Sterling New Hampshire is a quaint, quiet, town until one day an event unfolds in the high school so horrific that it holds
the town hostage in anger, confusion, and fear. Life is forever divided between before and after.
Peter is smart but he lives in his head. He is a computer genius but no one cares. Peter lives in the shadows, first in the shadow of his golden boy brother and then for safety, as he becomes a walking target in school. He is the geek in the locker, the weird kid that stares, the loser in the audiovisual department, he is every madman on the brink that no one can see.
Josie
pretends that the whole world is perfect and the world pretends that Josie is. She gets good grades, her boyfriend is handsome, athletic and treats her like a queen in public. She is the heart of the in crowd. But mostly she is afraid, constantly wondering how much of herself she has to change to be "that girl"
In Nineteen
minutes Picoult dredges up every parents fear and plunges into the most complex questions. How much abuse can we take? How much should we have to take? Where is the line between revenge and insanity?
I could not put this riveting, frightening novel down.