BellyBelly BookClub Book Discussion thread *possible spoilers*

:rofl: LZ - I like your view on the whole thing!!

kaz - i think you hit the nail on the head, it wasnt real love for FA, it was indeed an obsession and he is manipulative. the way lied to all the women like he was their one and only. i think his mother had a lot to do with it. in some ways she molly-cuddled him.

yeah, i didnt like the way FD cut off her daughter, i guess it had always been all about her.

Thing is, everyone knew that Florentino was sleeping around: even Fermina. So why not call him up on that? I think you're right Kaz, he was seriously ill. Several screws loose. And sleeping with a little girl his parents asked him to look after while she was at school, then dumping her once Urbino died: he's so very, very wrong. In every sense of the word.

Time to chat about We need to talk about Kevin................


Have at it :)

I for one thought it was a great book, very thought provoking.

I agree with you Freya - It was thought provoking. Are killers born that way or is it because of their home life, that they turn out that way??

In my opinion; from the book, I think Kevin had a mental health issue, maybe something chemical. I dont think it was their parenting at all. Sure they werent perfect and made mistakes, dont we all, but nothing that other parents havent done and not every kid is running around becoming a school shooter. I think if you place blame on them that maybe it should be for not seeking the help of a psychiatrist looooooong before he did what he did.

I cried when she talked about finding Celia and her husband :( So horrible.

I dont blame the parents for they way they raised Kevin, there was something nqr in his brain....like you said kids just dont go around shooting people.

Perhaps they should have taken him to see someone, but when you have two parents who see Kevin in totally different lights, it would make it hard. Her husband thought Kevin could do no wrong, so if she had of brought it up, would he have agreed to him seeing someone? Maybe just to satisfy her, but he wouldn't have like it.

The ending was horrible. I wasnt expecting it to end like that...:shakehead: So very sad.

I guess thats one of the themes of the book - hindsight, what ifs. What if she'd just told her husband to go jump and got Kevin seen by someone? Would it have changed the outcome. What if she had listened to her gut when Celia got hurt, that Kevin wasnt 'safe' to be around?

What boggled my mind was the very end. Even with everything that happened, everything he did; she was still planning on taking him in when he got out of jail. I wondered what her motivation was; was it a mothers love or is it sort of a guilt thing because she thinks she inadvertanly did something to make him the way he is?

I have always said there is a line my kids could cross that would make me cut them off completely. Being a murderer or some other horrid thing was one of the lines. Im not sure if I were her I could do that after what he did.

Just finished Kevin, i'll try join in...

I think i'll do it by point form:

I found myself getting so frustrated at the father. He seemed so rediculously blind to reality. I understand giving someone the benift of the doubt but how many times??

The mother then again maybe could have stood her ground a bit more. She would mention things once, not get any back up and then never again.

The power your children can have over you is very overwhelming though so i'm not saying i would have handeled it any better.

Kevin had them both fooled he knew how to manipulate situations with both of them. The mother wasn't oblivious to this but wasn't strong enough to take the action that needed to be taken.

I get the impression he was too clever to even be seen by psychological help. I could imagine him going, knowing what they wanted to hear and then even having the professionals questioning the parents concerns?

The whole incident at the end was about pride, glorification and individuality "not like the copy cats, who planned it all wrong". It was all about doing it better than everyone else. And it seemed as he solely wanted to hurt his mother, leaving her and him as the only ones remaining. Unless that is what he wanted all along?? Was only even striving for mothers undivided attention which he never felt he got? (that thought just came to me :dunno:)

I never clicked to the actions he would take until so close to the end (using the bow and also hurting his father and sister). I was worried about the father and sister at breakfast but never imagined he would do what he did.

What i don't get is the turn around at the end. So quick, so sudden no real reason for it other than he was off to an adult prison. What, all of a sudden he's got a bit of fear in him????

And the mention that she had a room waiting for him, all set up just like he'd want it to be. Not too sure about that one... Don't know if it's a guilt thing or a mothers love thing?

These are just opinions and thoughts, it is a very confronting book especailly being a parent myself and trying to imagine myself in the same position. I look at my children all the time wondering what they'll become. Thankfully they are happy boys who show lots of love and receive it at the same time. It's not a story i will forget in a hurry.

Yay I finally found the discussion!! I really enjoyed reading Kevin. I knew right from the start that the father was no longer alive, didn't think it was going to be Kevin's doing though. Celia on the other hand, I knew he'd kill her but I kept thinking it was going to happen alot sooner.
I too disliked the father all through the book. He was so oblivious & I felt really annoyed at how he disregarded the mother in regards to Kevin's behaviour all the time.

CheezelMonster, did you just have a 'feeling' her husband wasn't alive? I never guessed it. Thinking back though i do feel that when she was talking about her daughter she didn't really talk about her like she was still with her. And i suppose i always was waiting for Kevin to do something to her but i was still shocked at the details of the ending though.

Yes once I'd read a few pages I just knew he wasn't away on business or something, but still never thought it would be Kevin.
Does anyone have any thoughts on why he "saved" the mother?

I think in the end it all came down to him wanting her approval, time and effort. Maybe he 'knew' from a young age she wasnt 110% invested in him because she wanted her career, because she wasnt sure about being a mother to start with? It seemed like maybe her nervousness and undecidedness bled into her parenting; whereas his dad was totally different, he was overboard imo.
Maybe he didnt like sharing her with her career; husband and eventually Celia. I think he was very much a self focused child, it was all about him. And at the end of the book it was exactly that; he eliminated his competition and what he did put alot of focus on him from all aspects, including her.

I read Kevin a couple of years ago when it first was released, so forgive me if my details are a little vague, :lol:

I'm with cheezelmonster - after a little bit, I realised the Dad was more than away on a business trip... and I too, thought the daughter was no longer around from the way she seemed to speak about her with a tone of 'past tense'.

I found the mothers character extremely annoying & frustrating in the beginning, but I seemed to grow to like her, or at least appreciate her over the course of the book.

The father IMO was a weak man - it always seemed to be easier to stick his head in the sand as there was no way he couldn't see his son had issues :wall:
I felt a little more for the mother as the father took less & less responsibility - I think Kevin was a smart boy (however mixed up) & I think he saw his father as a weak man who passed on responsibility as well.

I expected him to be responsible for the death of his father once I figured out he wasn't alive anymore.... I think maybe the reason he killed both the father & sister was because they were weak/insignificant in his eyes.
Maybe he saw them as average, simple boring people - and he didn't seem to get under their skin as much as he did the mothers.
Maybe thats why he killed them & didn't kill the mother? It was going to hurt her/have more of an effect on her than perhaps if he had chosen to kill her & spare the father? The reaction from him may not have been what he was hoping for?

I think Kevin blamed his mother for who he was - I think he was unhappy with himself & believed some of it was blameable (is that even a word?! lol) on her... he was frustrated & angry at himself & his thoughts/feelings/actions.

Just random thoughts here, as its been a while since I read it ;)

Hollybolly - I thought that too, that in sparing her life he would hurt her more.

Can i say there is a crazy little part of me that felt sorry for him. In that he felt (like has already been mentioned) that he maybe never had his mother 110%. The maps is a pretty obvious one, he was pretty much saying 'scr#w you and scr#w your travelling'. Not to mention the end conclusion...

But then there is that part of me that remembers how the mother said she always saw something in him right from the very beginning that makes me wonder if there is anything she could have possibly done differently :dunno:


It's one of those stories that leaves open so many ifs and buts that all scnarios could be possible.