Stephen's Reviews > Columbine

4.0 stars. This poignant, extremely well done true crime/history takes a comprehensive look at the Columbine massacre. As a rule, I do not read a lot of true crime stories or follow too closely these kinds of national tragedies when they occur (I just find it too depressing). Thus, before I picked up this book, my knowledge of the events surrounding Columbine was limited to “headlines” and “10 minute news segments” that dealt with very little beyond the surface of the shooting.

This award winning book written in 2009 is widely considered the definitive study of the Columbine shooting and follows two distinct narrative tracks. First, it details the lives of the two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, from several years before the shooting, through the planning of the attack and the eventual consummation of the murders on April 20, 1999. The second storyline follows a group of survivors and their families from right before the shooting through the aftermath over the next ten years. The book is structured so that the chapters alternate between the two story-lines which I thought was very effective.

The survivors storyline would itself make an interesting book as it chronicles the significant and permanent changes wrought on a small town community in the wake of a major tragedy. These include discussions of the following: (1) the numerous lawsuits stemming from law enforcement’s handling of the shooting (including an alleged cover-up regarding destruction of evidence); (2) fundamentalist religious movements using the “myth” of one of the victims professing her love for God right before being killed as a “rallying cry” for their members (I say myth because the book details how the event was later discovered never to have happened); (3) the battle between local leaders and the National Rifle Association when the NRA was scheduled to have their annual conference in Columbine shortly after the massacre and would not cancel the event; and (4) the radically different path that the survivors and their families lives followed after the shooting (both inspiring and tragic). All of these stories were extremely well researched and very deftly handled by the author who left me with the feeling that he truly cared about the material about which he was writing.

As interesting and important as the above narrative track was, the story of Eric and Dylan and their road to the massacre was what I found the most compelling (as well as deeply disturbing). Through the detailed journals and home made videos of the two boys, we are given an inside look into two very disturbed minds. This is especially true in the case of Eric Harris who, as I mention below, was an actual SOCIOPATH (yes like Dahmer, Gacy and Bundy). I found these sections to be ABSOLUTELY RIVETING. It is in telling the story of these two boys that the author explodes many of the “myths” surrounding the Columbine massacre that I think many people still believe (I know I did before I read this).

MYTH #1: The Columbine Massacre was the result of the killers being bullied and was directed against the jocks and popular kids at the school. TRUTH: The massacre was orchestrated by Eric Harris (more on him below) who was smart, popular and of average looks. Neither of the two shooters were subjected to bullying or abuse as their journals (discovered after the shooting) make clear.

MYTH #2: The Columbine Massacre was perpetrated by basically decent kids who were simply deeply “troubled” depressed and suicidal. TRUTH: Dylan Klebold fits this image and while he can not be considered a victim by any stretch of the imagination, he was “recruited” by Eric Harris to help him with the massacre. Eric Harris, on the other hand WAS A PSYCHOPATH PURE AND SIMPLE. He was a real life younger version of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho who wanted nothing more than to conduct the greatest mass murder in American History. Through Eric’s detailed and extraordinarily disturbing journals and home made videos, we see a person with all of the traits of a classic, sadistic sociopath including, (a) a calm, controlled exterior; (b)someone who is extremely manipulative and able to convince people of almost anything; (c) being totally without empathy or any strong emotional feelings; (d) a complete inability to feel any guilt or remorse and (e) believing himself superior to the entire world which (in his words) didn’t deserve to even live.

MYTH #3: The Columbine killers had “target” lists of specific people they intended to kill. TRUTH: The Columbine massacre was not even intended to be a “shooting.” The killers intended to “blow up” the school and use the guns only to kill stragglers who survived the initial blast. They set up home-made pipe bombs that were planted around the school cafeteria and set to go off at a precise moment when the cafeteria would be the most crowded. One of their goals was to kill more people than the Oklahoma bombing of 1995 and they had no specific targets in mind. Fortunately, the bombs did not go off which is why this fact is not as well known.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating and book and a disturbing look inside the mind of a teenage killer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!