Nineteen Minutes

Jennifer Wardrip - Personal Read

I always find it hard to read books dealing with school shootings, since I am the mother of two school-aged children. NINETEEN MINUTES, however, is an emotional story that should be required reading for teens, along with their watching of the movie REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

Reading this story of a bullied teen who finally has enough and takes out his anger on his high school is enlightening, and, at times, hard to read. I found it very easy to identify with many of the characters in the book: not just with the shooter, but with the judge's daughter, who wants only to fit in and be popular, and the jocks, who don't know how to be anything but what they are.

NINETEEN MINUTES is a great book. I can honestly say I enjoyed it, even while crying my way through several passages. Read it -- whether a teen or the parent of a teenager, and find out what REALLY happens in high schools around the US -- and what could be happening, quite possibly, in your own hometown.

11 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

WELL WRITTEN, SERIOUS SUBJECT MATTER!

This is a, WELL WRITTEN, story about cruelty and evil. Since it's about a school shooting, you'd assume the bad guy is the one with the guns. Think again.
What the shooter does is unforgivable, killing 10 kids and hurting many more. But he acts more as a reaction to cruelty and evil than because he is naturally that way himself.
Everyone has, at one time or another, felt like an outsider, like they don't belong. Peter Houghton is an oddball from the beginning, and school is a place where such kids are often tormented. In a series of searing vignettes, Peter is essentially tortured by other students. It reminded me of baby birds in the wild, who will sometimes peck weaker siblings to death.
The final pages have the requisite Jodi Picoult surprise ending, which left me wanting to read high-schooler Josie's narrative. It's not there, so the reader is left to wonder what she is thinking.
At first I was hesitant to read this book, because of the grim subject matter. Once I started, it was hard to put down. I wish the author had written more about the high school kids and less about the adults, but it's still a compelling read. I won't let my 9th-grader read it, because it has sex scenes way too raw, but it would be good for 12th-graders and older.

7 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

This book was such a good read. I couldn't put it down & thought this was very relatable back to when I was in high school. The characters were great & the ending was such a twist. I would recommend it to anyone. The only other Jodi P. book I have read is Salem Falls & I liked this one even better than that one.

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

19 Minutes book review

Going to high school is defiantly not the easiest thing to do during someone's life, especially if there is a school shooting there. During 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult, everything changes at Sterling High in a matter of 19 minutes. Lives were lost, Friends were hurt, and a Teacher was gone. The students and staff will remember March 6, 2007, the day of the shooting, for the rest of their lives.
The main characters in this book are Josie (student), Alex (Josie's mom; judge),Peter (student), and Lacy (peter's mom). When the book first starts, it does not truly show the relationships between all of them. But as the book progresses, Picoult sticks in chapters titled 17 years before, 12 years before, and a month before that show the connection with all of the characters. For example, in the second chapter entitled 17 years before, the setting is at a prenatal classroom with Lacy as the teacher, who just got back from maternity leave after having Peter, and Alex is one of her students. During the session, Lacey realizes that Alex is uncomfortable and knows that she has to pay close attention to her in order to make sure that her pregnancy goes well. After a few more classes, Alex and Lacy become good friends, and once Alex gives birth to Josie, Peter and Josie become the best of friends in grade school. They way that Jodi Picoult put the shooting before getting into depth about the character relationships is very intriguing and that makes the reader think if there is some sort of way that the shooting could have been stopped and what the causes of the shooting are.
Throughout reading this book, I have flashbacks of the Columbine shooting in Colorado. Columbine was a surprise shooting at the high school that was carried out by the 'wierdos' at the school, just like in 19 minutes. The only thing different is that the shooter in 19 minutes carried this act out by himself. Reading the step by step process that was going on during and after the shooting makes me have empathy for those involved in the Columbine shooting and any other shooting that has happened. The way that Picoult writes how Alex is feeling when she hears that there was a shooting at Sterling High to the way Officer Patrick feels when he is running through the halls looking for the shooter as he passes people that have met the shooter shows how different fear can be handled between different people.
With the way the shooter is described throughout the book, proves that anyone can do something completely unexpected. So the next time you judge someone on how they look or act, maybe you should think again.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Would recommend

This is the 2nd book I have read by Jodi Picoult. WOW...she definitely brings into play major issues and REALLY makes her writers think. She is truly talented at this. I could not put this book down. Unfortunately I did not like the end. This was the same issue I had with the 1st book of hers I read (The Pact). Still.....the book was VERY well written and I will give her another chance!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

ONe word, Three Letters....WOW

What a great book. It keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what secret will unfold right before your very eyes. Jodi Picoult is a WONDERFUL author, her books are amazing, especially this one. READ THIS BOOK. It might be long, but you will never regret reading this book...the ending will knock you right off your feet.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Hard to Put Down!

Wow! I took this book with me as I was backpacking through Europe simply for something to read on planes and trains but I found that I was reading it during every free moment! The twists and turns kept coming until the very end. Definitely a must read!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Thought provoking, page turner.

Jodi Piccoult delivers once again in this subject matter of bullying. Perhaps it will make people consider how they may be able to make a difference, especially in the public school institutions.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Attention-Grabbing, Emotionally-Wrenching and Ingeniously Written!

