Violent Ends: A Novel in Seventeen Points of View

As the jacket description reads, “it took only twenty-two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others.”This book is about a school shooting, but it’s about much more than that, too.  Each chapter of the book is told from a different viewpoint, written by well-known authors, including Neal Shusterman, Beth Revis, Kenare Blake and Cynthia Leitich.  The shooting, and the person who carried out the shooting, draws the stories together, but this isn’t a story about recounting exactly what happened in the shooting, or re-hashing what could’ve, would’ve should’ve after the fact.  Because the chapters are written by different authors, you really get a sense of the different view points. I found myself wanting to keep reading to see how each of the stories, and the characters within, were connected to Kirby and the other people in the town.