Nineteen Minutes--By Jodi Picoult

"In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn; color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge."

Nineteen Minutes is bestselling author Jodi Picoult's newest, honest, raw, and thought-provoking novel. Told with the straightforward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who, if anyone, has the right to judge someone else?

This is a heart-wrenching and highly realistic novel that captures the everyday trials of young people and shows how a person can finally be pushed over the edge. Picoult does a superb job of creating in Peter a character in which you would feel sympathy for, yet at the same time not for one minute does she diminish the horror of the crimes he has committed. You can empathize with how he has been pushed to the limit through years of abuse, but never are his crimes in any way condoned.

It stirs a mixture of emotions--the relationship between Josie and her mother, the relationship between Josie and Matt which is not as straightforward as it appears, and of course the relationship between Peter and the other students makes any parent recognize the difficulties experienced with their own children and the worry you feel when you know that your child is going through hard times.

Alex and Josie's attempts to connect with each other throughout the novel expertly illustrate the frustration and communication breakdowns between a single mother obsessed with her career and her only daughter. In Josie's character, Picoult also delves into the stress and fear experienced by popular students who seem to have the world at their feet. While Peter's angst would be expected, Josie's is more subtle and to the outsider, definitely more difficult to relate to. She dates the "it boy", has "A-list" friends and is successful in school. Yet an early scene in the novel shows her hoarding pills as a "back up plan", admitting to occasional suicidal feelings. Despite her seemingly perfect life, she suffers from her own inner demons, a mirror reflecting her mother's personal concerns with image and the veneer of a perfect life.

Lacy, Peter's mother, is perhaps the most sympathetic of all the characters in the novel. A woman who has put her all into being a good mother, she is now faced with the unimaginable: her son has become a murderer. Subjected to the scrutiny of a world that assumes the parents must somehow be at fault when a child commits a crime, Picoult paints the picture of a courageous woman who amazingly manages to stay on her feet as the world caves in around her.

The book ends with unanswered questions. When I was discussing this novel with a good friend who had also read it, she said she had a lot of questions about what happened between Alex and her newfound boyfriend, why Josie acted how she did, and if Peter was completely wrong in doing what he did. I believe that this is Jodi Picoult’s goal in writing such controversial material. I think that's what's supposed to happen. You're supposed to question whether these people ended up with what they deserved, or if they were let off easy. There are no easy answers given to you, and that's what adds depth to Picoult's storylines. You have to delve into your own feelings and almost force yourself to think deeply about the issues dealt within these pages.

This novel is a fast read, and keeps the reader engaged throughout; culminating in a shocking ending that will leave you thinking for days. I highly recommend this book for young people, parents and anyone who's ever experienced the excitement and torture of high school.

(My boss read this book as well and his only comment to me when asking him his opinions on it was that anyone who is a parent reading the novel will inevitably at times be painfully brought face to face with ones own parental failings.)