In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five….In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.

From Amazon.com

Best known for tackling controversial issues through richly told fictional accounts, Jodi Picoult’s 14th novel, Nineteen Minutes, deals with the truth and consequences of a smalltown high-school shooting. Set in Sterling, New Hampshire, Picoult offers reads a glimpse of what would cause a 17-year-old to wake up one day, load his backpack with four guns, and kill nine students and one teacher in the span of nineteen minutes. As with any Picoult novel, the answers are never black and white, and it is her exceptional ability to blur the lines between right and wrong that make this author such a captivating storyteller.

My thoughts

This book bothered me more than I was expecting. The fact that I’m a mother and has a child that will go to high school years from now makes the book more real. She will be exposed to peer pressure, the cruelty of other children and other hardships that comes with adolescence. I know I could not protect and hide her from the world and although we know that it has everything to do with how you bring them up, you still can’t help but wonder if they will be strong enough.

I’ve never seen a bully my whole life and I don’t believe I’ve ever bullied anyone when I was in school. The Husband was bullied when he was in grade school but it only made him tougher. And since this story bothered me so much, I asked him how it feels. Aside from being tougher, did it affect his way of thinking, how he sees the people around him, his confidence? He said it wasn’t that bad but it was enough that whenever he hears Sandy saying that someone was being mean to her, he immediately asks me if Sandy is being bullied. He then mentioned seeing an old school mate of his that was bullied and although the guy is probably doing much better than the bullies now, The husband could still feel anger from his old schoolmate’s voice whenever he talks about the bullies from their school.

I have more to say but I couldn’t write them anymore. One thing’s for sure, our actions can change/affect other people’s lives.

You’re probably familiar with Columbine Massacre and other events similar to this. This thing is real and it could happen. I’m hoping they won’t turn this into a movie because some kid who’s had enough might just see himself in the shooter and justify that hurting people is fine as long as they started it.

Protect your kids. Make them strong but teach them compassion as well.