Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin": A Challenging Exploration of Family Dynamics

Mags: Oh my goodness! This was a book I found so traumatic to read, yet was unable to put down! So many questions, so few answers. Cleverly written and, I felt, left the reader to make up their own mind as to whether Kevin was a product of nurture or nature. And so scary when you realise this happens all too often in the world. I can’t say I enjoyed it but it is a thought provoking read that I would highly recommend.

United Kingdom on Oct 15, 2023

IshikaIshika: Just the cover is different.

India on Oct 04, 2023

Carolyn: This is a thought provoking book. This is a work of fiction but makes you think.

This a tale about a boy; Kevin, who one day kills some of his classmates in the gym.

This is from the perspective of the Mother. Dealing with Kevin in his younger years then up to the fateful day.

The style is easy to read and makes you think because of the descriptions are made. It is harrowing as afterwards parents are afraid to send their children to school!

I recommend this book as a change from crime fiction to viewing a person's perspective.

United Kingdom on Apr 06, 2023

LauraLMHS: Let me say at the outset that I was very impressed with this book. A few months ago I watched the movie of the same name and was struck sufficiently by the themes presented therein to seek out Lionel Shriver’s book. I was not disappointed.

[A side note about the movie: It is almost the common wisdom that movies are never as good as the books upon which they are based, but this movie gives the lie to that inasmuch as it was gripping and very faithful to the book, managing to cut very little out and to portray the main characters as the author had intended.]

The titular Kevin is a bad kid. He is a son single-mindedly intent - for whatever reason - on destroying his mother and everything (everything!) meaningful in her life. The bulk of the book is spent cataloging the evil deeds perpetrated by this miscreant from the minute he leaves the womb until the horrific climax. (The school violence that Kevin carries out is really only the penultimate climax, and is frequently alluded to as the story unfolds, so to speak of it is not really a “spoiler.” There is, however, an even more climactic climax, if there can be such a thing, which I won’t divulge and which will...

United States on Feb 20, 2019

Laura Lewis: This is the third fiction book I've read hoping it will answer the question of why teenagers apparently snap and murder their classmates. Jodi Picoult's "19 Minutes" and Cara Hoffman's "So Much Pretty," both fell disappointingly short for me. Perhaps these two books were simply telling stories but I was hoping they would reveal more. The author of "We Need to Talk About Kevin," I believe, does not attempt to answer the question per se but to provide a list of plausible who-is-to-blame options in order of their likelihood: 1) The child was simply born evil, 2) The child is the product of a disfunctional family and especially a cold mother, 3) The media encourages mass murders by providing fame, audience, and competition to future murderers, and 4) Violent video games and the general inability of society to shield a child from bad influence. The reader's own preferences and personal prejudices will lead them to the explanation they find most plausible. I will note that there are a few possible explanations that the author takes off the table in order to narrow the focus and probably enhance the believability of the story: 1) Kevin is not bullied and 2) He does not use a gun for his...

United States on Jan 20, 2013

BlestMiss T: 'We need to talk about...' is often as ambivalent in tone and message as the feeling you get after reading it. That's not to say it's not a superb read in many aspects. Shriver writes a novel that never waivers in its ability to intrigue despite being somewhat of a tome. Balancing plot and character development expertly, no words are wasted. Shriver is particularly audacious in her brave often brutally honest deconstruction of the American dream and the infinite fallibilities in this conceit. She takes to task the vanity and futility of the upper-middle class lifestyle. Contradictions lie throughout the book...in the different parental styles of Eva and Franklin towards Kevin, one cold and detached the other foolishly indulgent and deluded as to the true character of their son. Contradictions also lie in Eva herself. She is well travelled - and therefore you would think, too aware of the fallacies of stereotyping- yet capable of making the most ludicrous generalisations about ethnicity and faith (bordering on the outright bigoted & I couldn't help but wonder if the author herself was using the character as a platform for some of her views, as is often done). At times Eva in...

United Kingdom on Jul 08, 2008

Zannie: The school shootings that ran rampant through the 1990s had everyone shocked and in fear of sending their kids to school. Throughout the shootings, culminating in Columbine, one thing probably went through everyone's minds: What were these kids' parents like? It's human nature to assume that children who go bad are helped along by cruel or indifferent parents. Why do we think this? Because if we let our minds consider the alternative, that some kids are just born bad, then we must be aware of the frightening fact that it could happen to us.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver explores this very idea through a source closer to the subject than any other--the mother of a boy who shot seven of his classmates during a rampage in the school gym. Although the book is fictional, the subject matter is all too real, and this makes it an exceptionally chilling read.

Eva Khatchadourian explores her feeling about her son Kevin's actions through a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin. Although this might seem like a limiting way to go about a book of this scope, it actually works quite well. Through Eva's eyes, we watch the excruciating formative years...

United Kingdom on Apr 10, 2007