Columbine by Dave Cullen

Columbine by Dave Cullen is, as you might expect, about the tragic shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. It's non-fiction account detailing the attack, its aftermath and the events leading up to it. It was written by a journalist, so it's in the pyramid format - most important information presented first and formost, everything else arranged after.

After reading this book, I found I had to give it two different scores. One for emotional impact, and one for the technical aspects and prose.

For the emotional impact, I give it a 4/5 stars. The events and emotions involved were related skillfully, but it was done by a journalist. As a journalist, Cullen is trained to present the facts in an impartial and fair manner. He purposely wrote himself out of the narrative and maintained professional distance in the writing. The story was conveyed with compassion, humanity, and skill, but the emotional distance required to render the story impartially took away some of the impact he could have given it from being an on-the-scene reporter at the time of the attack. I feel its a balance he struck well, though, and the impact was still impressive.

For technical aspects and prose, I rate it 5/5 stars. Cullen has spent ten years researching the attack, and was one of the first reporters on the scene at the time of the attack. His prose is clear and concise, and maintains interest and compassion. There were no grammatical errors that I noticed. The notes at the end of the book, and the bibliography, are especially revealing. The amount of effort and skill put into this book is apparent and inspiring.

I definitely reccomend this book to others, especially those looking to find out what really happened at Columbine, who the perpetrators really were, and the lasting impact it has had on the community. I found the section on psychopaths especially revealing.