We need to talk about Kevin

[lemmywinks84]

I've watched the movie a couple of times after reading the book, and fucking hell.

I'm not sure if it's a very important book or the most futile book ever. It's absolutely fabulously written, but oh my god.

Yes I remember that from back in the 80s, it was called frigid mother syndrome or something similar .

Room is good, until the end. All a bit too convenient and easily rehabilitated.

You have to consider that Kevin is written from the mums POV and isn't actually an accurate portrayal of Kevin. So, there was a rock throwing incident in the book, the mother is absolutely convinced it was Kevin, and was later proved wrong. So can we trust her narrative?

I watched the movie and my ovary burst (cyst in it twisted, felt the pain during the movie).

Which was fine as I never wanted to be a mum. And this film reinforces that.

But I enjoyed the movie and book! Nice and dark.

@00100001

Room is good, until the end. All a bit too convenient and easily rehabilitated.

You have to consider that Kevin is written from the mums POV and isn't actually an accurate portrayal of Kevin. So, there was a rock throwing incident in the book, the mother is absolutely convinced it was Kevin, and was later proved wrong. So can we trust her narrative?

I think that moment is chilling; she wants to think he's just a horrible delinquent but then we realise he's capable of something much more sophisticated

One of my favourite books! I was gripped throughout, very disturbing but imo well written and interesting. I watched the film afterwards and although I didn't find it as good as the book, I still enjoyed it. Thought provoking and horrifying in equal measure!

“i think kevin was evil from the start. His mother tried so hard with him”

I think the exact opposite - but that’s what I like about the book, that it is very well done so there’s no way you can really decide definitely.

The film... I didn’t like tbh

OP, about 1 person in a hundred is a diagnosable sociopath. Basically, they have no empathy or conscience, and are incapable of love. Life is a game to them, and they see other people as objects. There is pretty good evidence that the condition is to a degree hereditary, which would suggest that yes some people are born that way. There is also a condition called "callous and unemotional" in children that is believed to be a precursor of sociopathy. If you google it, there are good explanations of it online.

I think I read that Shriver had a brother she believed to be a sociopath. Not surprising that she was interested in the subject.

What I loved about the book that wasn't so much in the film is that it really shows what a huge part the dad played in Kevin's demise. As a child he was pandered to, the mum was hugely undermined and the dad overlooked SO MANY red flags - in the film it's very much "Oh it's the mums fault she didn't even enjoy pregnancy".

The book is grim but I've read far worse! Lionel Shriver is brilliant I've read a few of her novels

@lemmywinks84

But was he evil or unwell? Or both? Can a person be pure evil without having some kind of mental illness?

And at the end when he says he used to think he knew but now he's not so sure - does that make it better or worse? Eva says thank you to him for saying it. Absolute headfuck.

I think he is a narcissist and the narcissism has been exasperated by a father who spilt him and allowed him to be on obnoxious and ungrateful, and a mother who only had him to keep her man happy - and though she did make the effort that was fairly obvious.

Kevin in the book is also exceptionally smart.

@Faffandahalf

One of the only books I continue to think about years and years later. Terrifying. It still gives me that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. The ending. I think he was ‘evil’ from the start but also she just couldn’t love him. She never did. Was that because she knew he was evil or she was incapable of love? Does a lack of maternal love create a monster? But then she loves the daughter doesn’t she...

She had Kevin to keep her husband happy, and I think she (and Kevin> felt that keenly.

She had her daughter to counter her miserable life with her son.

Eva was a free spirit who fell dangerously in love with someone who undermined and disrespected her, and she couldn't see him for who he was. She really had no place having children!

Brilliant book. And as pp's have said, part of that brilliance is that it can be interpreted in different ways.
I've never braved re reading it since becoming a mum though.

Amazing book! I read it a couple of years ago. So brilliantly written. I still find myself thinking about it and interpreting all the layers of fuckuppery. I ought to brave a second read. It's worth it.

It's a brilliant book. The poor mother ties herself in knots about whether or not it's her fault, but it really isn't. He was just born like that, in my opinion.

I've watched the film, but avoided reading the book on the basis of it being too disturbing.
Maybe I should/ will read it one day.
Same with Room

Room is absolutely brilliant, too. It's the only book I've ever started again as soon as I'd finished it.