Columbine: Book Review

Columbine is a true story written about a school shooting that took place April 20, 1999. Dave Cullen listened to hundreds of interviews, looked at thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists and the boys’ tapes and diaries in order to write this book with complete satisfaction.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the perpetrators behind this tragic event. They planned the attack for more than a year before ever actually walking through the doors. They both attended Columbine High School, and it was their senior year. Originally this was supposed to be a bombing, but because those bombs failed it resulted into a school shooting. Harris and Klebold had made seven bombs possibly eight, and they placed a couple in the cafeteria and the rest somewhere else. They killed thirteen people, twelve students and a teacher. Klebold and Harris weren’t the popular kids, they chose to be different. Klebold was a follower, he had listened to whatever Harris told him, and did whatever he did. Before Harris and Klebold shot themselves, they had made websites that threatened to kill and showing a lot of hate towards people. They took videos called “Basement Tapes”, and they both left behind journals that had a lot of information. Harris’s journal told why he did what he did. Harris was the easier killer to understand, he always knew what he was up to, Klebold did not. Klebold was suicidal and showed a lot of signs through his journal. They left all this evidence behind for a reason, because they wanted people to know the purpose behind all of this. Harris and Klebold had a history of being trouble makers together; they had been in trouble for breaking into lockers and cars. Their goals were to kill more people than the Oklahoma City bombing, but they never succeeded. However, they did succeed in another goal and that was to leave “a lasting impression on the world”.

I really liked this book and I thought it was very interesting. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a compelling nonfiction book. Columbine received many awards from very prestigious reviewers. In my opinion, I completely agree as to why it received all these awards. April 20, 1999 is a day that will down in history and that is exactly what these boys wanted and that’s just wrong. There could have been another way to resolve their problems, but them thinking this was their only solution is sad.