Nineteen Minutes: A Novel
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.On Peter Houghton's first day of kindergarten, he watched helplessly   as an older boy ripped his lunch box out of his hands and threw it   out the window. From that day on, his life was a series of   humiliations, from having his pants pulled down in the cafeteria, to   being called a freak at every turn. But can endless bullying justify   murder? As Picoult attempts to answer this question, she shows us all   sides of the equation, from the ruthless jock who loses his ability   to speak after being shot in the head, to the mother who both   blames and pities herself for producing what most would call a   monster. Surrounding Peter's story is that of Josie Cormier, a former   friend whose acceptance into the popular crowd hangs on a string that   makes it impossible for her to reconcile her beliefs with her actions.At times,Nineteen Minutescan seem tediously stereotypical--  jocks versus nerds, parent versus child, teacher versus student. Part   of Picoult's gift is showing us the subtleties of these common   dynamics, and the startling effects they often have on the moral   landscape. As Peter's mother says at the end of this spellbinding   novel, "Everyone would remember Peter for nineteen minutes of his   life, but what about the other nine million?" --Gisele Toueg