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Dave Cullen

Columbine Kindle Edition

by Dave Cullen (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Ten years in the works, a masterpiece of reportage, this is the definitive account of the Columbine massacre, its aftermath, and its significance, from the acclaimed journalist who followed the story from the outset.
"The tragedies keep coming. As we reel from the latest horror . . ."

So begins a new epilogue, illustrating how Columbine became the template for nearly two decades of "spectacle murders." It is a false script, seized upon by a generation of new killers. In the wake of Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech, the imperative to understand the crime that sparked this plague grows more urgent every year.

What really happened April 20, 1999? The horror left an indelible stamp on the American psyche, but most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about jocks, Goths, or the Trench Coat Mafia. Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on scene, and spent ten years on this book-widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen, he draws on mountains of evidence, insight from the world's leading forensic psychologists, and the killers' own words and drawings-several reproduced in a new appendix. Cullen paints raw portraits of two polar opposite killers. They contrast starkly with the flashes of resilience and redemption among the survivors.

Expanded with a New Epilogue

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April 3, 2009
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The fundamental nature of a psychopath is a failure to feel. A psychopath’s grasp of fear and suffering is particularly weak.
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It also appears that even the best parenting may be no match for a child born to be bad.
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“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Dave Cullen's meticulous research dispels the myths and hasty assumptions surrounding the 1999 Columbine High School shootings....Don Leslie's nuanced reading of the disturbing material makes clear that the boys were not goths, gay, or bullied. Leslie is mesmerizing as he makes Cullen's case that Harris was predisposed to psychopathy and Klebold was erratic, depressed, and suicidal....If this important book were fiction, it would be devastating. Knowing it really happened is heartbreaking. --AudioFile

[A] stunning, authoritative, full-scope view of the Columbine tragedy, reaching powerful and controversial conclusions and revealing several facts previously unknown to the public. Don Leslie...reads with both sensation and objectivity, escalating emotion during the often graphic diary passages and helping the story to flow. --Library Journal

[A] remarkable account…Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen? ...Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers aren't easy to stomach. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this remarkable account of the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting, journalist Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen? Drawing on extensive interviews, police reports and his own reporting, Cullen meticulously pieces together what happened when 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 13 people before turning their guns on themselves. The media spin was that specific students, namely jocks, were targeted and that Dylan and Eric were members of the Trench Coat Mafia. According to Cullen, they lived apparently normal lives, but under the surface lay an angry, erratic depressive (Klebold) and a sadistic psychopath (Harris), together forming a combustible pair. They planned the massacre for a year, outlining their intentions for massive carnage in extensive journals and video diaries. Cullen expertly balances the psychological analysis—enhanced by several of the nation's leading experts on psychopathology—with an examination of the shooting's effects on survivors, victims' families and the Columbine community. Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers aren't easy to stomach. (Apr. 6)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Many reviewers were more concerned with coming to grips with the attack rather than assessing the book, but their concern may be a testament to Cullen’s work. His reporting fundamentally reframes the event: Columbine, he writes, should be thought of as a failed bombing rather than a school shooting. Furthermore, much of the conventional wisdom about how to prevent such attacks—essentially, watch out for pimply outcasts with a grudge—is confounded by an investigation into Harris’s and Klebold’s actual lives. Most critics, with Janet Maslin a notable exception, thought that Cullen’s account helps us to better wring meaning from the tragedy. In sum, Columbine “is an excellent work of media criticism, showing how legends become truths through continual citation” (New York Times Book Review).
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"In this remarkable account of the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting, journalist Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen? Drawing on extensive interviews, police reports and his own reporting, Cullen meticulously pieces together what happened when 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 13 people before turning their guns on themselves.... Cullen expertly balances the psychological analysis-enhanced by several of the nation's leading experts on psychopathology-with an examination of the shooting's effects on survivors, victims' families and the Columbine community. Readers will come away from Cullen's unflinching account with a deeper understanding of what drove these boys to kill, even if the answers aren't easy to stomach." (Publishers Weekly, Starred Reivew )

"Comprehensive...It's a book that hits you like a crime scene photo, a reminder of what journalism at its best is all about. Cullen knows his material from the inside; he covered Columbine, for Salon and Slate primarily, 'beginning around noon on the day of the attack.' But if this gives him a certain purchase on the story, his perspective is what resonates." (LA Times )

"Cullen's book is a nerve-wracking, methodical and panoramic account...COLUMBINE has its terrifying sections, particularly during Cullen's minute-by-minute rendering of the chaotic 49-minute assault. He puts us inside and outside the building, and he captures the disbelief viewers experienced in 'almost witnessing mass murder' live on television." (Cleveland Plain Dealer )

