Silence Shattered: An Eyewitness Account of the Columbine Tragedy

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought the book, because in the subtitle it claimed to be "An Eyewitness Account of the Columbine Tragedy". Very disappointingly, though, it deals more with how the author found her way to Jesus than with the Columbine tragedy. The book offers no analysis whatsoever of the circumstances that led to the tragic events at Columbine High, April 20, 1999. The two perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, are barely even mentioned and Heidi Johnson makes no effort in trying to understand how two seemingly normal teenagers could commit such a terrible crime. The tragic school killing is seen as the work of the devil and faith in Jesus, who died at the cross for our sins, is pointed to as the solution that could prevent more Columbines from happening. This message is repeated over and over throughout the book. The most interesting part of the book is Heidi's description of her problems with getting accepted among her peers when she was a new student at Columbine High. Coming from Denmark, I don't know much about American high schools, but if an intelligent and beautiful girl like Heidi can have problems with getting friends at school something definitely must be wrong! And one can, perhaps, better understand how Dylan and Eric, who were isolated and constantly bullied at school, must have felt. Part of the problem is, according to Heidi, that many people today are more concerned with getting social status, money and career than with accepting and caring for each other. Many American teenagers lack a sense of moral direction in their life and are obsessed with alcohol, sex, drugs and violent computer games. Their hedonistic and "sinful" lifestyle represents the "evil forces" in modern society and faith in Jesus is the only true answer. Thus, Heidi tends to look at the world simply as a struggle between "good" and "evil", Jesus and the Devil. This analysis, however, seems a little too simplistic and Heidi's constant repetition of the same religious message gets rather tiresome in the long run. If you want a detailed analysis of the circumstances that led to the shooting at Columbine, Heidi's book is, I'm sorry to say, not the one to pick. Rather, I would recommend Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt: No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind the Murders at Columbine High School (Lantern Books, 2002).

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book
Review: I think that this book is very good because it details the experiences of someone who was at Columbine and how her faith helped see her through what happened.

However, I think this book's main weakness is that the author does sound slightly self-righteous at times and I don't think that this is a book is suitable for anyone who wants to learn more about what happened at Columbine on 4/20/99.

This is a great book about someone who survived what happened at Columbine and I would definitely recommend it, especially to anyone who is a Christian.

Rating:
Summary: 'Silence' Spectacular
Review: Writing a book must be a hard thing to do, and for a 19 year old girl to write about something so horrifying must be even harder. I picked up Heidi's book from our church, and couldn't put it down. I've read alot of books on Columbine and all are good. This is no exception. Although it is short, I like that, as it doesn't take long to read and doesn't overstate things twice. I like how Heidi has it set up, with her life before Columbine, the shootings themselves, and her life now afterwards. It is a personal account, and perhaps can help some people who are still dealing with it come to terms with it, or at least make it more of a reality. It gets one inside the head of a survivor who was there and makes all that we heard on the news and saw in the papers come alive. You should read this book if you were at all affected by Columbine! yay Heidi!