We Need to Talk About Kevin

Currently reading: Covenant by Dean Crawford
Currently listening to: "Starships" by Nicki Minaj (I totally love this song)
Current weather conditions: Gusty, overcast, chilly, perfect for mowing the lawn


In 2003 a woman named Lionel Shriver brought a book called We Need to Talk About Kevin into the world, published by Serpent's Tail. It's about a fictional school massacre.

It was made into a film starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly last year.

I was loaned this book by a friend who keeps me well-stocked in clever reads, and as usual I was not disappointed.

The premise is itchy, irrational, uncomfortable, politically incorrect, rude. A mother's worst nightmare. No, worse than a mother's worst nightmare. That Shriver was able to draw out a story focusing on a child killing his classmates, and somehow still reach out and touch your heart and really go in and squeeze it, well, hats off to her. I would never have thought a book about such a thing, an Unspeakable Thing like that, could be so... swallowable.

Told entirely in epistolary form - letters from the murderous boy's mother Eva, to her husband, Franklin.

It shook me and brought me into an experience I could have never otherwise (thankfully) fathomed.

And so. I highly recommend this book - for its angst, its spoiled virtue, and the way it pulls you in so that you can't help but turn the page.


Have a lovely Sunday, my loyal readers, and remember: Live, Laugh, Love.