"A chilling page-turner, a striking accomplishment given that Cullen's likely readers almost certainly know how the tragic story ends...I knew Cullen was a dogged reporter and a terrific writer, but even I was blown away by the pacing and story-telling he mastered in Columbine, a disturbing, inspiring work of art." (Salon )

"Comprehensively nightmarish . . . Cullen's task is difficult not only because the events in question are almost literally unspeakable but also because even as he tells the story of a massacre that took the lives of 15 people, including the killers, he has to untell the stories that have already been told . . . Should this story be told at all? There's an element of sick, voyeuristic fascination to it--we don't need an exercise in disaster porn. But Columbine is a necessary book. . . . The actual events of April 20, 1999, are exactly as appalling as you'd expect, and Cullen doesn't spare us a second of them." (Time )

"The definitive account, [of the tragedy] will likely be Dave Cullen's COLUMBINE, a nonfiction book that has the pacing of an action movie and the complexity of a Shakespearean drama . . . Cullen has a gift, if that's the right word, for excruciating detail. At times the language is so vivid you can almost smell the gunpowder and the fear." (Newsweek )

"COLUMBINE is an excellent work of media criticism, showing how legends become truths through continual citation; a sensitive guide to the patterns of public grief, foreshadowing many of the reactions to Sept. 11 (lawsuits, arguments about the memorial, voyeuristic bus tours); and, at the end of the day, a fine example of old fashioned journalism . . . moving things along with agility and grace." (The New York Times Review of Books Jennifer Senior )

While the details of the day are indeed gruesome, Cullen neither embellishes nor sensationalizes. His unadorned prose and staccato sections offer welcome relief from the grisly minutiae... Cullen's honor and reporting skills propel this book beyond tabloid and into true literature." (Newsday )

"A gripping study . . . To his credit, Mr. Cullen does not simply tear down Columbine's legends. He also convincingly explains what really sparked the murderous rage . . . disquieting . . . beautifully written." (The New York Observer )

From the very first page, I could not put COLUMBINE Dave Cullen's searing narrative, down. Dylan ... How the killings unfolded, and why, reads like the grisliest of fiction. Would that it were not true. Grade: A" (Entertainment Weekly )

"A remarkable book. It is painstakingly reported, well-organized and compellingly written . . . For any reader who wants to understand the complicated nature of evil, this book is a masterpiece." (The Seattle Times )

"Leveraged for political ends by Michael Moore on film and adopted for convenience by the news media as shorthand for teenage violence, Columbine has begun to feel as impenetrable and allegorical as Greek myth. So the intensive reporting of Denver-based journalist Dave Cullen is welcome. . . Cullen creates more than a nuanced portrait of school shooters as young men. He writes a human story - a compassionate narrative of teenagers with guns (and bombs, too), and the havoc they wreak on a school, a community, and America. (Esquire )

"Exhaustive and supremely level-headed . . . The ways in which the Columbine story became distorted in the retelling make for one of the most fascinating aspects of Cullen's book . . . Hopping back and forth in time, Cullen manages to tell this complicated story with remarkable clarity and coherence. As one of the first reporters on the scene in 1999, he has been studying this event firsthand for a decade, and his book exudes a sense of authority missing from much of the original media coverage. ...Cullen strikes just the right tone of tough-minded compassion, for the most part steering clear of melodrama, sermonizing and easy answers." (Washington Post Gary Krist )

