I don’t generally read books that fall outside of the ‘speculative fiction’ category but I try to keep an open mind and when someone suggests a book to me, my first instinct is to just go ahead and read it, rather than do research on the book or even ask a third party what they thought.

            However, I had heard from multiple sources that Jodi Picoult was a good writer, and after having read through Nineteen Minutes I can wholeheartedly agree that she is a fantastic writer. But despite her obvious skill at the craft, I would still prefer a speculative fiction book.

            Nineteen Minutes focuses around the controversial subject of school shootings, more specifically a fictional school shooting that the author uses as a catalyst for difficult questions posed to the reader. Questions of where the blame lies, in the parents of the shooter or the bullies of the shooter or just the shooter himself? Questions of how to proceed, who is the real victim? How do you continue on if you were related to that victim? How can you not blame yourself? A constant barrage of questions like this hit the reader as they watch Peter Houghton’s story unfold.

            The story is told through countless different characters but the most prevalent are Alex and Josie Cormier, an old friend of the shooter and her judicial mother. Lacy and Peter Houghton, the shooter and his mother, and Jordan McAfee who is serving as Peter’s defense lawyer.

            At a first glance, it would seem that this story’s moral is to preach how horrible school shootings are and what are the tell tales signs that might happen, but as the reader progresses, the lines become that much more blurry. The reader will find themselves in Peter’s shoes and in many situations, feel that Peter was fully justified to gun down his classmates at Sterling High. The book focuses more on the horrors of what created the shooting, than the shooting itself, and this gives it a very real impact. I myself saw parallels to other people I knew in high school, including myself, who have been in Peter’s situation of humiliation and embarrassment. We all remember how awful high school is, but this book takes the dagger and twists it constantly until the bitter end.

            As I read this book, I was reminded of another book: Music for Torching. While that book was considerably more graphic, it dealt with similar issues of parents not paying close enough attention to their children and an ultimately tragic event resulting. But similarly, both books take the metaphorical approach of a gruesome car wreck, and even though you watch countless painful events play out before your eyes, you can’t turn away.

            From a writing standpoint Jodi Picoult is nearly perfect. She manages to pull you in even if you’re not a fan of the genre, or even a fan of the horrors you’re reading. However, that’s not to say she is perfect.  Her style literally jumps between characters every few paragraphs, and even though you can get used to this, it can become particularly annoying when one character only shows up for a few minutes to tease you, then disappears until the next chapter. You could say it’s a technique to keep the reader in suspense, but after you’ve seen it a hundred times in the same book, it starts to get annoying. Further more, it seems like the book drags more than it should. There is a great story floating around in here, but most of its shock value and impact are used up in the first half, leaving the last to simply restate what we already know. The author probably could have cut out 100 pages and still had a book that was equally engaging and impactful.

            One final, very minor problem, was a mix up of names on one of the very last pages. I’ve done it myself, as a writer, where I’m talking about one character but accidentally call them by the wrong name because I’ve used both names so much in conjunction that they’ve sort of blurred together. This isn’t a huge issue, but since it occurs at the very end of the book, it was distracting from an otherwise emotional moment.

            When all is said and done, this book won’t leave you with warm fuzzies in your stomach. In fact, I was pretty depressed during my reading of it. This book asks hard questions and confronts you with very emotional situations and if you aren’t prepared to deal with them, then you might want to avoid this novel. However if you think you can handle the emotional baggage, or you just like being sad and overwhelmed with unanswerable questions, then you will undoubtedly love this book.