Nineteen MInutes by Jodi Picoult is one of best books I think I've ever read. She has a style of writing that is encapsulating and frustrating at the same time. While reading this book, I've wanted her to quit jumping back and forth between characters because I want to find out what happens next right away. However, when she tells parts of Peter's childhood and immediately jumps back to the future, it makes sense because we are able to see why he is doing what he's doing. It keeps the readers attention and makes the reader think; I was unable to put this book down until I finished it! Also, I had the pleasure of rereading it in a college course. It was an education course and it made me realize how important this book really is. I think that all educators and probably all students at the secondary level should have to read this book. It made me think about my childhood experiences and how much certain actions really can affect the rest of someone's life. I thought about students from elementary school that remind me of Peter's character and how differently we all should have acted. As a future educator, I am now aware of the effects the many things that happen in a school setting can have on some people as well as what the results could be. I feel much more knowledgeable about stepping in when necessary and helping students avoid these interactions. Reading Nineteen Minutes has given me wonderful insight and although it isn't the happiest of books to read, I recommend it to any and everyone to read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Bold and Real

Why is it that the more developed and gutsy a novel is, usually the more horrible it is if the plot can or has happened? School shootings and/or any school tragedies are horrific and life-changing, and literature based on such events (even if it's "fiction" literature) is hard to swallow. This book hits home on so many levels. You can't help but feel for the characters and what they're going through because it's hard to imagine anything worse than deaths at a high school. Yet, I also felt for the shooter as I know what it's like to go through school being known as a "dork" and having no friends. His choices were terrible, but how much should one human being really be forced to silently put up with? Is death ever deserved? A truly deep and powerful book with many lessons to learn within. Read it, hate it, love it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Power In Nineteen Minutes

This book is an incredibly powerful look into the tragedies of school shootings. It takes you through shock, anger, pity, sorrow, fear, and justice as you follow the characters through seemingly unimportant life events that all tie into one fateful day. For those of us that have lived through or been directly impacted by the school shootings, this is a intense and provacative look at how our seemingly meaningless actions can have an impact on both our fate and the fate of others. Piclout hits a very raw issue with the other side of the story that most of us want to ignore, but does so with a very sensitive and compassionate voice.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Nineteen Minutes

Nineteen Minutes starts off with a 17-year-old student named Peter Houghton going on a shooting rampage in a high school in Sterling, New Hampshire. He kills nine students and a teacher, but hurts many more. His last victim was Matt Royston who is Peter's long time best friends, Josie Cormier's, boyfriend. He is a member of the popular crowd, the same crowed Josie abandoned Peter for. Josie has no memory of what happened on the day of the shooting, which becomes hard to deal with when her mother becomes the judge of the case against Peter Houghton. Nothing about Picoult's Nineteen Minutes is easy to read, mainly because most of the character's emotional battles strike close to home. However, it's a good book that I would recommend to every high school student. It shows the effects their actions have on other people.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Nineteen Minutes in One Page

The novel Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was quite eye-opening to me. It presented a topic I was unfamiliar with- a high school shooting. The novel takes place in the small town of Sterling, New Hampshire which is changed forever after ten students and teachers were tragically murdered by one of their own at Sterling High School.
Many characters pop in and out of the novel, but the story revolves around two families- the Cormier's and the Houghton's. Alex Cormier is a judge for the local court. Her daughter, Josie is a junior at Sterling High. Alex finds herself working long hours, leaving little time to hang out with or even talk to Josie. This really strains their relationship. Lacy Houghton is a midwife and her husband, Lewis is a college teacher. Their son, Peter also attends Sterling High but is a bit of an outcast when compared to his peers. Peter's relationship with his parents is not very good either, but neither Lacy nor Lewis is worried about Peter's separation from them. They blame his seclusion on teenage hormones.
The title Nineteen Minutes is very appropriate and obviously planned by Picoult. It took exactly nineteen minutes for the ten murders to take place. As if in honor to Sterling High, the novel starts off with a list of several things one can do in nineteen minutes such as "mow a lawn. watch a sitcom without commercials.walk a mile or. get revenge." Nineteen Minutes is a very creative title for the work.
Jodi Picoult's style is also quite unique in that the narration moves from one character to another. Separated by page breaks more often than chapters, these various points of view provide the reader with the full experience of the situation and story by providing each person's point of view.
Another thing I personally enjoyed from the novel was learning about the court system. Due to Alex's career and the trial for the killer, a few unfamiliar words came up, such as subpoena. I had never seen the word before- I thought it was a spelling mistake! As with any of Picoult's books, it is an educational experience to read them whether there are extra medical or court terms.
However, Jodi Picoult always includes an emotional side to her novels as well. I certainly empathized with the victims of the shooting and their families, as well as Josie, whose boyfriend was killed. Although Peter had a very different role in the shooting, one can also sympathize with him and his family for what they had to endure.
Nineteen Minutes is extremely enjoyable and breath-taking to read. It is suspenseful, emotional, and exciting- everything one wants in a book!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Couldn't put down another Jodi Picoult book!

She paints a picture of her characters so vividly that you feel like you are there during every event. She is truly an inspirational writer! She adds twists that make you keep reading for more.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Heart-Wrenching

i couldn't put it down, i had to know everyting, the story drags you in, i didn't exactly like Jodi Picoult's writing, but like i said it sucks you in, i had to finish it, and the plot was interesting enough that i think i will read some of her others just to see what else she will come up with, but i'll have to wait a bit, i don't think i can take the emotional overload again so soon, i was unsatisfied with some of the character endings

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

a must read

One of the most moving and gripping books I have ever read. I love that the ending was such a huge suprise. I really did not see it comming at all!!!!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sad but great book

I love the writing of jodi. She is able to take events that have happened and show both sides of the story. This book is heartbreaking however a great eye opener for those children that are bullied everyday.

Interesting perspective

This book was a little slow in the beginning but once i got about a quarter of the way through it really came alive! Could not put it down. Really forces you to think about the everlasting impressions we have on each other .

Hi

Great book everybody sould read it amazing

GREAT READ

Loved it! Got me hooked on her writting. I was not disapointed, and I couldnt put it down