COLUMBINE is a remarkable achievement. Cullen has brought illumination to a dark and difficult topic, and the result is an example of literary nonfiction at its finest: masterful, clear-eyed, bold - and unforgettable." (Charlotte Observer ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dave Cullen is a journalist and author who has contributed to Slate, Salon, and the New York Times. He is considered the nation's foremost authority on the Columbine killers, and has also written extensively on Evangelical Christians, gays in the military, politics, and pop culture. A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Boulder, Cullen has won several writing awards, including a GLAAD Media Award, Society of Professional Journalism awards, and several Best of Salon citations. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Gary Krist It just keeps happening. Dunblane, Scotland. Littleton, Colo. Erfurt, Germany. Virginia Tech. Two separate incidents in Finland. And now, just last month, Winnenden, Germany. The litany of school massacres around the world is already far too long, and it shows no signs of ending. Each new tragedy arrives with a plunging sense of déjà vu: the ravaged school buildings draped in crime-scene tape, the clusters of frightened teenagers in parking lots, the grainy prom-night photos of the victims. We feel we've already watched the shaky cellphone videos and heard the terrified calls to 911. And we recognize the shooters, too: the troubled and resentful young loners, hollow-eyed, pimple-faced, utterly harmless-looking, except when clad in black and armed like Rambo. Sad to say, we think we know this story all too well by now. In "Columbine," his exhaustive and supremely level-headed examination of the Littleton school massacre, journalist Dave Cullen demonstrates that we really don't know this story. Drawing on almost 10 years of research -- including hundreds of interviews, 25,000 pages of documents and the journals, notebooks and videotapes of the perpetrators -- he has assembled a comprehensive account of what really happened at Columbine High School on Tuesday, April 20, 1999. And his conclusion is arresting: namely, that the public's understanding of this supposedly archetypal mass shooting is almost entirely wrong: "We remember Columbine," Cullen writes, "as a pair of outcast Goths from the Trench Coat Mafia snapping and [then] tearing through their high school hunting down jocks to settle a long-running feud. Almost none of that happened. No Goths, no outcasts, nobody snapping. No targets, no feud, and no Trench Coat Mafia. Most of those elements existed at Columbine -- which is what gave them such currency. They just had nothing to do with the murders." Far from feckless pariahs, in fact, the two shooters in the Columbine case -- Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold -- were smart, reasonably popular kids who doled out more bullying than they ever suffered. Their shooting spree was not some precipitous act of revenge against specific tormentors, but more like an elaborately planned theater piece, worked out almost a year in advance, designed to demonstrate their innate superiority by indiscriminately killing as many victims as possible. Harris and Klebold, moreover, were hardly cookie-cutter assassins. As Cullen depicts him, Harris was a sadistic and expertly manipulative psychopath, charming when he wanted to be, capable of simulating remorse, goodwill or cooperation if it helped him get his way. His underlying motivation was relatively simple: "I hate the [expletive] world," he complained in his journal. Klebold, on the other hand, was a tortured, erratic depressive who whined at length in his notebooks about love and romance even as he fulminated about "the real people (gods)" -- i.e., himself and Harris -- being "slaves to the majority of zombies." Klebold's aggression was inwardly directed and complex: "Good god I HATE my life," he wrote, "i want to die really bad now." The ways in which the Columbine story became distorted in the retelling makes for one of the most fascinating aspects of Cullen's book. It is, of course, a basic human tendency to cope with complex, emotionally freighted events like Columbine by recasting them into narrative patterns that we can recognize and more easily understand. In this process, the media (with the notable exceptions, according to Cullen, of the Rocky Mountain News and The Washington Post) were more than a little complicit, broadcasting unfounded rumors and lending credence to the testimony of alleged witnesses with ready-made explanations for what had happened. The police were better informed, but in their efforts to avoid compromising their investigation (and to cover up some damning evidence of their own incompetence), they refused to release many crucial documents until years after the tragedy. Meanwhile, some people in Littleton proved all too willing to embrace misinformation to advance their own agendas. Evangelical preachers, for instance, gave wide currency to an inspiring story of one victim's profession of faith before dying, even though evidence indicates that the incident never really happened. Hopping back and forth in time, Cullen manages to tell this complicated story with remarkable clarity and coherence. As one of the first reporters on the scene in 1999, he has been studying this event firsthand for a decade, and his book exudes a sense of authority missing from much of the original media coverage. The potential pitfalls in a project like this are many; accounts of suffering as fresh and as horrifying as this always carry a whiff of voyeuristic exploitation about them. But Cullen strikes just the right tone of tough-minded compassion, for the most part steering clear of melodrama, sermonizing and easy answers. Will "Columbine" and other accounts help us avoid the next school shooting? It would be encouraging to think so. But this epidemic is proving to be dauntingly tenacious. After each new outbreak of violence, we go to ever greater lengths to investigate the causes and understand the perpetrators. We interview parents, teachers and friends. We reexamine school policies, revamp social services, modify gun laws and police response protocols. And yet the litany keeps getting longer.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Although much has been written about the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, little of it has helped to explain why two high-school students went on a rampage, killing 13 people and wounding scores of others. Cullen, acclaimed expert on Columbine, offers a penetrating look at the motivation and intent of the shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Drawing on interviews, police records, media coverage, and diaries and videotapes left behind by the shooters, Cullen examines the killers’ beliefs and psychological states of mind. Chilling journal entries show a progression from adolescent angst to psychopathic rage as they planned a multistage killing spree that included bombs that ultimately didn’t detonate. Cullen goes beyond detailing the planning and execution of the shootings, delving into the early lives of the killers as well. He explores the aftermath for the town of Littleton, Colorado: survivors’ stories, investigation into how the sheriff’s department mishandled the crisis, several ongoing legal issues, exploitation of the shooting by some religious groups and sensationalists, and the school’s battle to regain its identity. Cullen debunks several Columbine myths, including the goth angle and a martyrdom story of a girl who proclaimed her belief in God before she was killed. Graphic and emotionally vivid; spectacularly researched and analyzed. --Vanessa Bush --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

