Published March 24, 2009
Hey guys! I need a little bit of feedback on this book review! Lemme know what you think.
Jodi Picoult’s novel, Nineteen Minutes, tells the story of Peter Houghton, a teenage boy who one day, brings a gun to school and kills some of his fellow classmates. Peter is a troubled boy who has been bullied and teased since his first day of kindergarten when a bully took his brand new Superman lunch box and threw it out the bus window. He is bullied every day since, by bigger kids at school, his own older brother and eventually, by even his best friend.
The novel takes you through the events leading up to the shooting and the investigation and trial that follows it. You see the world from multiple points of view; Peter's, his childhood friend Josie Cormier’s and his mother – you see all the different sides of the story. Filled with Picoult’s usual plot twists and turns, this is a moving novel. It shows you how bullying can ruin lives. This book gives you an inside view of what goes on in a school shooters mind. It shows you how sometimes; the perpetrator can sometimes be the biggest victim of all.
One of the most memorable lines from the book tells us, “Everyone will remember him for those nineteen minutes, but what about the other nine million?” The book urges you to look passed the surface, and see the truth. You see more than just the facts of that day – you see the events leading up to it and how truly troubled the boy was. It causes you to question everything, including your own lives.
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I have never read this book and this review makes me curious. Nice job! Yet, here are some things that I would change;
Alright, to start off, I would like to say that this sentence could use some work. I would change it to something like this;
He has been bullied every day since. By bigger kids at school, his older brother, and, eventually, by his best friend.
That seems to sound a little more fluent don't you think? You could change it to something like that.
Next;
Ok, I know what you were trying to do here. I have done the same thing. You just can't find another word for what you are trying to say (or, I think that's what's going on). Instead of saying " school shooters mind" why don't you say "a criminals mind"? A school shooter is, I'd say, the same thing as a criminal, and it makes it sound fluent. (Again with the fluency)
Alright Gallagher! Awesome use of the word perpetrator. It sounded completely fluent and natural. There's some little things I would still change though. I would try changing it to something more like this;
"It shows you,(replace "how" with a comma) sometimes, (toss the semicolon) the perpetrator can be the greatest (change "biggest" into "greatest") victim of all"
That closing sentence was awesome. It is just what you need in a book review, something to make the reader ask "How?" or "Why?" That closing sentence is what hooks you! You did a very good job with the whole last paragraph actually, but this end sentence just wrapped it all up perfectly.