We Need to Talk about Kevin

From the very first page, I was intrigued by Shriver's exploration of maternal complexities. It shone a light on motherhood that I’d never seen before. I found the raw emotion and psychological depth unparalleled and loved how the narrative really delved into nature versus nurture and went so far as to question: are people born evil? 

Being a mother myself, I couldn’t imagine living through the horror of my child becoming withdrawn and that disengagement resulting in such devastation in a community. The dismissal of the mother’s concerns by the father was also an interesting social commentary.

Finally, Shriver’s writing… show more.

To me, this book brilliantly and unapologetically explores one of the darkest and most taboo areas of human psychology: a mother’s fear and hatred of her own child.

I don’t have children of my own (through choice), but my mother and sister both struggled in their roles as parents, so this theme has always been very personal. We Need To Talk About Kevin bravely spoke the “unspeakable,” bringing into the light thoughts, feelings, and experiences that I had perhaps never been fully able to articulate for myself.

In turn, Shriver’s book paved the way for me to explore similar themes… show more.

I love books that deal with guilt, and there can be no greater guilt than being the mother of a psychopath who goes on a killing spree. This book really gets you thinking about why someone would do something like that and what, if anything, can be done to stop them. This book is beautifully written and it’s hard not to feel empathy for the mother, even if I struggled to find much for Kevin.

What if you never really wanted to be a mother? Can you hide that from your child? As parents, most of us do the best we can at the time. Right? What if your best wasn’t good enough, what if the most unthinkable happened, caused by your child? Is it your fault? Could you have done differently, better? This novel explores the psychological dynamics of people thinking they’re living their best lives. But they’re not.

Shriver’s epistolary novel tells the story of a murderous student in letters from his parents. Inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School killings in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 fellow students and a teacher. Chilling and heartfelt, the book makes us confront feelings about motherhood, society, and retribution.

I studied psychology and have a keen interest in behavioural science and forensic psychology, so I found this study in criminality and its effects on an (innocent?) mother fascinating.  It’s very much a ‘the monster was inside the house all along’ horror story, but wrapped up in the genre of crime. It’s definitely a powerful book and had a big effect on me, both as a writer and as a human being. You won’t look at your nieces and nephews the same again..!

I recommend this book often, but many of my friends are reluctant to read it because it’s about a school shooting. I understand their reluctance, but I urge them to get past it. It is perhaps the most stunning and powerful book I’ve ever read and raises thorny questions of nature vs. nurture. And the ending! Let me just say it hit me like a body blow. I was forced to go back and see how Ms. Shriver had constructed a plot that confounded me so completely. (Don’t try to get away with watching the movie. It is incomprehensible.) 

This 2003 novel is ostensibly the story of a mass school shooting perpetrated by teenager, Kevin. But it is really the story of a marriage and motherhood where Kevin’s mother, Eva, always suspected there was something wrong with her son whereas Kevin’s father, Franklin, never saw that side of his son.

It’s a conflict that apparently led to their eventual estrangement since it is told in the form of letters written by Eva to Franklin. In the letters, Eva struggles for understanding: Is she to blame for Kevin’s mass murder of his schoolmates, or was Kevin born bad?

The sickening… show more.

The book challenges our assumptions about evil on every page. Shriver writes it so that Kevin can simultaneously be viewed as a hardwired psychopath driving his mother out of her mind, or as a poor little twerp who goes bananas because his mum is such a highly strung nightmare. It absolutely crackles with a dark foreboding energy.

Shriver’s novel is an astonishingly well-written and devastating book about every parent’s worst nightmare: the realization that your child is a killer. Topical and controversial, We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of the best books ever written about the gulf that can develop between a mother and child and how childhood discontent and teenage angst can foster catastrophic consequences. This one knocked the breath from my lungs, because there are no shambling monsters or undead nightmares here, just a very real horror that could happen to anyone.