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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The fundamental nature of a psychopath is a failure to feel. A psychopath’s grasp of fear and suffering is particularly weak.Highlighted by 277 Kindle readers- It also appears that even the best parenting may be no match for a child born to be bad.Highlighted by 240 Kindle readers
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I just started this book and I was wondering if anybody had any insight on this? It says that he was really popular with the ladies and invited to parties which from interviews and other stuff I have read and I was never brought to that conclusion?
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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
Paul Lidder
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 4, 2022
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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A compelling and powerful read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 11, 2020
