Let me get this straight, I love reading. I love to read any kinds of books but until recently, the genres of books that I liked to buy were usually chick lit, romantic drama, legal thriller, crime fiction, science fiction (dystopian), medical fiction, melodrama, fantasy and the list goes on. I've also read a lot of books from my uncle's old collection ( the ones he left in my grandma's home from his school days and never brought to his house after he moved out) that somehow are usually made up of the same subgenre: legal thriller, crime fiction and christian science fiction. Honestly speaking, I've never even known the last subgenre before I started raiding his book collection.
But lately, I started to read more and more psychological thrillers. I think I have had more than the healthy dose for now. Don't get me wrong, you can't NEVER read too many books. But psychological thrillers - the really good ones at least - would always leave me feeling a little sick to the stomach. The book that got me hooked in the first place was actually Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. .You might know the author from the box office movie, Gone Girl. But I'm not gonna write about that ( really disturbing but amazing) book today. I'm going to talk about the latest book I've read and finished last night called We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
This book is written in letter form with Eva, the mother of Kevin as the narrator and it was addressed to her estranged husband, Franklin. The scenes in the book are switched between the past and present and back and forth continuously for us to be able to get to, well, obviously, know Kevin. And the rest of the dysfunctional family members. In the official book synopsis, it says that Eva did not want to be a mother. As a result, she had a lot of thinking done in the aftermath of the *spoiler alert* school killing about how her coldness to her son from day one had affected him. However in the book, it says that Eva was feeling bored and wanted something more in her life (she already had a successful career) and discussed with her husband about having their first baby. It was only after she conceived that she first had feel regret and recalled her non existent maternal instincts.
(SPOILER ALERT)
I find that the book could have been named Let's talk about Kevin and Eva, instead. Trust me, you'll think about Eva more than Kevin for the first one third of the book or so. At least I did. I immediately harbored a dislike to Eva when she narrated that her son was evil from birth. I mean I could understand if he was not a good person or mentally disturbed ever since he was a young kid when he could think properly. This is as at the age of 7 or so, a child's faculty of thinking is already developed enough that he could make choices or form opinions of his own (but the level of cognitive skills and judgement are of course, still a far cry form an adult's). But I can't fathom what kind of mother would describe her child as an evil being when he was barely a day old and refused to drink her milk. (An update: I just read it again and realized Eva's reactions towards her baby could actually be a manifested symptoms of post-partum depression, but it was not explicitly stated in the book).
But my ill feeling of Eva wavered as Kevin grew older and did more bad things. Kevin, was probably every mother's nightmare. Worse still, Franklin, Eva's husband and Kevin's father would never believe her whenever she brought up the subject that the boy was in the wrong. This is why I believe that Franklin - oblivious to his son's misdemeanor when he was a young child and his wicked ways when he was much older- was the worst culprit of all. Eva suffered emotionally throughout the years until she had grown indifference and stopped being surprised whenever Kevin misbehaved or hurt other people. So yes, I understand her pain. But the way she responded to Kevin's classmate's mother who came to their house complaining about how Kevin had taunted the girl until she returned to her bulimic ways, held her somehow accountable. She told the woman to tell her daughter to "suck it up". Because apparently she said that telling Kevin off, would make things worse. As I read on, I got more exasperated at Kevin's parents. If only they had talked more about Kevin, instead of now when one of them isnt there, they could send Kevin to therapy from an early age or something. Eva did suggest reform school,but that was after an argument with her husband who like I said believed sweet Kevin could do no wrong, thus the discussion did not go anywhere.
Unlike most books that I have read, I couldn't finish this book in one sitting or two. It actually took me about 4 sittings in the course of 6 days to finish it. No, it's not because this book is unusually long. Or it's really bad that I only had to finish it because it's my personal rule. It's just that the first I don't know half of the book just really drags along. And I find that Eva's writing was a bit monotonous. But most of all, I really despised all the main characters in the book at some point, although that wasn't at all abnormal when you read a psychological thriller. That is, except for Celia. (shes's not really a main character though) Well, she's a poor thing that deserved to be born to a better family. But I was still disappointed with her for not being braver and for not even trying to go against her brother.
And the twist in the ending was something I did not foresee at all. I did smile and think, of course, Franklin was spared from living the humiliation and disappointment of finding out that his precious son Kevin was nothing short of a psychopath and murderer ( i don't even care that he is a minor). Kevin killed his schoolmates, a teacher who liked and understood him and a cafeteria worker in cold blood with a bow and arrow. Most of them bled to death. He also killed two other people.
Readers will be arguing (healthily of course) whether Kevin was evil from birth or it was being unloved by Eva that made him that way. I, for one,believe it is a combination of both nature and nurture. I believe that Kevin was the only one to blame for the murder of innocent lives. But his psychopathic tendencies could have been controlled. Eva could have loved him a bit more when he was a young boy and Franklin could have been smarter and should've seen through his son's pretense. And let me reiterate that they are both to blame for not sending Kevin to a psychiatrist earlier so that we could know what is actually in his head.
You see, I read an article prior to reading this book about a neuroscientist who did a research on psychopathic traits in the brain of serial killers only to be surprised when he found out that his own brain displayed these traits. BUT he had never killed anyone or hurt someone like Kevin did. The only things the scientist was guilty of were lack of empathy towards his family members, being aggressive and him always wanting to win in everything. He later on went on TEDtalk to talk about this and wrote a book about his discovery. He said what made him turn out a stark contrast from serial killers or rapists is because he had a loving and stable childhood. He also tried to change for the better after learning about his brain, by being nicer to people ( Joseph Stromberg, 2013).
With that, I rest my case.
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