Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

I like Jodi Picoult’s books but when Nineteen Minutes was released, it was one that I did not think I would ever read. I was senior when the Columbine shootings took place and the thought of reading about a school shooting did not interest me. However, Nineteen Minutes is more than a story of a school shooting. It is the story of Peter Houghton who spent his school years being bullied, being in the shadow of his older brother and never feeling like he fit in. Peter’s one and only friend is Josie Cormier, also feels like she has never fit in. She does not know her father, her mother is a judge and being a judge means you have a proper way of acting in public. Peter loses his best friend and protector when entering middle school when Josie becomes part of the popular clique at school. One of the lines in the books really struck me was that Josie does not have friends but has alliances, because at any moment anyone of them could be on the other side. I found myself caring about Peter and thinking back to my own high school experiences and how others were treated. Picoult’s books have a lot of characters and jump from past to present, this can be somewhat confusing but it keeps the book moving. A good read if you are a Picoult fan.