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crankylibrarian
Apr 28, 2013crankylibrarian rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The most thoughtful, well-informed account ever written about the Columbine tragedy. Dave Cullen consulted hundreds of documents (many never released to the public until recently) and interviewed survivors, family members, school officials and police to assemble a nail biting reconstruction of the shootings, the killers' mentalities and the aftermath. In the process, he reveals that nearly all the common assumptions about Columbine (and school shootings in general) are wrong. The killers were neither Goths, "trench coat mafia", loners, or the victims of bullies; school shooters are less, not more, likely to play video games than other kids. While experts agree that Eric Harris was almost certainly a psychopath, Dylan Klebold comes off as a confused, depressive kid who under other circumstances might have turned his life around. A stellar work of journalism offering neither platitudes, nor easy answers.