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Violent Ends
In a one-of-a-kind collaboration, seventeen of the most recognizable YA writers—including Shaun David Hutchinson, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, and Beth Revis—come together to share the viewpoints of a group of students affected by a school shooting.
It took only twenty-two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto the school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others.
But this isn’t a story about the shooting itself. This isn’t about recounting that one unforgettable day.
This is about one boy—who had friends, enjoyed reading, playing saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before—became a monster capable of entering his school with a loaded gun and firing bullets at his classmates.
Each chapter is told from a different victim’s viewpoint, giving insight into who Kirby was and who he’d become. Some are sweet, some are dark; some are seemingly unrelated, about fights or first kisses or late-night parties. This is a book told from multiple perspectives—with one character and one event drawing them all together—by some of YA’s most recognizable names.
It took only twenty-two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto the school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others.
But this isn’t a story about the shooting itself. This isn’t about recounting that one unforgettable day.
This is about one boy—who had friends, enjoyed reading, playing saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before—became a monster capable of entering his school with a loaded gun and firing bullets at his classmates.
Each chapter is told from a different victim’s viewpoint, giving insight into who Kirby was and who he’d become. Some are sweet, some are dark; some are seemingly unrelated, about fights or first kisses or late-night parties. This is a book told from multiple perspectives—with one character and one event drawing them all together—by some of YA’s most recognizable names.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
301 people are currently reading
13.2k people want to read
About the author
Shaun David Hutchinson
28books4,975followersShaun is a major geek and all about nerdy shenanigans. He is the author of many queer books for young adults. Find out more information at shaundavidhutchinson.com. He currently lives in Seattle and watches way too much Doctor Who.
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August 27, 2015My story, "Violent Beginnings" is featured in this unique book that's part collective story telling, part anthology. Each author picked a different perspective of someone involved in some way in a tragic school shooting. I'm so honored to be a part of this book!
August 26, 2015
WHAAA-- This was SO FUCKING GOOD. I want more!
Dear Courtney Summers, you ROCK male POV! I felt like everything was incomplete because every story was SO GOOD I wanted more, specially Tom Leveen's and Courtney's. I don't know who Elisa Nader is but her story knocked all the air out of me.
MUST READ.
Sometimes we forget that every human being in multi-dimensional and complex. That good people do good things and terrible people still have good sides. In every tragedy, the overall question is why? Why did he do it? Why those kids? What happened to him? This is an exploration of that. But the truth is the WHY is as complex as every single one of our brains.
Dark, disturbing, tragic and very emotional, this book had me submerged in its pages compulsively. If you are like me and that is exactly the type of books you like reading, this book is for you. Plus, it has some big names in YA like Neal Shusterman and Courtney Summers, so you are in for a literary treat!
Dear Courtney Summers, you ROCK male POV! I felt like everything was incomplete because every story was SO GOOD I wanted more, specially Tom Leveen's and Courtney's. I don't know who Elisa Nader is but her story knocked all the air out of me.
MUST READ.
Sometimes we forget that every human being in multi-dimensional and complex. That good people do good things and terrible people still have good sides. In every tragedy, the overall question is why? Why did he do it? Why those kids? What happened to him? This is an exploration of that. But the truth is the WHY is as complex as every single one of our brains.
Dark, disturbing, tragic and very emotional, this book had me submerged in its pages compulsively. If you are like me and that is exactly the type of books you like reading, this book is for you. Plus, it has some big names in YA like Neal Shusterman and Courtney Summers, so you are in for a literary treat!
December 5, 2019
3.17 out of 5 stars
The world is so different than it once was back then, and I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. Fifty some odd years ago, school shootings were basically non-existent. Nobody had to worry about sending their children off to school and teachers never had to worry about going to their jobs either. Schools were the untouchable places where evil ceased to exist.
Nowadays, it seems there’s a school shooting every week.
All the stories in this book are interconnected to the same event; seventeen-year-old Kirby Matheson walks into Middleborough High School on a seemingly normal day and proceeds to open fire, leaving six students dead and injuring five others. In seventeen different serialized chapters, the authors attempt to see what might have led a seemingly normal, nice boy to do such a monstrosity of a thing.
