"The tragedies keep coming. As we reel from the latest horror . . . " So begins a new epilogue, illustrating how Columbine became the template for nearly two decades of "spectacle murders." It is a false script, seized upon by a generation of new killers. In the wake of Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech, the imperative to understand the crime that sparked this plague grows more urgent every year.
What really happened April 20, 1999? The horror left an indelible stamp on the American psyche, but most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about jocks, Goths, or the Trench Coat Mafia. Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on scene, and spent ten years on this book-widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen, he draws on mountains of evidence, insight from the world's leading forensic psychologists, and the killers' own words and drawings-several reproduced in a new appendix. Cullen paints raw portraits of two polar opposite killers. They contrast starkly with the flashes of resilience and redemption among the survivors
My review
I remember when this happened. It was horrible. This book helped to clear up some of the false stories that were relayed via the media. Not only that, we get a glimpse into the two boys who caused so much bloodshed. We get to hear, in their own words, what they were thinking at the time. This book is heavy. It is shocking and tragic and unbelievable and informative all at the same time. It is definitely PG-13 language. I wish there was a way to make sure that nothing like this could ever happen again.
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