The story of a high school mass-murder suicide told from the point of view of the perpetrator’s girlfriend in its aftermath. Two things stand out as I read this book. The need to fight bullying and name-calling in our society and in our schools in particular. And the heavy price America pays for making guns readily available. As one who was bullied and called names in school I can understand the wish to strike back. Not everyone is able to slough it off with the knowledge that they are better than the miserable cowards who feel they have to engage in such behaviour because of their own feelings of inferiority and lack of self-worth. I don’t condone murder but I can sympathize the feelings that motivated it. Did those kids who engaged in ridicule and bullying get what they deserved? Was revenge worth losing one’s life or wrecking it? Should we think twice before we marginalize and ostracize others?
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