The stories were pretty solid (more on that in the individual reviews), but I can’t help but feel that I didn’t really get to know the real Kirby Matheson, or why everyone seemed to hate him so much; there was no concrete reason. It’s like the characters in the book woke up one day and decided for whatever reason that Kirby was a freak of some sort. But we’re never explained why they think that way. It’s as if the authors assume that we could just draw this logical conclusion for ourselves. None of the chapters in this book are from his perspective, which I guess is explained by the fact that the authors didn’t want the reader to create an unfair bias towards the kid (we as the public tend to villainize the perpetrators of the crime).
Miss Susie- Steve Brezenoff (4/5)
”Darker than the oceanWe begin this serialized novel with a rather disturbing yet fascinating story, all told through the eyes of nine-year-old Susie Byrd. It’s her birthday today, and all she wants is a new scooter to ride around the neighborhood with. And yet some disturbing events, and one particularly creepy run-in with Kirby Matheson, leave her running. I think what’s interesting about this story is that there seems to be an obvious bad guy, but it’s not who you think it is. That’s the strange and peculiar thing I found about this book. The author actually wrote Susie quite well, and made her more than just some typical nine-year-old. But seriously, this story is DISTURBING.
Darker than the sea,
Darker than the boy in black
Who’s chasing after me.�
Violent Beginnings- Beth Revis (4/5)
”’I mean,� he says, ‘we were young. It was freaking summer camp. Do you expect someone you went to summer camp with to be a killer?�Are there ever any clear, concrete warning signs that lead up to a tragedy? How far back do we have to go to try and find them? When’s the tipping point? Those are the questions we ask ourselves when something like this happens. Even worse, is when you know the person who did it, eve just in passing. Teddy knew Kirby only briefly from summer camp, but it’s enough to peak students' interest and repulsion. Just by knowing Kirby, it automatically makes him one of the bad guys, even though it couldn’t be further from the truth. This story bluntly asks us when we think true evil really begins?
Survival Instinct- Tom Leveen (4/5)
”’Doesn’t it make you mad? Doesn’t it make you want to do something about it? Yeah, well. Just saying. I know the feeling.�It’s one thing to think about taking action; it’s another thing entirely to prove it. Zach (a girl, BTW), fantasizes daily about getting rid of her emotionally and physically abusive father, but can’t bring herself to do it. Kirby is her best friend, and as we all know, he was a doer. I liked the sheer suspense and the impeccable writing style of this story; I was literally holding the edge of my seat, all because it felt so real.
The Greenest Grass- Delilah Dawson (3.5/5)
”I gave him chocolate. I gave him hell.Do bullies really deserve redemption? If you saw one of them try to kill themselves, would you try and stop them? Lauren doesn’t think so. She was once friends with Kirby back in elementary school, but as they got older they drifted apart and hung out with different social circles. Unfortunately, these differences sometimes resulted in painful words exchanged between them, especially from Lauren’s emotionally abusive football player boyfriend, Javier. But underneath the popular cheerleader façade she portrays herself to be, Lauren is secretly miserable. Cracking under the pressure, she decides to just end it, but is saved by an unlikely savior. I overall liked it, but I thought the whole potential death by Reeses Peanut Butter Cup was a bit clichéd and corny.
He gave me a second chance.�
Feet Fist- Margie Gelbwasser (3.5/5)
”Looking back, I think it was a grimace. Then there’s come the photo. The one where he’s smiling that same toothy smile. The one where he seems truly happy. The one where he’s pointing the gun.�Do you ever really know the person who you’re with? Can you ever really probe deep enough to find out? And when you’re gone from their lives, do they still care about you? In the words of Kirby’s ex, who’s narrating this story, yes and no. You still care about them, but you can never really know them. And yet, there is still some part of them that cares for you, and that one act of caring could save your life. I actually thought this story did the best job into getting good insight for Kirby and how he really was, ironically in the POV of his girlfriend. Very well done.
