Review: 'A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy' by Sue Klebold

Title: A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
Author: Sue Klebold
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Publication Date: February 15, 2016
Edition: eBook (296 pages)

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I seldom find it difficult to write a review for a book I've read. In this instance, it is difficult because there is so much I would like to say. Let me begin by saying that ''A Mother's Reckoning' by Sue klebold is one of the most honest and forthright books I've ever read. There are likely few people who are not at least somewhat familiar with the basics of what happened at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and the horror of the massacre that took place there. Ms. Klebold opens to the reader her life, her feelings and the loss she and her family experienced, not in an attempt to excuse what happened and her son's actions, but to help and inform the reader about brain illness and suicide. To me, this is a most courageous and admirable thing, and a true gift and blessing to the reader.

As I watch the television coverage the night of the shootings, I remember asking the Lord 'what about the families of Dylan and Eric? Is anyone lifting them up in prayer? What must they be experiencing? Why isn't any media story focusing on the grief they also must be feeling?' As I read this book, I learned some of what Mr. and Mrs. Klebold and Dylan's brother experienced in those first hours and days, and their grief was as powerful and equally tragic as that experienced by the families of the shooting victims and their families.

What I found truly profound about this book is the extent to which people placed blame, and, secondly, Mrs. Klebold's assertion that we should be asking 'how' instead of 'why' this massacre could happen.

This book is a journey on so many levels. I encourage anyone who wants to grow and learn to read it. It is a book filled with emotion. You will cry. You will feel. You will likely be angry. But you will come away from the reading with a changed perspective. I thank Mrs. Klebold for her willingness to share because it is in the sharing that change begins--the change in how we look at mental illness--or as she terms it, brain illness, which I personally believe is much more descriptive.