theremightbecupcakes's Reviews (2.86k)

This is a dense, academic read, not recommended for the layperson unaccustomed to academia. The conclusion almost lost me, with its incredibly long, compounded sentences and few paragraph breaks. It felt like the author was taking a last stand at the lectern and wasn’t taking too many breaths.

I finished this on the eve on the latest elementary school shooting in America. Whitman was the first modern school shooter, more than 50 years ago—“an inveterate liar” who, when discovered, took out his feelings of shame on his mother, his wife, and his fellow students. He shot for two hours, and was prepared to shoot for days. He also was able to shoot way beyond the barricades the police set up in estimate of his firepower for public safety. No one in America should be able to lay down that kind of weaponry against their fellow Americans—especially students, going to class.

True crime is supposed to be, in part, a lesson for the future. What can we do better? How can we keep assaults and murders from happening again? We’ve learned nothing when it comes to public mass shootings, especially school shootings. This one could substitute for Virginia Tech—manifestos, barricades, malignant narcissism, someone who should not possess firearms. And so on. 

I’m so tired.

Surprisingly tedious for such an interesting subject. Doesn’t seem to have a thesis; just goes from murder trial to murder trial in excessive detail.