The Perfect Shot- Shaun David Hutchison (3/5)
”I peer thorough the eyepiece. I turn the lens to bring Kirby into focus. His arm is raised toward me, his lips raised in a smile. I rest my index finger on the shutter.Alright people, let’s get one thing straight; stalking is NOT OK. I don’t care what gender, race or religion you are. This story basically just glorifies the whole stalking conundrum. Another thing that peeved me about this story is the lack of acknowledgement of the transgender character. I mean, REALLY? Dude, it wouldn’t have killed you to do that. I wish we could’ve had more insight into the character instead of the typical transgender tropes we’ve read about a million times before. But that might just be me.
And I take the perfect shot.�
The Girl Who Said No- Trish Doller (4/5)
”How can Morgan say yes? But after what happened the last time someone asked her to a formal dance, how can she say no?�Sometimes, you don’t have to do anything significantly mean in order to crush someone’s spirits. In this story, Morgan gets asked to junior formal by Kirby, and she says no. After the shooting kills one of her friends and injures her, she asks herself if her ill-fated answer caused the death of her friend. I think this story just proves that it can be the small and seemingly insignificant things that can cause a person to break and their spirits to be crushed. Heartbreaking and bittersweet.
Pop- Christine Johnson (3/5)
� Kirby looked defeated.OK, I left this story angry. Because what the kid did was a pretty shitty thing to do, and for no apparent reason. While the story itself was written well, I didn’t think that the main character actually learned anything from his mistake, other than to seriously panic about it. He never once really thought about how it could’ve affected Kirby, or how HE was feeling; he was more worried about how his girlfriend felt. That reason alone made me give this book the rating that I did; because I’m a firm believer that if you make a mistake, you learn from it, not just brush it off and move aside.
No, more than that. He looked broken.�
Presumed Destroyed- Neal and Brendan Shusterman (3/5)
”And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, that on this day, in this place, I will meet my destiny.I know what you’re thinking; they wrote a story from the gun’s POV. An inanimate object. Why? And something that causes so much pain that it doesn’t deserve to be humanized, you say? I was kind of shocked when I first read it, but looking back, I also think it was kind of a genius thing to do, in a weird way. Don’t get me wrong; I’m anti-gun all the way. But in instances like this, can we really blame the weapon? Is that the smartest thing to do? Are we really just deflecting the blame on something not human so we don’t have to wrack our own consciences with the knowledge that a human being could do something so horrible? A thought-provoking, if not somewhat controversial, story.
And I am terrified.�
The Second- Blythe Woolston (1/5)
”It’s her job to protect me. It’s my job to be in control.�Umm..... this story is about a girl and her dog. The female Charlie Brown and Snoopy. How the heck does this story connect to Kirby? He’s not even in this one; it’s his HOUSE. Ugh!! So many of the stories aren’t connecting to him in any way whatsoever, this one included.
Astroturf- E.M. Koki (3/5)
”Kirby Matheson stole my life..I can only think of one word to describe this story; meh. It was OK; nothing memorable, but not horrible either. Kid works at a pizza parlor who may (or may not, it’s never clear), be bisexual. I honestly wish that authors would just announce if there’s a character like that so we don’t have to make assumptions.
There had to have been signs. Some warning. But I was too stupid to see it coming.�
Grooming Habits- Elisa Nader (2.5/5)
”He’s in pain and I’m in pain. He’ll see when we’re together that we can save each other. All I need is the chance to coax him into understanding this.�For the record; this was the story I disliked the least. Why? Because it had absolutely nothing to do with the plot whatsoever. I guess this was just written for shock value and the same old, same old , but this event didn’t show up at any other time period; nor did it show it affecting Kirby negatively. Not to mention that there was no plot background of how they met, what their relationship was (not in the sexual sense), what were some of the conversations they had, etc. We’re just thrown into this one random experience and are supposed to correctly guess what the heck happened. The best way I can describe it is if someone were to show you the sixth Harry Potter film, and you hadn’t heard of Harry Potter or seen the proceeding movies. You’d be completely, utterly lost. That’s the feeling I felt when I was reading this story. Lost.
