I have just finished reading We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. A great book that I plan to read again one day, when I have time. It is a poignant story which leaves you feeling disconcerted up until the very last pages, about the upbringing of Kevin Khatchadourian, who kills seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker, and his English teacher three days before his sixteenth birthday. A most intriguing boy, is portrayed as 'evil' from the moment he is born, and every story his mother has to tell of him only confirms this description. From beheading his toys as a toddler, to pouring cleaning chemicals in his sister's eye on his first baby-sitting job, he does his best to smugly earn the hatred of anyone who sets there sight on him.

Written from the persective of Eva, Kevin's mother, she manages to confuse my original oppinion of how nurture has more of a influence on behaviour than nature does. This book poses the questions, if Kevin had been brought up in a different home, would he still had done what he had done? Kevin makes it incredibly hard for his mother to love him, and consequently, she stops trying. But would Kevin accept love from anyone else? Or would he merely reject it, as he did to his mother?

One of the things I have enjoyed most about this book, is it took me longer to read than the average, and this is probably due to the way it is written. The language and structure is almost possessing and elegant, and I found myself reading parts over and over again, just thinking about the word choices and deep descriptions.

Everyone should read this book. It is an intelligent interpretation of what we need to talk about, but can't. I have probably given away too much allready... but go ahead, and read it!