Mini Book Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin

You know when you read a book and you cannot stop thinking about it for a couple of days? Yeah. Then there's We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, which I will probably be thinking about for weeks.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is the story of Eva, a mother trying to come to terms with how her son (Kevin, obviously) could be capable of commiting a high school massacre. Right away, you think wow, fucked up. And it is. Written in a post-Columbine world, this story is fictional but at the same time it is all too real.  The novel is a series of letters from Eva to her husband, about two years after the massacre, where their son shot seven students, a teacher and a cafeteria worker. I usually find the epistolary style to be annoying, but it works here. She is having a one-sided conversation but it's one that, as the title suggests, needs to take place.

While the question of nature versus nurture is very clearly examined, the novel doesn't ever point any fingers directly and leaves the answers up to you. And I liked that, because it seems unlikely to me that we can ever say there is one specific thing to blame when a person (especially a child) commits such an atrocity. It's clear from the start that Kevin is a "bad seed," a sociopath. But Eva, nor her husband, are going to win Parent of the Year.

The novel takes place in 2000, and briefly makes mention of world news at the time (you might remember the presidential crisis in Florida and the insanity that followed) but it only mentions it in passing - when life as you know it has already ended, injustices in the world seem irrelevant. Additionally, while taking place in 2000, it was written post-9/11, and it was nice to see a total lack of "America gone wrong," or "we live in a violent, terrorist world" discussion. It was also refreshing that Kevin was not your typical prototype for this kind of crime. There are no trench coats, no rants about being bullied, no Marilyn Manson or video games to blame. Ultimately, this is a novel about family, just family.

The front cover says the book is impossible to put down, but that isn't true. Of the 400 pages, the first 300 are a slow burn as Eva takes us through Kevin's entire existence, from pre-conception to the present day.  But then those last 100 pages? They will be with me for a long, long time. Shriver sure knows how to end with a bang.

They've made a film of the novel, with the incredible Tilda Swinton cast perfectly as Eva. Kevin looks - as he should - creepy as hell. The book is creepy as hell and the movie probably will be, too. It was a controversial hit at Cannes and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

You can watch the trailer for the movie below (it's from Cannes, so there are French subtitles). If you can stomach it, I'd also strongly recommend the book. It's disturbingly real, extremely thought-provoking and really, really fucked up. Maybe have some Meg Cabot on hand or a Vampire Diaries marathon afterwards to cleanse.

We Need to Talk About Kevin Bande-annonce by toutlecine