Hypothetical Time Travel- Mindi Scott (4/5)
”All I have now is the knowledge that my brother did some good things and some monstrous things in my life. I can’t change any of it. But I can stop letting his actions define me.�When a shooting occurs, it’s easy to villainize everyone even remotely associated with the shooter, even their own family. But the fact of the matter is, most of these families are completely in the dark about what their loved one had planned to do, and the consequences of their actions are as shocking to them as they are to us. So how do we as a public let them remember and mourn the loss of their loved one? How can they themselves mourn after the horrific thing that the dead have done? I thought this story was especially poignant, and told with the right amount of grace and understanding.
All’s Well- Cynthis Leitich Smith (3/5)
”Just like that we’re back to normal... or at least the new normal.This story shows how hyperaware people can become after a tragedy like this, and unfortunately, some of those people happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. In this kid’s case, he wrote the wrong story at the wrong time, which gets people in a snit. A very big snit. While I thought the story was good, I actually thought it was too short, which made the action too fast, which caused me not to appreciate it more than I probably should have. It was just OK.
All’s well.�
Burning Effigies- Kendare Blake (2.5/5)
In the days immediately following the shooting, it seemed like everyone wanted to remember Kirby. To break him into pieces like a disassembled watch. People who never spoke to him at all had sudden recollections of foreboding eye contact.”�I don’t know... this story was just way to meta and philosophical for my taste. I also thought that the characters were too far removed from Kirby himself that they didn’t really have a logical place in the story. That would be like having the kid who almost hit Bella with his car narrate Twilight. He’s too far removed from the action to contribute anything significant. The story was awkward and disjointed.
Holes- Hannah Moskowitz (3.5/5)
”And he took it from me.It seems like when we are forced to dig into our brains and remember those who we knew who did monstrous acts, we tend to do one of two things; varnish the truth about some of the darker episodes of that person’s life so as to not make it seem outwardly that they had a problem, or we over exaggerate that weird behavior to make it as dramatic as possible. This story gives us that dilemma, as the main character is asked to give her memories of Kirby for an article in the school newspaper. So how does she want to remember the seemingly sweet and innocent acting boy who lived next to her when she was a child? Very affecting story.
And he shook it until they were all dead.
I’d forgotten to put holes in it.
They couldn’t get out. �
History Lessons- Courtney Summers (2/5)
”Because I knew Kirby Matheson before he knew he was Kirby Matheson.You remember that bully back in the very first story. He’s BAAACK!! In this story, the author tries to give him a redeemable side, and unfortunately, it didn’t work very well, at least for me. I didn’t think she wrote the POV very well, and the actions and dialogue in the story made me feel very unsympathetic towards him, when I was supposed to feel quite the opposite. I wish this book could’ve closed on a happier note with a lovelier written story, but alas, we’ve come to the end.
And I really hurt that boy. �
April 19, 2021
When it comes to this book I don’t even know where to start. I requested it because it just looked so interesting � everyone always asks why some teens walk into a school and start shooting. And this wasn’t a book that promised the answer. But it was a book that said it would show lives that were connected to the shooters, in either a large or small way and we would get to see how it affected them. Some of the people were victims, some of them knew him before the shooting and encountered him then, and some stories were about the aftermath. One point of view was even one from an object. But they were all interesting and I honestly could not stop reading at all.
I have to say, Shaun Hutchinson had an amazing idea when it came to this book and I couldn’t be more happy that he took 17 different authors to do this. Don’t be scared off because of the multiple points of view. Each one lasts only a chapter. It’s like short stories, but then each one relates to the bigger picture.
This book also crosses so many different themes and problems than just the main one. It addresses divorce, childhood, popularity, bulimic problems, abuse and bullying. And so many more as well! And there is also the double mention of Doctor Who. Books always get points for that.
There was a character who mentioned that even if the killer dies too, they were never and usually aren’t counted in the total when it comes to the death. As if becoming a killer singles them out from the rest (it does) but it also dehumanizes them as well. That point of view also happened to show that the killer could be good as well as bad. Maybe they weren’t a monster the entire time.
One point of view (Zachary’s) uses ‘you� when it refers to one of the characters and that was interesting. Each chapter had its own distinct writing style.
