We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

I have got to read more of Lionel Shriver's work. I LOVED The Post Birthday World and I was struck dumb by We Need to Talk About Kevin. Of the two, I prefer The Post Birthday World. Frankly, I'm a pansy, so I enjoyed the safe world of relationships, snooker, and gourmet popcorn over school shootings, maternal instinct, supposed parental failure, and guilt. What I cannot dismiss is the incredible, inventive, and unorthodox ways Shriver develops to deliver her story to the reader. As I mentioned, I have read only two of her novels and both of them were written in a style and format that I have never previously encountered. One is nothing like the other but they are both endlessly fascinating in terms of form and format. We Need to Talk About Kevin got a little too wordy for me at times but at the close of the novel I understood better why that worked for the main character. Run-on sentences be damned because I was gripped and horrified and sickened the whole way through. This does not have a feel-good ending and although I stayed up until 3:00 am on a school night to finish the tale I felt depressed and horrified when it was all over. I am a devoted admirer of Shriver's writing and she was completely successful in creating a story that grabbed me, shook me, and still has not let go days after I turned the final page. So 3 stars instead of 4 just for giving me nightmares ;0), but smashing writing in my opinion. 


You will find an official plot line description at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46365118.