Colorado journalist Dave Cullen's meticulous research dispels the myths and hasty assumptions surrounding the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. Cullen's conclusions are drawn from hundreds of interviews and the wealth of information left behind by shooters Harris and Klebold. Apparently, Columbine was a painstakingly planned bombing gone wrong. Only when the bombs failed to detonate did the shooting begin. Don Leslie's nuanced reading of the disturbing material makes clear that the boys were not goths, gay, or bullied. Leslie is mesmerizing as he makes Cullen's case that Harris was predisposed to psychopathy and Klebold was erratic, depressed, and suicidal. Once they got together, the dyad became deadly. If this important book were fiction, it would be devastating. Knowing it really happened is heartbreaking. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the preloaded_digital_audio_player edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0024NP4NO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Twelve (April 3, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 3, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 9638 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 621 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #58,135 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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- #27 in Violence in Society (Kindle Store)

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Dave Cullen

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Dave Cullen has been covering the blight of mass murders in America for two decades, first with COLUMBINE, now PARKLAND: BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT. COLUMBINE was a New York Times bestseller and the consensus definitive account. Parkland is a story of hope: the genesis of the extraordinary March for Our Lives movement. Dave was with the students from the beginning, with unparalleled access behind the scenes.

COLUMBINE made two dozen Best of 2009 lists including New York Times, and won several major awards, including the Edgar and Goodreads Choice Award for best nonfiction of the year. It now appears on several all-time True Crime Top 10 lists.

Dave has written for New York Times, London Times, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, Politico, New Republic, Newsweek, Guardian, Washington Post, Daily Beast, Slate, Salon, The Millions, Lapham's Quarterly, etc. He has appeared on PBS Newshour, NBC Nightly News, Today, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, Morning Edition, CBS This Morning, New Day, Anderson Cooper 360, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O'Donnell, Talk of the Nation, The Nineties, Hannity, etc.

Dave is a former gay army infantry grunt. Parkland struck while he was in year 18 of a book about two gay soldiers. He will finish that soon. Dave wrote COLUMBINE in Colorado, then moved to NYC. He is uncle to 11 cool humans and 1 adorable corgi, Bobby Sneakers.

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Jes Jones

Worthwhile Read - To Gain Insight into the Nightmare

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

Columbine follows the infamous massacre that occurred at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The book goes through what happened during the massacre, from beginning to end as well as exploring some of the experiences that led up to that fateful day, and thoughts, feelings and the aftermath once it ended. Also, information about recovery and healing that proceeded 10 years after the shooting are included in the book as well.

To start, the book covered many aspects of the massacre pretty well. The reader was given a decent, in-depth look at what occurred within the school while the shooting took place but there were many aspects of the plan that did not go as plan. Reviewing the play-by-play of what happened, the original plan seemed to follow the placement of homemade bombs using propane tanks in order to do the optimal amount of damage. The two killers behind everything, Eric and Dylan, didn't adequately figure out the formula to make the bombs effective. The bombs were supposed to cause diversions before the shooting, bombs were supposed to be used to destroy a section of the commons area, and library upstairs, as well as hidden in the killers' cars to kill paramedics outside of the school. As superior as Eric seemed believed himself to be, I found it interesting that he didn't put more of himself into making sure the main part of his plan worked. Thankfully, for those that survived that the bombs were duds.

After having their bombs fail on them, the simply charged into the school, killing at random and taking out as many as possible. Or so people were lead to believe. The killing last for only about the first hour of the shooting, if that even, before the boys killed themselves off. The first introduction of the massacre in the book exhibits the belief that they went through the halls shooting whoever they saw, but a later review of the shooting revealed them passing up rooms filled with students that they knew were still alive. There was a supposed "quiet period" where the killers stopped shooting, and just perused throughout the school. As much as Eric seemed to despise everyone, and hate all humanity, it was suprising that he settled for the lives that he did claim. Whether it really came down to a loss of desire after the bombs failed, or the boredom that comes with killing for a legitimate psychopath (as Agent Fuselier explained), the two boys went from killing possibly 500 students or so down to killing 13 students and injuring others to varying degrees.

While the bombs not working saved so many more lives, there were various instances throughout the book's recollection on the build-up to the massacre that leads the reader to believe that the whole situation could have been avoided.