I was curious as to why the killer went out of his way to save some characters, and then didn’t bother with others. It showed how some people were said killers friends but felt like they couldn’t mourn for him because then they would be seen as ‘bad� people. No one is meant to sympathise with the killer. It shows how cruel it can be to steal others� lives, and how those who were lost to earth made others who were alive feel lost as well. It shows how people have to move on after mourning, and how some can cope better than others.
The point of view of a family member was also very intriguing. Simply because the family were given so much abuse. It was pretty astounding, especially when they were people who had lost someone they loved as well. Yes, their child might have done something terrible and unforgivable, but they had lost him as well.
In the aftermath we could see how over suspicious everyone became.
There is SO so much more I could say but I better close up the review here in fear of giving away any spoilers. But I loved this book and I think it really is thought provoking. So, to everyone � read this now. Please.
This review and others can be found at Olivia's Catastrophe:
I have to say, Shaun Hutchinson had an amazing idea when it came to this book and I couldn’t be more happy that he took 17 different authors to do this. Don’t be scared off because of the multiple points of view. Each one lasts only a chapter. It’s like short stories, but then each one relates to the bigger picture.
This book also crosses so many different themes and problems than just the main one. It addresses divorce, childhood, popularity, bulimic problems, abuse and bullying. And so many more as well! And there is also the double mention of Doctor Who. Books always get points for that.
There was a character who mentioned that even if the killer dies too, they were never and usually aren’t counted in the total when it comes to the death. As if becoming a killer singles them out from the rest (it does) but it also dehumanizes them as well. That point of view also happened to show that the killer could be good as well as bad. Maybe they weren’t a monster the entire time.
One point of view (Zachary’s) uses ‘you� when it refers to one of the characters and that was interesting. Each chapter had its own distinct writing style.
I was curious as to why the killer went out of his way to save some characters, and then didn’t bother with others. It showed how some people were said killers friends but felt like they couldn’t mourn for him because then they would be seen as ‘bad� people. No one is meant to sympathise with the killer. It shows how cruel it can be to steal others� lives, and how those who were lost to earth made others who were alive feel lost as well. It shows how people have to move on after mourning, and how some can cope better than others.
The point of view of a family member was also very intriguing. Simply because the family were given so much abuse. It was pretty astounding, especially when they were people who had lost someone they loved as well. Yes, their child might have done something terrible and unforgivable, but they had lost him as well.
In the aftermath we could see how over suspicious everyone became.
There is SO so much more I could say but I better close up the review here in fear of giving away any spoilers. But I loved this book and I think it really is thought provoking. So, to everyone � read this now. Please.
This review and others can be found at Olivia's Catastrophe:
April 30, 2017
4.5 stars, despite a lower average rating. This book messed me up so much. It's a great look at how a genuinely good person became a killer.
Violent Ends doesn't excuse Kirby's actions, or even necessarily try to explain them. It just gives background, which makes the ending seem even more horrible. The fact that this is a collaboration makes this book better; the prose varies, and the stories come from people who differ in both their situations, and in their relationships to the killer. All the different character voices combine to create a terrifying narrative.
My favorite story was probably Survival Instinct by Tom Leveen. Oh my god, this story made me cry. Zach, Kirby's best friend, lives with her emotionally and physically abusive father. Here, we see both I liked the sheer suspense and the impeccable writing style of this story; I was literally holding the edge of my seat, all because it felt so real. I read this book back in 2015, yet I still can't get this brilliant little story out of my head.
I also really enjoyed The Perfect Shot by Shaun David Hutchison. It's one of the most powerful, memorable stories in this collection. There was some weird stalking going on; however, I liked this story a lot.
My least favorite story was The Girl Who Said No by Trish Dollar. This book deserves a solid 1 star. Yes, let's blame a school shooting on a girl who turned down a guy for a date! Great plan! Not horribly misogynistic at all!
