Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

The next book I am choosing to review is by Jodi Picoult. This is a book that is very thought provoking and powerful.

Synopsis:

This is a book about Peter Houghton. It starts out in present day in Sterling, New Hampshire. The other main characters of this book include Alex Cormier, a superior court judge, her daughter Josie, who is a junior in high school, her boyfriend Matt, Peter’s mother Lacy, her husband Lewis, Detective Patrick Ducharme, and Jordan, Peter’s attorney.

The book starts out following a normal day of all of the main characters, and then a loud bang is heard from the parking lot of the high school, which turns out to be a bomb set off in the car of Matt Royston, Josie’s boyfriend. Gunshots are then fired by Peter, and he kills ten people ( nine students and one teacher), and wounds many others, and after Patrick, the detective, arrives at the school, he arrests Peter in the locker room, where he finds Josie and Matt, lying on the floor covered in blood. Matt is dead, and was the only victim that was shot twice, but Josie is still alive but seriously injured and has no memory of what happened.

The book then goes back and forth between the present time and the past. It goes into detail of the times where Peter is seriously bullied, both verbally and physically, and also is written in Josie’s perspective, Alex’s perspective, and Patrick’s perspective. Peter and Josie were once best friends but grew apart when Josie started hanging out with the popular crowd and then starts dating Matt, her sophomore year in high school. Matt verbally and physically bullies Peter, as well as often being verbally and sometimes physically abusive towards Josie.

The book ends with Peter’s trial and Peter is convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder, and two counts of second-degree murder, and is sentenced to life in prison, and he commits suicide by stuffing a sock down his throat.

Josie admits to shooting Matt the first time in his stomach due to his abusive behavior towards her while they were in a relationship. Peter fired the second shot, a blow to the head, and he promised Josie he would never tell anyone what she had done.

Because of this crime, Josie has received a five-year sentence in jail for accessory of manslaughter and her mother regularly visits her in jail.

Alex starts dating Patrick, and at the end of the book they are expecting their first child together, and the book ends a year from the shooting.

Review:

After reading this book, I found multiple themes in this book.

The first major theme I found was bullying and the effect it can have on an individual.

Starting from the time Peter was a child, he was seriously bullied, both verbally, and physically, and he wasn’t capable or didn’t have the strength to stand up for himself or to try and overcome the bullying. He feels he has no other choice but to get revenge on the people who have made his lives so awful.

“You want to do something about it- take action, scream at them, tell them they’re idiots- but you can’t. Being on the fringe is the most disempowering feeling. You get so used to the world being a certain way, there seems to be no escape from it.”

I was bullied in middle school, but luckily, with the support of my family, and friends, I was able to overcome the bullying, and became a stronger person, and more secure in myself. But Peter didn’t have the family support, and felt isolated.

The next theme I found was the theme of trying to be popular and blend in.

“Sometimes Josie thought of her life as a room with no doors and no windows. It was a sumptuous room, sure-a room half the kids in Sterling High would have given their right arm to enter- but it was also a room from which there really wasn’t an escape. Either Josie was someone she didn’t want to be, or she was someone who nobody wanted.”

What this means to me is that Josie dated Matt and hung out with the popular crowd because she felt she had to in order to fit in, and in her own way like Peter, she doesn’t really know who she is and isn’t happy with herself.

There was a time in life when I wasn’t secure with myself, and wasn’t happy with the person I was, and tried to be popular to fit in so I can relate to that.

The next theme I found was the theme of judging other people and who has the right to judge.

“Morally, no one has the right to judge anyone else. But legally, it’s not a right, it’s a responsibility.”

What this means to me is that Alex has to draw a line between her job as a judge and as a parent, and while morally she can’t judge Peter for his crime, legally it is her responsibility as a judge.

The final theme that stands out to me is loving your child regardless of what they do.

“Everyone would remember Peter for nineteen minutes of his life, but what about the other nine million? Lacy would be the keeper of those, because it was the only way for that part of Peter to stay alive. For every recollection of him that involved a bullet or a scream, she would have a hundred others: of a little boy splashing in a pond, or riding a bicycle for the first time, or waving from the top of a jungle gym. Of a kiss good night, or a crayoned Mother’s Day card, or a voice off-key in the shower. She would string them together – the moments when her child had been just like other people’s. She would wear them, precious pearls, every day of her life; because if she lost them, then the boy she had loved and raised and known would really be gone.”

What this means to me is that Lacy can hate the things that Peter has done but still love him. For the rest of his life, Peter will be remembered as a monster and for the things he did, but as a parent, Lacy will keep the good memories of him as a little boy, because if she loses those memories, then Peter will no longer be there.