let's talk about Kevin - tell me about it please

I wasn't able to finish it, it wore me down, though I did think it was interesting. Didn't help that my sister gave it to me for my birthday just after the birth of my son!

So interesting how this book polarises opinions.

I was quite for the first 100 pages or so but then became completely gripped by it and the ending blew me away, utterly. For me it would be a "must read", actually.

I found it completely gripping, but not really any contribution to any debate (which is fine btw). Maybe because the only way I could deal with the bleakness and sordidness of the situation was to see it as a fantasy - the kind of nightmare fantasy I might have had as a first-time pregnant mum - 'i'm going to be totally inadequate and useless as a mother, my relationship will be ruined, my child will be entirely evil and I won't understand it' etc etc. What makes it so disturbing is that I didn't find any situation in it unbelievable - it's just not believable that any individual would have all those situations.

More like a Gothic horror novel than a contemporary debate thing.

For horrible reality but true humanity and a real debate, try A Fine Balanace by Rohinton Mistry.

I'm half way through it & have to agree it does seem to be written by a Woman with very little understanding/love for children...It's a harrowing but good read so far though.

if lionel shriver hates kids, then why the angelic sister? remember, we have an extremely unreliable narrator, as in notes on a scandal. shriver raises the(granted, somewhat tired) nature/nurture debate.

It is rare that I dislike a book so much, I knew nothing of the author when one of dh's colleagues gave him the book for me to read. I have never read a book that was so biased, I began to wonder why the author was so anti-children, Kevin was evil from the start. There was no real character development, the shocks and ending were so predictable that I struggled to finish it then wished I hadn't bothered.

For a well-written dubious lead character Lionel should have read Notes On A Scandal on how to do it. The mother is truly awful, I have sons and found the way motherhood was described abhorrent. That is not to say that I am against other books where children are regarded with horror, it depends if they are well written which this was definitely not.

I then, after reading the book, read an interview where it was obvious that the author was expressing her feelings in a truly arrogant way. She doesn't like children and obviously could only write about what she believes rather than show some imagination or interesting narrative that would have had me (and plenty of others I have talked to about the book) see her point of view or sympathise/see the point of the main character.

Writing by numbers.

It's a great book if you want to get a debate going.

Too many irritating flaws and things that didn't add up for me. It struck me as very unrealistic in the portrayal of this demon-child with no redeeming features whatsoever. And the fictional mother also seemed to dislike her daughter intensely (weak, clingy, dim) even though she sort of pretended to love her.

Yes, I thought this was a book written by a person who had very little knowledge, or like, of children.

oh its shite .. totally predictable from half-way through .. quite well-written but appallingly bad characterisation and no understanding of human relationships ..

I'd give it a big miss

I cannot read it because I think the same as Two if by sea. She gives all these interviews where she seems to think she is revealing a real social problem....but she just made it up because she hates children!

i really enjoyed it, could not put it down, did skim a bit occasionally admittedly but it really gripped me.

lol, 2ifbysea, but did you like it??

Fantastic book club book if you like a good fight ... as ours does! I loved it - thought-provoking, complex, disturbing. Although Lionel is not only female, but a royal PITA - went massively off the book once I'd heard her talk about it

But twobysea it IS fiction.
I found it an interesting but completely harrowing read.
Great choice for a book group as it will provoke lots of heated debate.

I found it an okay read, but bleak really really depressing. Sadly I bought it to take on holiday with me and it most certainly is not a light fluffy holiday read.

The next time I went away I saw someone in the bookshop about to buy it and butted in and told her not to if she was off on holiday - she was exceedingly grateful but DH was exceedinly mortified

well said twoifbythesea

Great book Really appealed to me as I have a son and actually found it very moving

It is written by a very bitter and twisted woman who cannot divorce her own personal feelings from the fact she is supposed to be writing a book about a fictional character.

Lionel might feel children are devils incarnate but which generation will be wiping her arse in the nursing home?

honestly, losty, she sure is!

btw, did you assume, like me, that the author, lionel shriver, is a man? imagine my surprise when i saw HER in the guardian!