1st Assignment

Nineteen Minutes has so far been an amazing book. I can’t put it down! I guess I didn’t read the book synopsis very well because I thought it was going to be about a boy committing suicide, and needless to say I was thoroughly surprised when I learned it was the exact opposite. I love how Jodi Picoult chooses to tell the majority of the story through flashbacks. You learn a lot more about each character and the kind of person they were, and who they have become.

I have no idea what Peter was thinking killing all of those people. Did he really think it would make everything better? Just thinking about that day makes me shiver. I know it sounds horrible, but I’m not all that sad that Peter killed Matt. He was a real jerk, and I hate the fact that Josie actually put up with him. I think she just liked being liked. Her dysfunctional relationship with Matt was similar to her mother’s relationship with Logan Rourke. Josie and Alex are a lot alike. I guess I will never understand how some girls think so lowly of themselves, that think they’re lucky to have a guy like Matt. I see the same type of thing in the hallways at school. I just don’t get it.

I really can’t relate to Josie very much. I don’t understand how she could just leave Peter for the “glamorous” world of popularity. She even says it herself that she doesn’t have any real friends, just alliances. I think she should just get out, and not by killing herself.
However, I do understand how she feels when she says that she’s afraid to be the real Josie. Instead she just dresses and acts exactly the same as the others to feel accepted. I think most people change who they are just to “fit in” sometimes.

I still want to know what was on Peter’s computer screen the morning he killed his classmates, and why he killed the math teacher. I can’t even imagine how Lacy is feeling throughout the novel. One minute she’s setting out Peter’s cereal, and the next she finds out he’s a killer. It’s weird that even though Peter shot ten of his classmates, and injured even more, I still don’t hate him. The way Jodi Picoult writes, makes you feel sorry for Peter even though what he did was sickening and horrifying. I kind of want all of the bad things to go away (or never have happened), and Josie to come to her senses, so she and Peter can fall in love and ride off into the sunset.


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