Meike's Reviews > Columbine

Columbine: Two heavily armed students go on a killing spree because they were bullied and ostracized, so they set out to take revenge against the jocks and all the other popular kids. Except that's not what actually happened. Dave Cullen's investigative book shines when he dissects how the tragedy was portrayed by different sides and why: The police tried to cover up that they had gotten hints regarding Eric Harris, one of the perptetrators, for over a year; the media has the duty to inform and the public wants to know, but depending on how they report, this means helping the aims of the shooters (and what kind of coverage is better for the ratings?); the media, the church and some Evangelicals turned one of the victims into a martyr based on a false story; and then there's the NRA, politicians, parents of dead and surviving students, the parents of the killers, the school administration and of course: The surviving students themselves, many struggling with PTSD and survivor's guilt, who suddenly found themsleves attending a school that has became an international symbol for human malice.

Cullen does a great job disentangling this web of perspectives and piecing the whole picture back together. He states the facts and dives into the psychologies of the killers and those they affected, which leads to a haunting and fascinating portrayal of how the survivors dealt with grief and anger. The most upsetting part though is that the shooting at Columbine did not lead to a serious reform of American gun laws. In Parkland: Birth of a Movement, Cullen then discusses how the survivors themselves, meaning some high school kids, have taken matters into their own hands, because they were sick and tired of legislators sending them "thoughts and prayers" instead of doing their job.

All in all, this is a very insightful book and there's lots to learn from it. Unfortunately, the first part is by far the weakest, so just keep at it, you will be rewarded.