We Need to Talk about Kevin (2003)

Dude. This is a beautiful and haunting book. The author has an incredible way with language and I'm very eager to read more. ( )

Wow. This was a really exceptional novel, despite the apparently inevitable ending and the slightly unusual style (it's written entirely as letters from the titular character's mother) it manages to drag the reader along in a way that is almost uncomfortable. It's a painfully honest dissection of American culture, parenthood and marriage that never pulls any punches but also manages not to seem preachy (probably because it doesn't offer any easy answers).
It's also firmly fixed in time, with current events interwoven into the tale, a technique which I found effective and fascinating. I loved it and expect to remain slightly shaken by it for some time to come. ( )

Highly articulate, controversial, emotionally raw epistolary novel from the (reliable? unreliable?) point of view of a 15-year-old mass murderer's mother.

Eva Katchadurian's son, Kevin, is essentially a psychopath from birth, who inspires neither true spiritual love nor physical affection in his parents. His dad perseveres in the fantasy of the perfect life with the perfect son, while his mother, our storyteller, sees the warning signs in her son from the beginning. When she is proved hideously right in her suspicions that her son means true harm, her world -- and the world of her husband and young daughter -- falls apart, leaving scorched earth.

It's an amazing book, but not, not, NOT for the faint of heart. ( )

this took me a long time to read, but i really really liked it. the writing is excellent (although dense, not lyrical, quite pretentious; so not for everyone) and the issue at hand is interesting. (was kevin born to this personality and this eventuality, or does eva's lack of maternal love for him and franklin's lack of the ability to see kevin for who he is help to create this monster? does franklin see it but not allow himself to know it, or is he really unable to see the truth of who - and how - kevin is? was there something that eva could have done to change the trajectory? (i say eva because she saw from the first who he was, even if she didn't understand him.) is shriver accusing the mother? society? the child? excusing the mother? the child?)

i think we aren't supposed to know that franklin and celia were kevin's victims, too, and that that was supposed to be a surprise for the reader near the end. by page 100 i assumed franklin had been killed by kevin and as soon as celia was introduced i figured she had been, too. still, i was surprised that he had done it in the morning, before school, and not after. and i was definitely surprised by the growing love between kevin and eva at the very end of the book; i wouldn't have thought she would get to that point after what he'd done. still, getting to that point really is interesting. i would have thought a story about a well-adjusted, if not likable kid who commits an atrocity and the familial aftermath would have been more interesting, but she made this quite fascinating to read and think about. ( )

Does she ever stop talking about herself? Herself with really fancy words?
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Oh yes, thank goodness. Adding in more characters has made it so I can appreciate it better.

Wow what a story. That will be unforgettable.

Unfortunately the author writes "too smart" for me.

Reminder notes for myself:

She bought the bow and arrow as a father and son project. He loved the Robin Hood story, reading it multiple times

There was a 2 week period when Kevin was sick. He was a normal boy, needing his mom, properly responding in conversations. "He was a completely different person. And that's how I achieved an appreciation for how much energy and commitment it must of taken him the rest of the time to generate this other boy (or boys)." She could of been a good, happy mom, if he was a good kid. :( How hard to explain this odd behaviored child and care for him.


Read in 2015. ( )