Review Detail

4.5 6

Nineteen Minutes

Young Adult Fiction 1172

Don't Judge a book by it's cover!

May 28, 2009 (Updated: June 26, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Reader reviewed by Emma

The book Nineteen Minutes is about a boy, Peter, who all his life has been bullied. He is constantly being made fun of and ridiculed for just being different. So, one day Peter wakes up and decides to do something about it. He brings guns to school and shoots and kills many people. Nobody was expecting him to do this however. Then again, does anyone ever expect someone to bring a gun to school? Nineteen Minutes also shows how Peters' actions affect everyone around him. Josie, Peters' once best friend, is one of those people that has been affected. Before the shooting occurred Josie was in the "in" group, she was considered one of the cool kids. But what people didn't know was that she really didn't belong. She hid her true self because she was scared that people would think she was a freak, like Peter.

When I first started reading this book I thought that it was a little difficult to keep the characters straight because every other chapter was in a different persons perspective, but after reading more it got easier and then I really started to enjoy the book. Once I got the characters straight I thought it was very interesting to see how the different characters would react to a certain event. For example, the shooting itself. I think that seeing all the different perspectives, Josies, Peters, Peter's family, Josies mom etc., was a very good way to write this book. It really showed how a school shooting can effect everyone in the community, and even more than that.
I would give this book a four because even though at first it was kind of difficult to keep the characters straight, I could not put this book down. I thought that it was very interesting to see how bullying effected Peter, and how one unfortunate day can change the lives of hundreds. I was also surprised how this book ended. I like surprise endings because I think it adds to the book. Instead of just having something happen that you're expecting, Jodie Picoult decided to put in something that would shock you.

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