Columbine

Published ten years after the Columbine shootings happened, Dave Cullen, a reporter at the time of the shootings, looks deeper into everything connected to it: many of the people involved, including kids at the school, teachers, families, Eric and Dylan and all the planning, their families, the entire investigation...

Dramatic and intense. So much detail to look into what really happened. The book debunks a lot of myths and rumours as well. It will catch you up on survivors and what's happened with them and others, including victims' families, since. I listened to the audio, and the narrator is very good. He had an appropriately dramatic voice for such an intense book. You'll just want to keep reading/listening to this one. It's hard to put down. Amazing account of a horrible event.

Absolutely amazing! There was so much more to this story than I ever thought possible, and this book gives a lot of great insight to nearly every effected by the event. I loved it.

I have to say, that this is quite possibly the most depressing book I've read in a half decade. And I don't mean that as a critique, but rather as a compliment to the depth of research and writing abilities of David Cullen.

The amount of work it must have taken to completely reconstruct the background and chronology of events is staggering. Cullen intricately weaves between the past and the present with deft skill. As disturbing as the act itself was, it was even more disappointing to see the sensationalism of the 2 perpetrators by the media, the opportunism of certain individuals, and the maze of lawsuits that followed. It was sad to see how this tragic event was turned into a kind of virtual reality of what really happened -- memory turned to myth which turned into the truth.

And while we may never know exactly why and what drove these 2 teenagers into mass murder, Cullen's account comes as close to the answers than we'll ever be. Eric Harris was the psychopath, mis-characterized by the media as a loner, rather Eric was intent, obsessed, with overtaking Timothy McVeigh's death count. Dylan Klebold was harder to figure out, a smart kid who was a hopeless romantic, but also suffered from bouts of depression. In the ultimately irony, Eric and Dylan wanted to be seen in the same league as other mass murders like David Koresh and Timothy McVeigh, but were instead lumped with the rest of the loner school shooters.

I've read Cullen's articles recently in the press in the lead up to the book. Cullen makes the repeated bold claim that had Eric and Dylan had acted when they were older, say 21, they probably would have inflicted much more damage. Certainly a debatable claim, but does provide some food for thought. I have to say, though, fortunately, Cullen does not include that hypothetical here in the book.

Although the book was extremely well-written, it was so depressing that I was glad to have finished it, I've never felt so good about moving on from a book as I had after reading "Columbine." There is unfortunately, nothing good to have come out of it. In many ways, it is best to leave it all behind.

There is no better way to describe the sensation you feel after finishing this book than haunting. Dave Cullen has done what most non-fiction writers only dream to do: write a story that is a factual and simultaneously gripping read. The bar for me has now been set incredibly high. It only took me 5 days to read this book, I could not put it down. Every time I did, I yearned to hear more about this tragic event and the reasons behind it.

Cullen has this event deconstructed to the the finest detail. He encapsulates every perspective possible: from the killers, to the victims, to the media, etc. etc. You feel like an expert of April 20, 1999 once you finish the book. But most importantly, you feel as if you were there. You heard the pipe bombs explode as you ducked under your desk. You saw your friends mowed down without remorse, and viewed truly gruesome violence unfold before your very eyes. You felt the mothers and fathers crying on your shoulders, asking God "why them". You feel as if you were there, at Columbine, when a high school and a community were put to the ultimate test, and rose above it.

There are no words that can properly describe the feelings you have when Dave takes the form of the killers. You cannot tangibly relay your feelings, because the emptiness and disbelief you house flood your soul. You question the reality and validity of this reconstruction, but you know in the back of your mind the truth. That this is the truth, and two young boys were capable of something beyond your sensible imagination.

Everyone should read this book. Not solely to understand the event of Columbine, but to witness a watershed moment in non fiction writing. This book is the new standard on how to effectively engage an audience, but it is also a monument to outstanding journalism. This man made sure he had every fact, every video, every report, and every opinion digested and he misses no mark. He exceeds the norm, and has created a landmark work that should be read by all.

I will never forget this book, and how I felt during the course of my reading it. Dave, you should be commended. You have not only done a justice to all the victims, families, and Columbine community members, you have done a great service to your profession. I hope you get the recognition you so richly deserve.