Prior to the shooting taking place, there were various instances of the boys revealing their internal struggles. With Dylan, he kept a journal that illicited his battle with mental illness, constantly having to deal with depression and a loss of interest in life. Many witnesses attested to his multiple outburts of rage, and anger and simplistic issues. He often self-medicated with alcohol, earning himself the nickname 'Vodka' from his friends. Dylan had a stronger interesting in killing himself, as opposed to participating in the shooting

Eric was the primary foreshadowing piece to the puzzle, revealing many instances that he was on a dangerous path to psycopathy. He was caught stealing and vandalizing other peoples' property, he hosted a website where he openly ranted about his hatred of humanity, he even confided in others about building and detonating his pipe bombs as well as his acquisition of guns. Various reports were submitted to the police about his graduation towards madness and the reports were simply reported, and filed away. Even when Eric threatened the life of Brooks Brown, the son of the family who made many reports against Eric's criminal behavior, the police didn't do much about investigating what was really happening with Eric, why he was making some of this disastrous choices.

Many, if not all, of this police evidence possibly predicting the occurrence of the massacre was covered up in the aftermath. Police didn't want to be pinpointed for withholding pretty damning evidence that revealed a budding, young psychopath. There failure to do their job accurately cost 13 students their lives, and many others pain and derailment of life.

And that wasn't the only time when police failure cost lives. One of the most disappointing, and angering aspects of the massacre was Dave Sanders bleeding to death in the one of the school's rooms. A whiteboard with '1 bleeding to death' was pushed up against the window for everyone on the outside to see, so it wasn't as if they weren't informed. From the moment the killers' shot themselves, ending their lives, and the SWAT/police team entering into the building and searching for survivors three hours had passed! 3 HOURS! In the case of a shooting, a lot can happen within a short period of time. I can only imagine the amount of damage that occurred in those wasted three hours where police were being more cautious than they needed to be. The other disheartening aspect was when SWAT/police discovered some others that were still alive where Dave Sanders was bleeding to death, the police didn't allow them to even help Dave Sanders. Others tried to inform the police that Sanders was still alive, he needed assistance the worst but police were encouraging them to vacate the area. They protected themselves by saying they needed to get the maximum number of people out in the minimum amount of time. Does that really justify leaving a wounded, living person behind?

Following the end of the massacre, I was surprised by the religious uprising that seemed to arise. Many of the survivors flocked to the churches just so they had a place to go, and since churches were pretty spacious many of the students could meet and reconcile the events with one another. Many churches, not all, seemed to pounce on these students as use the shooting as a means of recruitment. While the students were trying to recover in churches, pastors and priests took the opportunity to try to bring them into their group. The encouraged them to believe in God, attend sermons and use that as an outlet to understanding what happened, and a way to healing. I congratulate the churches that simply offered the students a safe place to be, but the churches that used the shooting as a chance to recruit for more believers, and more church attendees is just sad and somewhat predictable. Why do so many people try to look to God after something atrocious occurs? If God is so omnipotent, and all powerful, why isn't he stifling these occurrences beforehand? Why wouldn't God intervene if he knows something horrible is going to happen? To serve people a life lesson? To achieve some type of personal enlightenment? Those answers constantly escape me.

Then there's is the issue surrounding Cassie Bernall. She was believed to have faced down one of the killers in the final moments of her life. She had a gun pointed at her, as was asked if she still believed in God? She supposedly answered 'yes' and was subsequently shot in the head. She was put on a pedestal as someone who defended her faith, died a martyr and should become idolized. Only, she never died defending her faith. While she did pray during the final moments of her life, she was never asked if she still believed in God. She was simply shot in the head without a second thought from one of the shooters. Other students who were fighting for their lives in the school actually did verbally did defend their faith, such as Val Schnurr. Unfortunately so many bought into the idea of Cassie was a martyr, especially the religious community, that no one would listen to others denouncing her. Val was labeled a liar for taking shine away from Cassie and Cassie persisted as a fake martyr as those that refused to believe anything to the contrary. Part of me believes that her parents just wanted to remember their baby girl in the best light, which isn't destructive at all, but then another part of me believes that they, along with some of the religious community, just wanted to glamorize her and use her as a symbol of faith, God and recruitment.

Overall, the novel did a great job of laying the ground work for Eric and Dylan's escalation to the massacre, reviewing what took place inside the school as well as outside the school throughout the entirety of the shooting and the aftermath, from injury recovery of the surviving students and the emotional recovering of the parents and staff members.

It was a disturbing instance that provided evidence explains that it could have been prevented. It's unfortunate that following Columbine, there were others that were copy cats of this shooting, or used Eric and Dylan as inspiration for their own descent into madness. And as hard as the students fought to have their high school's name not be synonymous with a shooting rampage, Columbine is still understood as just that too this day.

