12 In 12 – Nineteen Minutes

Title: Nineteen Minutes
Author: Jody Picoult
Pages:

Summary: This book covers, from varying perspectives and time periods, a friendship and deterioration thereof, between Peter and Josie, and then Peter’s final act of retaliation against the students who have tortured him for years.  Josie is the daughter of a small town’s judge and Peter is the second son of the town’s midwife.  The women are best friends and their kids become best friends until one day when they are about six and their moms catch them doing something they shouldn’t.  The moms basically blame one another and forbid the children from playing together afterschool.  This puts even more strain on Peter, who doesn’t fit in with the other kids to start with.  Josie was his only friend.

Fast forward a few years and Josie and Peter have gone separate ways.  She has her own friends and he’s forced to join the soccer team because his parents think it’ll be good for him, since his older brother enjoyed it so much.  However, he never gets to play because he’s just not sport-minded.  So he and this other kid who are constantly benched get to know one another.

As I said, Josie has gone to the popular crowd and has been asked out by an exceedingly popular, everybody’s guy named Matt.  But all is not as it seems in their relationship.  Popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  But maybe it’s better to be on the inside than the out.

Peter finally loses it, brings a gun to school, and kills/injures numerous classmates.  His parents hire Jordan MacAfee (who is featured in two other novels of hers so far: The Pact and Salem Falls,) to defend their son.

This book is an excellent look at the different factors that come into play that result in a student bringing a gun to school and wanting to kill his tormentors along with himself.  It in no way condones the behavior of the shooter, but for anyone who ever wondered, "What were they thinking?" this book does an incredible job answering that question.

As someone who was made fun of and left out and targeted in school myself, I can honestly say that there probably isn’t an outcast in America who doesn’t want their tormentors to get theirs.  No, school shootings are not the answer, nor is that in any way what I’m trying to suggest.  But ask yourself this: if you were backed into a corner with what you felt were no other options, what would you do?