really been like for others. Some of those most deeply affected, turned out to be least aware of some other aspects, which makes sense when you consider: if you've lost a close family member, or you've got a child in the hospital undergoing difficult recovery for years, you are so deeply focused on just recovery. You don't have the emotional bandwidth to experience the other kinds of pain of others in different situations. So I had a lot of them telling me they had wondered over the years, and it helped to see the wider picture.

(Also, SO many of them said they'd really wondered about the killers, and it greatly clarified for the first time.)

The most rewarding part for me was being contacted by some of the people I did NOT write about--or only in passing--like teacher Kiki Leyba, and Coni Sanders, who have turned into good friends and confidants. And getting to know them and become friends has really deepened my understanding of what it's like for the community.

Of course it wasn't everyone. There were a few vocal dissenters, mostly notably the Brown family. They embraced a certain narrative, and they're sticking with it.

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