To conclude, while the killers did murder some innocent individuals and injure others I don't believe they left the legacy that they hoped to achieve. Many were able to overcome all that the massacre changed and still lead worthwhile and meaningful lives. "To be happy and successful is the biggest F-you to them ... They wanted me dead. I'm alive. You're dead. I get to be happy." (Val Schnurr, survivor of Columbine)

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Tricia

What should we be doing?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2016

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Having read Sue Klebold's book recently, I spent some time looking for additional information on Columbine and decided on Cullen's book. His work on this issue is something that at least every person in education should read because it is chalked full of lessons learned. Most significant for me was learning the truth and coming to terms with the fact that everything we knew (or were led to believe through a media driven crusade in answering 'why' -- the 'false script' as Cullen refers to it) was wrong. And even when truths surfaced, they were still ignored. Even today. Columbine was a massive bombing gone wrong. Two young men failed at their two-year-in-the-making grandiose plan and so walked around a campus trying to figure out what went wrong while tossing pipe bombs, and terrorizing and shooting their peers before taking their own lives. As I wrote in my review to Sue's book, hindsight is a dangerous game to play yet Cullen does it factually and without apology. People fail to understand that 'all the signs' about what was going on weren't signs we looked for 17 years ago. They are now and because of what we've learned from Columbine and successive incidences of school violence since (exception to the monumental blunders of the police force and authorities of juvenile offenders).

Cullen took a stand in writing this book and not only exposed a police cover-up, yet debunked urban myths about violent youth coming sole from non-white and single parent homes while laying out a meticulous and almost clinical psychological profile of Dylan and Eric -- a very accurate look at suicidal depressives and psychopaths. Ultimately he has challenged readers to stop the shame and blame game, to look beyond guns and violence and moral decay, and instead focus on brain health of youth in our schools and communities. Yet in his revised 2016 edition, the Epilogue had me shaking my head in disbelief. We've hardly scratched the surface. We are still being driven by the media and sensationalism, and still diverting our attention from the real 'why' of continued school violence -- understanding brain-based behaviors and the potential of harming self and others if left untreated. This is the lesson of Columbine that I will carry forth in the work I do with youth. As has Sue Klebold in her dedication to suicide education and the Avielle Foundation (the founders being the parents of one of the children of Sandy Hook -- Avielle Rose Richman) in understanding the human brain, we all can do something. The Epilogue (the last 18 pages of the nearly 400 page book) spells out the call to action succinctly to the media, to parents, to educators and to policy makers: What can we do?

I'd like to rephrase that and ask: What should we be doing?

As an educator in the field for 30 years, and having been involved with at least 12 student deaths in 3 school years to-date, and due to depression and suicide, I will plead with everyone to focus on brain health and how we can help the youth of our nation. Right now, and following the current administration's 'Now is the Time' 2013 plan to protect children from violence in schools, there are legislators in many states entertaining bills for mental health support in schools. There are task forces studying and analyzing who will do what. And yet time ticks away. We already have trained professionals in all public schools -- School Counselors and School Psychologists -- yet these people have been pigeon-holed into job responsibilities that have very little to do with brain health and illness. A quick visit to the websites American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) will provide insight into the training, ethics and best practices of these professionals.

These school based professionals are trained to implement a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) that offers a continuum of services from promotion of social-emotional learning and universal screening to coordinating individualized and intensive school and community based mental health treatment for students who develop disorders. Congress has authorized and approved appropriations for various federal programs (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Medicaid School Supportive Health Program) and School Psychologists are recognized as “school-based mental health service providers” in the No Child Left Behind Act. School Psychologists are explicitly recognized in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). Yet these professionals are mired down in bureaucratic paperwork and procedures within schools.

If we have learned anything from Columbine, and in a very large part because of Cullen's spotlight shining on the horrid truths, it is the absolute necessity for all of us to embrace the youth of our nation in understanding their brains, their behaviors and their struggles. I must reference an excerpt of Cullen's book that caused physical pain in my heart (page 380) and that holds truth for many: "Most are desperate boys yearning to salve a deep wound. Insignificance. Worthlessness. Social invisibility. This boy has dreamed and prayed, for so long, of someone loving him, noticing him, above all respecting him. Not that he deserves it. He sure doesn't respect himself. When hope runs dry, prayers unanswered, a fraction of these boys kill themselves. That ends the pain but doesn't mend the wound. Suicide confirms their pathetic status."

We still have so much work to do in our neighborhoods, schools and communities. Great authors have written about what our culture has done to boys -- Pollack in 'Real Boys' (1998 and 2000), Garbarino in 'Lost Boys' (1999), and Solomon in 'Far From the Tree' (2012) Chapter 10 'Crime' and in which he discusses Dylan and Eric among many others (also wrote the Introduction to Sue's book). I'd like to thank them, along with Cullen, for their efforts in helping people come to a better understanding in what we should be doing.

