Intricately textured and rich with psychological and social insight, Jodi Picoult's novels grab readers by the throat from page one and never let go. As emotionally charged as any she has written, Nineteen Minutes is one of her most powerful works to date.
Set in a small town in the wake of a horrific school shooting, Nineteen Minutes features the return of two beloved Picoult characters - Jordan McAfee, the lawyer from The Pact and Salem Falls, who once again finds himself representing a boy who desperately needs someone on his side; and Patrick Ducharme, the intrepid detective introduced in Perfect Match, whose best witness is the daughter of the superior court judge assigned to the case. As the story unfolds, layer after layer is peeled back to reveal some hard-hitting questions about the nature of justice, the balance of power and what it means to be different.
Nineteen Minutes is a riveting, thought-provoking tale with a jaw-dropping finale.
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Watch an episode of a sit-com. Read one chapter of a book. Cook a quick dinner. Start shooting and not stop until all the bullies are dead.
A young boy took a gun to school one day and shot his classmates.
With one of the best opening paragraphs to a book I have ever seen, Jodi Picoult instantly grips her readers by the collar and forces them to confront this issue that nobody wants to talk about.
Peter is a young, impressionable boy who wakes up one day and decides he no longer wants to be bullied everyday at school. After losing his best friend, Josie, to the popular crowd, Peter has nobody to turn to and becomes more and more isolated from his peers. But Peter is not just shooting random people - he is shooting those who bullied him.
Loneliness eats away at Peter before and during the attack, and with his family and victims afterwards. Imagine learning that your child was also a bully, and not just a victim; or that your child who was the victim became the bully.
This is no typical anti-bullying book - Picoult shows the importance of friendship, kindness and understanding; as always, she makes you question your life and what you would do with 19 minutes if you had the chance.
This is the type of book that stays with you forever. You think about it every time you hear about yet another school shooting and are thankful you're okay.
"In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world; or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge." - Jacqueline (QBD)
Guest, 19/04/2017
