Barb takes on contemporary fiction

I finished reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult yesterday. It's the story of a high school shooting where the shooter is taken alive and put on trial. The point of view jumps around, but the main characters are the shooter and his mom, a girl who was friends with the shooter when they were little and her mom, a detective, and the shooter's lawyer. We get snippets here and there from others, and it alternates between the aftermath of the shooting and what led up to it--from when the shooter was born.

I was discussing it with a friend and I was trying to figure out what I thought of it. Part of my problem is that for the most part, the only contemporary fiction I read is chick lit. I feel like I have very little to compare it with. And with that subject matter, it's not like I enjoyed it.

I do think it was well done. The characterization was good, and I felt like I could relate in some way to all of the characters. In some ways, it felt a bit clichéd, but at the same time, they're clichés for a reason, you know? Similarly, I don't feel like she necessarily said anything new (Tragedies affect everyone! The shooter was a victim, too!) but I thought she told it well.

Whenever I hear about these stories of kids being horribly, horribly bullied in high school, I always wonder. In my experience, middle school was way worse than high school, but maybe I just lucked out. I don't know. I'm glad I don't know.

This was the first Picoult I've read. Honestly, I was more interested in the concept than anything else. Would I recommend it? Sure. For a 450 page novel, it goes fairly quickly. It won't blow your mind, but it's good enough. Maybe eventually I'll read We Need to Talk About Kevin, and then I can compare the two.

And the bonus? I bought it in an airport bookstore, and I can take it to another bookstore in any number of airports and get half my money back! It's win-win-win, people.