Interesting novel narrated from the point of view of a mother of a teenage boy who is imprisoned after killing many fellow students.
Rated as /5 on Apr 21 2007 by Catherine O’Neill
This thought provoking novel deals with the whole nature vs nurture issue. Its written in the form of letters from a mother, Eva to her estranged husband, Franklin and details their relationship with each other, and their children.
Kevin is their firstborn and Eva appears never to bond with him. She seems to dislike this cruel, spiteful boy. As it is written from her viewpoint, it is not clear if he is as awful as she portrays him from the off, as his father appears to not to see anything bad in what he does or says.
The question is whether he was really born evil or whether he has grown up to become so through the alienation from his mother and her lack of love towards him.
It is a fairly gripping novel as the tension builds to the inevitable day of Kevin’s rampage in his highschool.
The main focus is the relationship or lack thereof between mother and son, her alienation from him and apparent absence of any maternal feelings.
I feel that the characters Franklin and daughter Celia were very one dimensional.
The plot was good, but the ending predictable yet still shocking when it arrived.
Its a disturbing book but a good read and definitely gives you something to think about.
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