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A Mother's Reckoning

Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
Feb 17, 2017taylorwoods rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
“We teach our kids the importance of good dental care, proper nutrition, and financial responsibility. How many of us teach our children to monitor their own brain health, or know how to do it ourselves?” Thank you, Sue Klebold, for writing this heavy, inspiring book. I appreciated her open and raw honesty about not knowing anything about Dylan's severe depression. In a world where parents can be full of themselves and believe their child can do no wrong, this was a huge sigh of relief, I imagine, for her to say everything and put it all on the table. Before I picked this one up, I had the brief idea in my mind that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the two young men who had made the devastating decision to commit mass murder before taking their own lives in April of 1999 at Columbine High School. I left my ego at the door, and my whole perspective on these scenarios and suicide has changed tremendously. I feel as though I can understand Dylan's heartbreaking case, but not so much Eric's. According to the specialists that Sue had spoken with, Eric's lack of empathy and potential psychopathy and Dylan's feeling of isolation and wish to die made the perfect combination for what happened. I strongly urge everyone to at least skim, if not read entirely, this book because it is tremendously educational on the big elephant in the room: suicide is the #1 killer in young people and there is a whole stigma behind even talking about it. Although this book broke my heart over and over again, especially in a specific part where she names off all the victims, I cannot stress how impactful this book has been.