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Paul Lidder

Dangerous, ignorant assumptions, biased presentation, really shocked by the ratings and praise.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 4, 2022

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I felt compelled to write a review to try to prevent others from buying this book. I purchased it because of the excellent reviews and the comparison to Truman Capote [!!!]. I have finished the whole book because I did not feel able to write a fair review without doing so. My issues and distaste for this book are:
1. The author reaches the conclusion that the main cause of the massacre was Depression. As a Mental Health professional, this is ridiculous. Cullen cites an anonymous 'expert' who says on page 381 'those who are depressed and suicidal find this type of denouement to be very seductive'. How reductive. There are millions of clinically depressed individuals, yet the proportion of mass murderers is tiny in comparison. And is it only males who become depressed? Only Americans? This is an almost overwhelmingly US phenomenon, and a male one....where does Cullen's depressive hypothesis explain that? And how dangerous to make yet another 'mental health' tie to those who kill.
2. There is no discussion of gun culture, and it's place in US culture.
3. The second cause, according to Cullen, is the media. He writes on p384 that the media 'supply the audience' that such killers crave, and on p388 he talks about how the media should only have single-mention coverage - 'how about once and done?' Yet, this from the author that has continually written about the case, including this tome entirely devoted to it. Not news bulletins that disappear into the ether, but a permanent, lasting record. And if they wanted an audience, and granting one is damaging and creates emulating killers, why publish their plans, drawings, weapons tables, journal entries, and even Eric Harris' handwritten rape fantasy? The author is hypocritical.
4. Cullen writes with bias. He clearly greatly admires victims who have found 'the positive', and talks with shining enthusiasm about those who declare that if they linger on the memories 'then they win'. This shows such disregard for trauma and the way it can be differently processed, and smacks of toxic positivity, so those whose stories are most worthy and admirable are those who walk again, talk again, become sporty again etc.
5. Cullen hypocritically gives the last word to empathy. He believes that empathy for troubled boys is needed to prevent them becoming mass murderers. He also invites empathy for himself by mentioning his own breakdowns at several points through the book. Yet, when asking for empathy for the would-be killers, he has already spent his whole book annihilating Eric Harris. I am not advocating for empathy for Eric Harris, I believe that would be a gross misjustice to all those he so terribly impacted, it just strikes another hypocritical note from the author. Much worse is his patchy empathy for the victims. Some he clearly admires, others are barely mentioned, and some still are presented in a negative light. His writings about the parent, Brian Rohrbough, are consistently laced with a judgey why-is-this-man-so-negative tone. Cullen does not seem aware of the irony that it was Rohrbough's constancy in fighting for justice and transparency that exposed the corruption of local law agencies and released the very documentation that Cullen's book is dependent upon. And if a grieving parent can't be granted leeway in their pain, than how much does that say for the author's plea for others to have empathy?
6. I consistently hated the ableist tone of the book. Kyle Velasquez is barely mentioned. I cannot recall any information in the book about him, or his parents' aftermath. Cullen writes retarded, cards, etc, multiple times without using any " " (he also writes several times of 'pigs' and 'spics' without using any inverted quotation marks). Cullen's narrative of injuries and the terrible nature of wheelchairs/crutches etc and the strength of not needing them, the power to become 'normal' again - this is the disgusting ablest view that informs so much prejudice and destruction against the disabled identity and existence.
7. Another source of his bias is writing about the school and Mr D. He writes about how they don't want Columbine to be the name of the massacre, then names his book that. He judges Brian Rohrbough for his criticism of the school, heaps praise upon the Principal Mr D for 'loving' his pupils, and decries repeatedly the idea that bullying was a problem there. Yet, without irony, shares a Dylan Klebold story of murder, with blood splatters, pierced skulls etc, and the teacher praises his writing, only saying they are offended by his 'profanity' (what sort of school is this? Gunning people down in a story is ok, but calling someone a pussy in the same story is not!), and p384 'there were students at Columbine who endured truly abusive behaviour from several problematic students'....how does this sound like a school where 'Mr D knew the name of every one of the 2000 pupils' and 'loved them'. And he details how those without a date could not go to Prom? Really? What sort of place is this?
8. I have read elsewhere that Isaiah Sholes, not discussed in any detail in this book, was described by witnesses as being racially taunted, called epithets, and dragged out from under a table and murdered because of being black. There is no discussion of this in this book. The author constantly (**constantly**) tells us that the killings were random, and no person was targeted. Yet one victim was black, another was disabled, another was Hispanic, and a few were athletes. Harris had written about hating these extensively, even by the author's admission and detailing.
9. Why is Cullen referring to the 'good looks' of some of the victims? Does it make them more appealing and sympathetic than others? Why does he detail the good looks of one of the victims as they lie in their open casket?
10. Lastly, the author writes about what a 'colossal failure' the massacre was. He describes 'only 13' being killed (only!!). Yet he has said that all the killers wanted was an audience, a following, notoriety. And on p382 he lists every other mass murderer inspired by them, who cited them in their plans. And here Cullen is, giving them a whole book. Klebold and Harris' audience has been huge, and international, and Cullen is at the heart of propagating that.

