A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy is a memoir written by Sue Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the shooters during the Columbine High School massacre. The memoir published in 2016 showed a personal journey Klebold went through being the mother of one of the active shooters. She spoke upon her struggle with grief, guilt, and the answers she was looking for throughout the years following the event. The book gave a better understanding of the difficulties of loss, how mental illness impacts people, as well as the understanding and support of those who are affected by these events.
I mainly picked this book because the event was somewhat interesting to me. Basically, I was interested in understanding what was going on in the shooters’ minds, how they wanted it to happen, why they did it, how they did it, and what happened afterward. It was just kind of a case of finding answers to questions that had been lingering in the back of my mind for years since I heard about this shooting.
I wanted to find more about it from a personal perspective, and discovering it was Dylan’s mother fascinated me more. And after reading it, this book kinda made me more aware of the impact it had on society. I realized there was a lot more going into this then I thought.
A lot of psychological issues Dylan and Eric had that weren’t properly assessed at the time was a main factor that led to the shooting. Eric’s psychopathic nature, Dylan’s clinical depression, the lack of gun control at the time, and the toxic school environment all played a part and led to the event to occur.
I would really recommend this book to those who are interested in understanding the impact of such a misfortune on the families of the perpetrators, as well as those who are interested in the broader issues of mental health and violence, both in general and in the case of Dylan and Eric.
Get the book! Check out A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold at BMCC’s Library, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, or the Queens Public Library.
About the author Linda is a young Brooklyn native who developed an interest in books during the pandemic. Her creative mind makes her an avid reader of young adult, fiction, and romance novels.
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