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Original poster

We Need To Talk About Kevin

83 replies

SleepingStandingUp · 20/03/2018 00:48

Just finished it. I called the twist but still thought out was brilliantly done.

So who was really to blame?

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GeorgeTheHippo · 21/03/2018 20:00

I would definitely recommend A Little Life if you liked Kevin.

CremeFresh · 21/03/2018 19:56

I thought it was a great book , my sister and I often talk / debate about it. I was reading it on the train and actually gasped out loud when I got to the 'twist' , I really didn't see it coming.

elephanttrunks · 21/03/2018 19:50

I love the book but I don't know if I could watch the film...It would be too much for me

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 21/03/2018 19:45

Isit worth seeing the film?

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IheartCaptainHolt · 21/03/2018 18:35

I agree with PP that it's a book that stays with you.

I think Kevin and his mum were much more alike than she wanted to admit. I think she had s great deal to do with how he turned out.

It is an excellent book though and I recommend it to loads of people

TakeMeToTheFresh · 21/03/2018 10:20

Ladydepp Would you recommend A Little Life?

Ladydepp · 21/03/2018 08:25

I thought it was very powerful and very nuanced. It is one of only a few books that has really stayed with me.

I think Shriver really 'dialled it up' rather like Yanagihara's A Little Life.

To me, Kevin and Eva together created a perfect storm that could not have happened had one of them been a bit different.

I did not get the twist, so I was ShockShock

TakeMeToTheFresh · 21/03/2018 08:03

Great book and film. It's been a while since I read the book.

I don't really see how Kevin was desperate for his mother's approval. Lord goes on to say otherwise

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 21/03/2018 08:03

When she declared she wanted a new baby I did think a little wtf. I mean she refused to get a puppy but had a baby? I guess she thought a baby would be easier to protect?

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KermitsLoveChild · 20/03/2018 22:27

I read this a few years ago and it's stayed with me.

'There is no point, that's the point.' He killed them because he could and because he wanted Eva to himself. His sister stood no chance from the moment she was born, he held his father in utter contempt.

Snoopyokay · 20/03/2018 22:09

I read it when my DD was about 6 months old and I was glad I didn't read it when I was thinking about having children as it would have put me off!

I never thought of it as being a child free kind of book but now that I've read about the author it kind of adds up.

HaroldsSoCalledBluetits · 20/03/2018 19:34

Her professed love for Celi didn't ring true either for me though - she was essentially needy.

HaroldsSoCalledBluetits · 20/03/2018 19:31

Oh and sensationalist. Fine if you want to write a book exploring attitudes to motherhood, the deification of it, the paths that women are led down etc. But fgs there must be a way to explore this without ramming what Kevin gets up to in there.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 20/03/2018 19:30

And yet she really loves Celi so not childless so much as the right one? The right reason?

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HaroldsSoCalledBluetits · 20/03/2018 19:27

Agree about the unreliable narrator. Also that it's basically a paen to a child free existence, and not a very nice one at that just because it is so loveless and so soulless. She's not at all a convincing character for that reason - Shriver's motivation behind creating her can be seen quite clearly.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 20/03/2018 19:21

Prima do you mean style, quality of writing, believability or just subject matter?

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PrimalLass · 20/03/2018 15:40

I hated that book.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 20/03/2018 15:12

Yeah his response when he realised if they divorced he'd get Dad, when the person he actually wanted was Mom.
Its like wheb he was talking about her being kinda harsh as a person, its like he modelled himself on that perception. Everything she hated about America, he wasn't any of those things and still she didn't love him

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QueenAravisOfArchenland · 20/03/2018 10:28

I think it's absolutely 100% crystal clear that Kevin is to blame for Kevin.

Is he just "born bad", though? Or does he become bad because his mother has never liked him? The text also shows us that Eva can be wrong about Kevin (e.g. the rocks-off-an-overpass incident).

One of the most significant things that Eva misses completely until after the incident is that Kevin loves her and is desperate for her approval, and that in some ways he kills Franklin and Celia so he can have her to himself. If she is so blind to that, can we trust her view of Kevin at all?

SpringNowPlease2018 · 20/03/2018 09:41

I think it's absolutely 100% crystal clear that Kevin is to blame for Kevin.

but then I would never look at the teen perpetrator of a crime and blame the parents. If something came to light - that they brainwashed them since they were 2 and got them to watch mass shooting videos and celebrate them - okay. But otherwise, no.

QueenAravisOfArchenland · 20/03/2018 08:55

The other issue is that, given Eva is our narrator, we can never really tell how skewed our perspective is. Was Franklin actually a perfectly normal dad who saw Kevin more clearly than she did, or a total dupe?

It's a brilliant way to illustrate the idea that when we get pregnant we could very well be inviting utter disaster into our lives.

Original poster
SleepingStandingUp · 20/03/2018 08:44

I felt the letters were something you wrote to a dead and she clearly didn't have Celia with her but I liked the attempt to suggest custody bake and divorce mid way, it confused me and I assumed I'd been wrong but I reasserted my original theory late on.

Has anyone read Jodie Picoults 19 seconds? It's a very different take on the high school massacre story.

I assume all the shootings she listed were real, how scary is that? You now only hear about the huge ones like Columbine

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Whatisthewhatisthewhat · 20/03/2018 08:43

I went to hear Lionel Shriver talk about this book and she said she wrote it to justify her own reasons for not wanting to have children

user1471453601 · 20/03/2018 08:40

I think that one of the points of the book is that the reader cannot know ( and neither can the mother), if Kevin was unlovable or if he was like he was because his mother couldn't love him. Terrific book, I'm another who read it years ago but still find myself pondering this question. The book actually made me question why I don't like some people. Is it something in me or in them?

And well done OP, I so didn't get the twist at the end. It was one of those gasp out loud moments

whoami24601 · 20/03/2018 08:39

I read this book a long time ago. I didn't see the twist coming at all. It's a brilliantly written, horrifically affecting book that I can barely being myself to look at in shops even now! I do recommend it to people though. I'm undecided who is to blame. I feel the mum and the dad both play a part in how he turns out. That poor little girl though Sad