Despite that one story, every other one was good. Definitely recommended.
| My GR Account
Violent Ends doesn't excuse Kirby's actions, or even necessarily try to explain them. It just gives background, which makes the ending seem even more horrible. The fact that this is a collaboration makes this book better; the prose varies, and the stories come from people who differ in both their situations, and in their relationships to the killer. All the different character voices combine to create a terrifying narrative.
My favorite story was probably Survival Instinct by Tom Leveen. Oh my god, this story made me cry. Zach, Kirby's best friend, lives with her emotionally and physically abusive father. Here, we see both I liked the sheer suspense and the impeccable writing style of this story; I was literally holding the edge of my seat, all because it felt so real. I read this book back in 2015, yet I still can't get this brilliant little story out of my head.
I also really enjoyed The Perfect Shot by Shaun David Hutchison. It's one of the most powerful, memorable stories in this collection. There was some weird stalking going on; however, I liked this story a lot.
My least favorite story was The Girl Who Said No by Trish Dollar. This book deserves a solid 1 star. Yes, let's blame a school shooting on a girl who turned down a guy for a date! Great plan! Not horribly misogynistic at all!
Despite that one story, every other one was good. Definitely recommended.
| My GR Account
March 2, 2019
There were way too many POVs in this book. On top of that, the writing styles varied too much from author to author which made each piece less connected to the rest. I can see why some people found this profound and impactful but for me, the stylistic differences and how it came together lacked a lot and ended in an unsatisfying final product.
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November 13, 2014I am seriously excited to be a part of this collection of stories.
May 14, 2022
3.5 star read for me. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the variety of writing styles. Over all you should pick it up - just know some chapters may be better than others.
November 15, 2019
This is pretty powerful stuff� a YA novel about a school shooting, told through 17 POV’s, and each by a different author. Not a single one focuses on the shooting itself, which I’m glad of, because that would seem diminishing to the subject matter. Instead, each author takes their respective sections in different directions: some are reflective, some are tragic, others are brutal, heartbreaking, or profoundly moving. Only a few failed to work for me (“Presumed Destroyed by Neal and Brendan Shusterman takes on the POV of the gun that carries out these heinous crimes, and was a misstep in my opinion), but most were written with care and made me pretty damn emotional.
I’d have to say that hand’s down the best POV was Billie Palermo’s in “The Perfect Shot� by Shaun David Hutchinson. That one hit me hard . “Grooming Habits� Elisa Nader was especially surprising and shocked me. “The Greenest Grass� by Delilah S. Dawson was an interesting POV following a cheerleader with an eating disorder (not the most original material, sure, but it had an impact), and “History Lessons� by Courtney Summers was oddly enough the best way to close out the novel.
As I write this, we’re just a day past another school shooting in America. My heart is sore. And I’m angry, and I’m tired, and I’m upset; I keep hoping things will change (gun reform, securing our schools, helping kids who are troubled or in trouble...), but I know it’s not enough. And I hate that it’s never going to be enough. There will always be monsters as long as there are people on Earth. I just wish the children of the world didn’t have to suffer for it.
I’d have to say that hand’s down the best POV was Billie Palermo’s in “The Perfect Shot� by Shaun David Hutchinson. That one hit me hard . “Grooming Habits� Elisa Nader was especially surprising and shocked me. “The Greenest Grass� by Delilah S. Dawson was an interesting POV following a cheerleader with an eating disorder (not the most original material, sure, but it had an impact), and “History Lessons� by Courtney Summers was oddly enough the best way to close out the novel.
As I write this, we’re just a day past another school shooting in America. My heart is sore. And I’m angry, and I’m tired, and I’m upset; I keep hoping things will change (gun reform, securing our schools, helping kids who are troubled or in trouble...), but I know it’s not enough. And I hate that it’s never going to be enough. There will always be monsters as long as there are people on Earth. I just wish the children of the world didn’t have to suffer for it.
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June 17, 2015This was an excellent, engaging, well-paced collection of short stories written by 17 different authors about different characters each impacted by a school shooting. We never get the voice of the shooter; instead, we're forced to see who he was through those who knew him well...and those who didn't.
