Bl0g 4

The end of Columbine was....fine. The writing was interesting and elegant as always, but there was nothing that blew me away at the very end. Around the 3/4 mark, we found out that Cassie Bernall really wasn't the one who said "Yes" in the library. When one of the killers asked if she believed in God, it was really Val who said yes. She survived, yet she had trouble telling the real story. Word had gotten out that it was Cassie who had said "Yes", which gave Cassie's mourning family so much relief and love. It's no wonder Val didn't want to say anything. Eventually she did, and investigators were also able to prove that it was Val who said it, since all the witnesses heard the dialogue from where Val was sitting instead of where Cassie's body was found. If I were Val, I wouldn't have said anything. At least not publicly.

     The last fifty pages of the book consist of the killers' final goodbyes (audio from the Basement Tapes), a very quick summary of the killers' rampage, and the tenth anniversary of the massacre. This featured a lot of families' and their closure mechanisms. Many parents of victims wrote books or blogs. Cassie's mom wrote a book call She Said Yes despite the fact that it was proevn to her that it was not her daughter who said yes....  Awkward.

     I was watching an interview with the dad of the boy whose body was left on the sidewalk overnight without his parents even knowing what happened. At first, this father seemed to be a pretty rational guy. Then he starts to blame himself... Okay that's somewhat natural. But his reason for blaming himself was OBSURD. He said that it was his fault for sending his son to school where evolution was being taught rather than creationism....... WHAT? Then he goes on to say how the theory of evolution is a dangerous thing to teach students and that the massacre wouldn't have happened if Creationism was taught instead.... I had to stop the interview there cause I couldn't take the irrelevancy of evolution on the topic of the massacre at Columbine High School.

     I totally recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It shows us so much about psychology, issues in police protocol, issues with lawsuits.... SO many things. And the writing is amazing. Dave Cullen is a genius. However, I don't recommend reading this right before bed. If you don't get freaked out about it in general, then it'll most likely have you up till 3am thinking of what you would do if you were face to face with Eric and Dylan.

BL0G #3

     Eric and Dylan shot up Columbine High School. The massacre lasted approximately 50 minutes, yet it took 3 HOURS until wounded victims were found in the school. There were dozens and dozens of cop cars at the scene, yet not a single cop entered the building. The protocol was to set up a perimeter and wait for the SWAT team. That makes me so mad!! On top of that, bodies laid outside the school, some stayed there untouched overnight. Danny Rohrbough's cold body sprawled on the sidewalk was on the cover of the local paper the next morning; that was his father's ONLY notification of his son's death. WHAT?! Also, the mother of an old friend of Eric and Dylan's, had gone to police reporting Eric for death threats against his son. Mysteriously, the documents regarding this mother's visit to the sheriff's office were 'misplace' following the Columbine Massacre. So many fishy things going on here.
     I really can't get over how well this book is written. Cullen reveals EVERY SINGLE DETAIL, and somehow, I have yet to read a boring part. Right now, Fuselier (a terrorism expert/psychologist who works for the FBI) is talking about how Eric showed all the signs of a young psychopath. Fuselier also mentions that the MRI scan of a typical brain and a scan of the brain of a psychopath reveals something that I think is actually pretty darn scary. A typical brain actually looks physically different than the brain of a psychopath. Better yet, the brain of a psychopath actually closely resembles the brains of animals. CRAZY! It makes sense, since there are so many things that psychopaths literally are not capable of feeling, but still! To think that Eric's brain is not completely human-like really makes me believe that pure evil is real.
    It amazes me how Cullen and so subtly enter the mind of someone in the book and almost narrate it from that character's perspective. When he does this, I know that he is still the narrator, but somehow I feel like I am inside the minds of different people within the book. I also have yet to sense any form of bias. Sometimes when I'm reading a third person piece, I can sort of imagine what the narrator looks and sounds like. In this book, I can't imagine the narrator at all, and I think that's a good thing! Absolutely zero bias. He's simply unfolding the full story of the Columbine massacre, simply because the public should know what happened leading up to that day, as well as the chaotic aftermath.

Bl0g#2

Plot twist! I switched books. Although I was enjoying A Wolf Called Romeo by Nick Jans, I actually lost the book. And I also don't think it was the best book to blog about, because there weren't any characters that I felt strongly about. It was mostly about what was going on in Juneau regarding the regular appearance of Romeo the wolf.

Now I am reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. This book is elegantly written. First of all, Cullen takes one single day in American history and turns it into a four-hundred page book. Second of all, he doesn't just describe the people involved,  I'm in their heads; reading their every thoughts. It's awesome! Right now I'm on page 51, which is right in the middle of the blow by blow of the massacre. I had to stop reading because I was on a plane, and I can't read during turbulence, but I can't wait to get back into it! I'm right at the part where Ms. Nielsen staggers into the library screaming at the students to take cover from the gunmen. Cullen describes every detail, every nook and cranny of the school and the massacre. Everything you could imagine about April 20, 1999 is uncovered. It makes me want to go to Columbine High School right now and check out all the hallways, the entrances, the library, and the cafeteria. I started reading while I was in Colorado just an hour's drive from the high school so it was even more tempting to hop in the rental car and see everything for myself.

Everything about the two killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, is divulged; their relationships with their parents, friends, and themselves. Just from reading the first 50 or so pages, I can imagine exactly what Eric and Dylan would be like if I knew them. Although Cullen is the narrator, he uses specific language according who he's talking about. For example, when he describes stuff about Eric's life, Cullen uses curse words and teenage slang. I can really feel a smooth shift every time he switches characters. It's refreshing, and definitely keeps things interesting.