Analysis of The Novel "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes is written by Jodi Picoult, it was a very down to earth type of book and it had a very good story line. The main idea of the book was about how a student named peter would get bullied non stop and picked on for the way he look and the people he hung out with. And his peers or friends would do nothing but stand by and watch/ laugh. Bullying is very big in schools today and parents do not realize that it is happening, so hopefully parents can get a chance to read this book so that they can help their kids in the future.

Ever since grade school peter has been hazed, bullied, beat up, and picked on and no one has done anything to stop it not even teachers who are supposed to punish kids for it and make sure they learn the first time so none of this happens. Josie Cormier has been one of peters best friends since they were little kids, and she was his only friend until one day her mom(alex) came over to get her from peters house and when she walked down stairs she found her daughter holding a handgun from peters dads safe, and that’s where it all ended. Josie was never able to hang out with peter ever again but they still saw each other at school and talked sometimes. Josie had a boyfriend named matt and they were deeply in love, but matt was also the one who made Peters life hell.

Ever since they were little kids mat would bully the crap out of this kid until he would go home crying everyday because he couldn’t take it anymore or didn’t know what else to do because he comes from a family that is emotionally distant and his parents are never around. He cant turn to teachers because they told him to suck it up or just stay away from matt. It wasn’t until one day that peter just couldn’t take it anymore and he just snapped. He let all of his anger out on the kids that picked on him and bullied him throughout his life. Peter has been planning this for about a month and matt finally crossed the line where peter was done with this and he just wanted them to pay. It was a freezing winter morning when Patrick the only sheriff in town got a call on his radio saying that there were gunshots going off in the school and he couldn’t believe it. He flipped his car around and hauled ass back to the school were he sprinted inside because there was no time to sit outside when more people could be killed. He finally got to the school and he burst through the front doors where there was blood splattered all over the walls and their were students laying dead on the hallway floors. He and three other officers split up searching the entire school listening to where the next gunshot would be.

After about five minutes the gunshots seemed to stop. Patrick bursted into the boys locker room where matt lay dead in the corner of the locker room, shot twice and Josie lay next to him unconcious but still alive. He found peter curled up in a ball with a handgun glued to is hand, finger on the trigger. Peter was the one who had been doing the shooting that day and no one expected it to be him, he killed 9 people that day including a teacher, and he injured nineteen others. Peter was convicted for 9 murders and nineteen attempted murders and was sentenced to life in prison with no bail. A year later they figured out that Josie was the one that killed matt not peter. Except it was kept a secret on only peter and Josie new what happened that day in the locker room. I really enjoyed reading this book, i never really liked reading because i never found a good book but this one really caught my attention and i enjoyed reading it.