Many short story collections can be hit or miss, but this one is almost entirely hits. Because the focus is so tight, so are the stories. There were maybe two or three that didn't work for me, so I ended up skimming them more than falling into them, but out of a collection of this size, that's a great ratio to have. Favorite stories in this one were Steve Brezenoff's, Courtney Summers's, Trish Doller's, Blythe Woolston's, and Neal and Brendan Schusterman's.
Readers who loved Jennifer Brown's HATE LIST and enjoy edgy, dark, intense realistic fiction will want to pick this up.
Many short story collections can be hit or miss, but this one is almost entirely hits. Because the focus is so tight, so are the stories. There were maybe two or three that didn't work for me, so I ended up skimming them more than falling into them, but out of a collection of this size, that's a great ratio to have. Favorite stories in this one were Steve Brezenoff's, Courtney Summers's, Trish Doller's, Blythe Woolston's, and Neal and Brendan Schusterman's.
Readers who loved Jennifer Brown's HATE LIST and enjoy edgy, dark, intense realistic fiction will want to pick this up.
December 20, 2015
"To realize it's not really about Kirby now, it's about what's left. And if you don't deal with it, it will deal with you."
As a reader, I never think about what an author must give, when writing a YA book about real issues, to make it feel real. Whether it's about eating disorders or self harm, rape or abuse, the story has to feel authentic to resonate and pass the meaning of the story on to the readers. The author really has to crawl into their mind and try to live it, breath it, know it.
And to do that, I think, someone would have to break a part of themselves and give it to the book/story/character - something that means you are no longer who you were before you wrote the book.
I've never felt that so strong as I did with these stories.
As a mother of two teens, school shootings are one of my biggest fears. I don't follow each shooting (truly, I hide from the news), so I don't know the statistics and how they are growing and I don't know if we're less or more likely to have a school shooting each year.
I just know that between my two kids, we've had 3 different gun scares at school. Two of them, neither of my kids were even aware of - but the school made us aware after the fact. The third one, the elementary school went on full lock down with 3 cop cars out front, fully geared up and a full school and outer area search. And all three terrified me.
So, to be an author in this book - and have to tell a side of the story authentically, whether it was one of the witnesses to bullying, or the young girl who lost a friend, the girl who was inspired to fight back, or the boy who had to watch as his parents' faces turned from questions to horror as they realized he knew the killer - each of the stories were so gut-wrenching and hard to read, I wanted to cry through every word.
But this is an important book - a reminder that we are all tied together - and what we do today really does affect our tomorrow.
After reading these stories, I know I've been forever changed and I'm not who I was before reading them. I have to applaud every author who went into this story and who gave it justice. I know you gave a piece of yourself to make these stories feel true.
As a reader, I never think about what an author must give, when writing a YA book about real issues, to make it feel real. Whether it's about eating disorders or self harm, rape or abuse, the story has to feel authentic to resonate and pass the meaning of the story on to the readers. The author really has to crawl into their mind and try to live it, breath it, know it.
And to do that, I think, someone would have to break a part of themselves and give it to the book/story/character - something that means you are no longer who you were before you wrote the book.
I've never felt that so strong as I did with these stories.
As a mother of two teens, school shootings are one of my biggest fears. I don't follow each shooting (truly, I hide from the news), so I don't know the statistics and how they are growing and I don't know if we're less or more likely to have a school shooting each year.
I just know that between my two kids, we've had 3 different gun scares at school. Two of them, neither of my kids were even aware of - but the school made us aware after the fact. The third one, the elementary school went on full lock down with 3 cop cars out front, fully geared up and a full school and outer area search. And all three terrified me.
So, to be an author in this book - and have to tell a side of the story authentically, whether it was one of the witnesses to bullying, or the young girl who lost a friend, the girl who was inspired to fight back, or the boy who had to watch as his parents' faces turned from questions to horror as they realized he knew the killer - each of the stories were so gut-wrenching and hard to read, I wanted to cry through every word.
But this is an important book - a reminder that we are all tied together - and what we do today really does affect our tomorrow.
After reading these stories, I know I've been forever changed and I'm not who I was before reading them. I have to applaud every author who went into this story and who gave it justice. I know you gave a piece of yourself to make these stories feel true.
