Nineteen Minutes Review

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult transported me into many different people's lives. The journey through a very disruptive, confusing, and challenging time made me question my behavior, as well as other teenagers around me.

Reading this, I realized how much bullying makes a negative difference in children's lives. Every one has a different way of reacting to pain. Children and teenager's are almost oblivious to each others feelings. Kids tend to act like every one goes home to a perfect life at the end of the day, and what is said never matters. One of the main charaacters, Peter, has a great home-life in my eyes. At least he is taken good care of, and has caring parents. Every kid goes through some hard times with their families, but Peter has caring parents. Kids started bullying Peter on the VERY first day of Kindergarten, and the bullying never stopped. Until he took an extremely wrong turn.

Jodi Picoult is an excellent researcher because she always makes every thing in her books seem so real and every character has a strong hold on what they do in their life. Peter seems very confused, and disturbed. The other characters seem like rotten teenage kids. Peter's parents seem like regular, worried parents. The way Picoult writes is very realistic. Every thing that happens is a little out there, but the things she writes about could definitley happen to any one. The main character, Alex Cormier unveils her life in this book and all I can say is becoming a parent seems like hard work to me especially with out a husband to help.

The setting reminded me of Batesville actually. A small town, gossip, the whole nine yards. Thinking of what happens in this book, happening in Batesville is terrifying. After turning every page, I began to question whether I have been a good person. If I could, I would take back every single mean comment I said to someone. Hurting people's feelings is not what I find joy in doing. In the end, I think hurting people hurts that person who says the things, more than person who has to hear it. If any one has a heart, they would regret the things they said in the past.

There was definitley a climax in this novel, that is undeniable. I read this book in a short period of time because I could not stop myself from turning the pages. I had to know what happened before doing any thing else!

I made so many connections while reading Nineteen Minutes. I thought of the shooting at Virginia Tech, Colombine, and the one in Jonesboro. Movies popped up in my mind as well. I also thought of a boy who was in many classes of mine through Junior High. He was bullied an extreme amount every single day, and I pray to God that kids have stopped, and that he will heal and not harm any one as a form of revenge. I pray he finds comfort from someone, and I pray he knows of a better way to heal.