Book Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

To be honest, I've been meaning to read this book for awhile. It sat on my to-read list on GoodReads for at least a year. I don't know if waiting to read it caused my expectations to soar or if I just set the bar too high after just reading a couple of really good books already this year. To start, this book is not easy to read and it will break your heart and tug at your conscience the entire time you are reading it. It is not light reading but it raises a lot of good questions and discussion points.

The premise of the book is of a mom struggling to figure out what caused her 16 year-old son to commit mass murder at his high school. It was disturbing and heart breaking to read but it gave what I thought was an honest portrait of family life. No one knows what causes kids to do such horrendous acts and reading as Eva, Kevin's mom, tries to make sense of what happened and why is disturbing. Your heart goes out to her and Shriver makes you feel her sense of confusion and frustration. The book will never give you an answer to the why but I think that is the point. Do we ever truly know what someone else is thinking?

It was hard for me to make a connection with any of the characters in the book. Eva, Kevin's mom, is extremely satisfied with her life as-is, no kids, running a successful travel guide company, and living in New York City. Once her and her husband, Franklin, decide to start a family, she struggled with giving up her independence and settling into domesticated life. I did respect her honesty about motherhood and the sacrifices everyone needs to make. Franklin, Kevin's dad, is all about living the American dream and his portrayal in the book does not flatter him at all. It makes him sound like he wanted to sugar-coat everything to make sure everything in his life matched up with how he pictured it at 8 years old.

Then you have Kevin, the perpetrator of the callous act. He is described as a cold, calculating, and incredibly smart child from birth. He knew how to play to each parent's weaknesses, often pitting them against each other. Knowing what he did from the start, it was easy to point out the warning signs. They appeared so often you wonder how did they not think something bad was going to happen?! I could never emphasize with Kevin and he honestly made me uncomfortable the entire time I was reading the story, which if that was the author's intention, she did an incredible job.

Overall, I came away from the book indifferent towards it. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination but it wasn't something I particularly would want to read again. Honestly with the amount of question it raises and the potential quality discussions it could lead to, I would say it would be a good book for a book club, as long as it was followed with wine, chocolate, and a light read for the next month.

Happy Reading!
Jackie