This book is poorly written, self-indulgent, and repetitive. But far worse than that are the damaging narratives outlined above. I have no idea why such praise has been heaped on this, and I will not even pass it on to someone because of the negative connotations of so many of the viewpoints expressed.

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amysreading_nook

A compelling and powerful read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 11, 2020

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It's hard to put into words the experience of reading this book; I think the whole world knows what happened at Columbine but this book opened my eyes to so much information that I didn't know. And it was hard to read. Dave Cullen spent over 10 years looking into the events of Columbine, being one of the first reporters arriving at the school and needing to understand why, just why did two seemingly normal kids decide and plan for over a year to do this.

This was such a heart-breaking read, to really understand what the people of Columbine School went through on this day and the long-term impact on those there that day, the families, and the professionals involved with the families. Certain moments of this book really got to me, and it's hard not to be emotionally affected by this book. It's an event that is wholly unimaginable unless you've lived it and Columbine was one of the first school shootings of this level and so the response was chaotic and shock.

Cullen really explores the events of what happened and the police response; it is absolutely horrifying to see how many years the police force tried to bury evidence and reports about what happened and the lead up events that could have maybe shown what the killers were going to do. I can't even imagine the betrayal and anger the families must have felt, finding out all this information up to a decade after the shooting. Cullen sheds light on the families, the friends, and the events leading up and after the shooting - how those injured and the families have tried to move on and reclaim their lives. What really came across was the importance of not letting their lives be defined by this one event; they would be forever changed by it but they wouldn't let it stop them living their lives.

Reading this book, initially published in 2009, and yet thinking how relevant everything he writes to America today, is just mind-blowing. Have the politicians learned nothing?

This book was a powerful and insightful read and one that will stay with me; I think it is one that everyone needs to read.

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Anne

Compelling reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 12, 2016

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This is a fascinating description of an horrific act which has become a byword for spree killings at schools and colleges. The author describes exactly what happened and brings together all the information from various sources including interviews with some of those involved. Although he points to a few explanations and possible causes you won't finish this book with an understanding of exactly why these two young men did what they did - it does seem very much as though there is no real explanation because their motivation and thought processes are having to be reconstructed from what they left behind.

What happened at Columbine could have been much worse. The perpetrators actually planned to set off bombs that would have destroyed the whole school and all those within it. The fact that this failed meant that those who dies were limited to those who were shot - that doesn't make it any better. The book works chronologically through the story and tells it through a number of eyes - mainly those where the author has had interview evidence. This does mean that he has had to choose which parts of the story to tell and naturally he has had to impose a narrative on the events so if you were studying this event you would need more sources but for the casual reader like myself it feels comprehensive and I certainly felt that I understood what had happened even if I didn't understand why. The author also mentions some shady work by law enforcement to hide what might have been inadequacies in the investigation as well as hinting about possible collusion from others which was never proved (I suspect he is being very careful here because of possible legal action taken against him).

I can't say that I enjoyed this book but I found it compelling reading. Following through the series of events building up to the massacre and then its aftermath made the book easy to grasp and I thought that the author did a good job of showing us where the evidence came from for his view on events. For a British reader the thing which is hardest to grasp here is how these young men could have had access to to firearms and explosives so easily and why gun control is so opposed in the USA following this sort of event. For me, I found this a horrifying insight into actions that I don't think I will ever understand.

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Martyna

Very interesting read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 27, 2020

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I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while after picking up Dave Cullen’s Parkland at my local library. Although I did not enjoy Parkland that much - it focused mainly on the movement that the kids started after the Parkland shooting and not the shooting itself - I thought Columbine was a great read. It described the lives of the shooters, the events leading up to the shooting, what happened on the day and the aftermath of the tragedy. I enjoyed every minute of it and I felt that the author managed to bust the myths surrounding this shooting, such as the shooters being goths and loners, etc. I would definitely recommend this book!

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Clare Tunilla

Moving

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 23, 2021

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This is a very well written and thought out account of not only the evidence gathered after the massacre, but tearing down the tenants of what most people assumed about the shooters. While they are obviously featured heavily here, this book isn't about them. it's about the survivors and the victims and the impact still being felt to this day. I'm glad it does a lot to put to rest the belief that they were "misfits" or that music and video games contributed to this. I'm also very impressed about how it handled the way the authorities and the media handled April 1999 and the months and years after. (less)

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