Dave Cullen bravely took on what might be thought of as yet just another journalist trying to cash in on the horrific story of the massacre at Columbine School. He did this with clearly immense amounts of research and time in order to set straight all the rumors and give a factual account that painfully at times reads like a novel…such as IN COLD BLOOD, except we all know that this is not fiction. What most of us, including myself, did not know was the facts of what occurred that day at Columbine.
Don’t we already know about the loners, the Trench Coat Mafia boys, who were bullied until they had enough and blew away those people at that school? Don’t we know about the parents who never cared or saw this coming from their own sons? Don’t we know of the girl who told them she believed in God or the jocks who had bullied them and so were all killed? Don’t we know about Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris already?
No, we don’t! I didn’t and reading the painful but so well written account by Dave Cullen opened my eyes as it also tore at my heart. The book is so well researched after 10 years that nothing is left to chance or to guess at. The book tells of the media and how it sensationalized much of what happened on that tragic day and how the two killers were very different from how they were portrayed.
COLUMBINE goes further as it also goes into the effects of this immense tragedy to tell about the survivors and how years later the shock still remains and what changes it brought about to so many lives. Dave Cullen writes a tough to read, but riveting non-fiction account that you will find hard to tear yourself away from. It also leaves one wondering how you could have gotten things to wrong for all these years when you thought you knew the truth about Columbine. April 20, 1999, will come alive once again in a horrific yet truthful fashion for the reader through the research, hard work, and skillful writing of Dave Cullen. Although a tough book to read, I am not sorry I did…and found it hard to put down.
COLUMBINE As You May Never Have Known it Before by Dave Cullen
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