For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Private school teacher Teddy Crutcher is weary of his students. Most of them are spoiled little brats with parents who are just as bad. Teddy has had enough of teenagers who can’t think for themselves and parents who expect their little darlings to have all A’s, no matter the quality of their work. His students deserve to be knocked down a peg or two; after all, it’s for their own good.

Belmont Academy is a most prestigious school, a proper stepping stone to the Ivy Leagues. Many of the teachers are former students themselves, part of the Belmont family. The teachers care, and truly want the students to achieve their dreams. But something sinister is brewing beneath the surface. Soon it’s more than SAT scores and vying for valedictorian status, as the bodies begin to fall.

Students, parents, teachers, and even headmasters are at risk as Belmont goes from a serene place of learning to a hall of horrors. What seemed to be a safe haven is suddenly fraught with danger, whether to life and limb or to one’s reputation. Anxieties, ambitions, and ardor motivate the various characters. High school is usually drama filled, but this year at Belmont is reaching a whole new level.

Downing’s debut serial killer novel My Lovely Wife was a real roller coaster ride and she continued her sardonic and somewhat deadly humor in her next book He Started It, where three adult siblings were forced to recreate a childhood road trip, with you guessed it, deadly consequences.

Samantha Downing is the queen of red herrings, and her newest novel does not disappoint. I found it very hard to know which characters to trust, and the twists and turns continue to the very end.

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

Reviewed by Christy H.

            Kit has worked tirelessly in her postgrad years to reach the success she’s achieved – working in a lab run by respected scientist Dr. Severin. When Dr. Severin announces the lab has received funding to study premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and that only three positions will be available, Kit hopes, but isn’t certain, that she’ll win one of the prestigious spots. When the doctor announces a new hire at the same time, Kit’s hopes are dashed, especially when she discovers the new hire is Diane, her close friend and competitor in high school. Though Kit was always smart, Diane was the one who unintentionally lit a fire under Kit, getting her to put more effort into her schoolwork instead of just coasting. The results were a college scholarship and a career in STEM. Despite this bond, Kit and Diane drifted apart after high school, after Diane revealed her darkest secret.

            With Diane back in her life, Kit, who has always felt insecure about her capabilities, is certain she will lose the position to her. She drowns her sorrows in Long Island Iced Teas and lets the long held secret slip to one of her colleagues – further complicating things.

            Like other Abbott books, this one is quick and readable and I did like it, especially the look behind the scenes for women in STEM research. But I also found it lacking something, although I can’t quite articulate what that is. I’m not sure if I felt a disconnect from the characters or if it was the mystery that didn’t grab me. I was curious how everything would turn out but I wasn’t quite as invested as I have been with some of her other novels. So it may not be my new favorite Megan Abbott novel but it’s still a good time and worth a read.

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Reviewed by Christy Herndon

    On April 20, 1999 two teenage boys walked into a Colorado high school and proceeded to horrify a nation. Afterwards, time would be separated into two pieces: “before Columbine” and “after Columbine.” The massacre would spark intense focus on gun control, bullying, violence in pop culture, and even musician Marilyn Manson.

     It certainly wasn’t the first school shooting in America but it was, up until that point, the deadliest. Till this day it’s still the deadliest high school shooting. The awful irony is that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, but especially Eric, did not want a school shooting. They wanted something bigger, something even more disastrous. Their attack was centered on homemade bombs, and had they gone off according to plan the death toll would have been in the several hundreds – surpassing the Oklahoma City Bombing. That was their dream. Learning of their legacy as “mere” school shooters would have been devastating to them.

    Dave Cullen, considered “the nation’s foremost authority on the Columbine killers”, compiled his findings in the book Columbine which was released in 2011. In it, Cullen seeks to debunk a lot of the myths surrounding the massacre including the aforementioned disaster plan. Several of these rumors were debunked within weeks of the attack but for whatever reason, (although probably due to media scrutiny and repetition) they became embedded in the Columbine lore.

    Other myths include:

•    Eric and Dylan were not loners. They had a sizable group of friends. Eric, who bounced around from school to school as an Army Brat, even seemed to make friends fairly easily.

•    They didn’t target jocks or popular kids. They weren’t bullied extensively either. Often times they were the bullies themselves. Their targets were everyone.

•    While it’s true that a group of teens called themselves the “Trenchcoat Mafia” neither of the shooters were a member. They had maybe one or two friends who were but that was the extent of it. The “Trenchcoat Mafia” had nothing to do with the attack.

•    Cassie Bernall is often cited as “the girl who said yes”. One of the shooters pointed his gun at her, asked if she believed in God, and when she said yes he shot her. Corroborating witnesses say this was not the case. Emily, who was trapped under a table with Cassie, maintains she didn’t have time to say anything. Several students were believed to have been asked this question, including Valeen Schnurr. One young survivor insisted it was Cassie who said it but each time he was asked to point out where the voice came from, he pointed to where Schnurr had been. The discrepancy caused quite a bit of contention. Those who opposed the Cassie version were shouted down. Emily was afraid to come forward with her account. Preachers and the media seized the idea of Cassie as a martyr and took off with it. Misty Bernall, Cassie’s mother, even wrote a best-selling book entitled She Said Yes.

Those are just a handful. Cullen’s research is extensive. He has been studying and reporting on Columbine since it happened, and he knows his stuff. It’s quite a page turner, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is interested in true crime or newsworthy events in America’s history.