January 29, 2018
Three stars off for crudeness and swearing.
"I wish I could go back. Back to sixth grade. Back to last night. I wish I could ask Kirby Matheson what it's like to be a ghost. I wonder if he can fly now, all by himself." (pg. 94)
"I wish I could go back. Back to sixth grade. Back to last night. I wish I could ask Kirby Matheson what it's like to be a ghost. I wonder if he can fly now, all by himself." (pg. 94)
February 11, 2021
See more of my reviews on ! My copy was an ARC I got from the publisher via Edelweiss.
Warnings: transphobia and eating disorders.
Though Violent Ends is a novel in seventeen points of view via seventeen chapters written by eighteen authors, it’s easy to think of this as an anthology wherein all the stories exist within the same universe. Between my curiosity about anthologies in general and my fascination with school shooting-related books, this obviously found its way onto my TBR. Reader, things didn’t work out so well. Whether viewed as a novel or an anthology, Violent Ends is largely disappointing and often comes across as out of touch.
Some of the best chapters–the ones that made the book worth reading through to the end–came from the points of view of characters with direct connections to Kirby and plenty of guilt as they contemplate if they were part of Kirby’s motivations. By happenstance, three of those four noteworthy chapters came from the three authors I read the book for in the first place! For instance, Trish Doller’s chapter from the POV of a girl who rejected Kirby. During the event, he shot both her and her best friend. Her best friend died in her arms. Women are made to feel bad if a man they reject acts out violently shortly thereafter or gets blamed if a man kills her for not giving him her phone number of whatever. It’s such a solid, unfortunately true story. Other standouts include Mindi Scott writing from the POV of Kirby’s little sister and Courtney Summers� insight into the mind of one of Kirby’s primary bullies.
Most chapters, though, are from the points of view of bystanders with less of a connection to Kirby. They’re like tales told by acquaintances in your class during free time or between bells: entertaining enough but not particularly memorable. One exception, though, is Delilah S. Dawson’s chapter in which an eating-disorder-stricken cheerleader tried to commit suicide via chocolate and Kirby stops her. Seeing as the slightest hint of nuts in something could kill her thanks to a deadly nut allergy, her attempt is very serious, but the absurdity of “suicide by chocolate� without context is still a strange phrase.
TWO CHAPTERS, THOUGH. Two stories left me a frothing pile of rage over how out of touch they were. The novel as a whole has strains of one of the issues and I’ll get to that shortly, but these two in particular were the worst about it.
For whatever reason, the Schusterman brothers decided to write from the POV of the gun Kirby used. It is a fucking gun. It has no human feelings or perspective. Trying to humanize a gun is just plain wrong. Human lives are more important than guns. Human lives are more important than guns. Considering this novel is US-set and we’re currently having a major epidemic of gun violence, this ain’t the best time to be trying to humanize a gun and give it a perspective on a school shooting. The only thing that matters about a gun used in a mass shooting is how a person as unstable as the shooter got it. Guns =/= human. Ever.
And Hutchinson’s story. WHOO BOY, LET ME TAKE OFF MY EARRINGS. His chapter is from the POV of the first student Kirby murders: a girl who just so happened to be stalking Kirby and photographing him for an art project because he fascinates her. The hints she’s trans are clear, but she never explicitly confirms it in her own chapter. This is bad enough because that makes for a possibly trans person being among the dead, but confirmation only comes at the end of the novel from someone who hardly knew her. So now there’s a confirmed trans character dead and she didn’t even get to claim her own identity.
Oh, and this trans character is literally the only QUILTBAG character in the entire book. The only representation of that long acronym at all. Good job killing her.
This is so many kinds of infuriating that it can only be expressed properly by banging your fists on a keyboard until you’ve typed over 200 pages of gibberish. If I think about it for more than a passing second, I hear the sound of circuits popping in my head, honest to God. Trans characters telling their own stories in YA are hard enough to find. Most of such novels are written by cis people and this story (as far as I am aware) is written by a cis man. Heavily underrepresented groups like trans people need positive representation that don’t have them dying as per usual, but here lies a trans girl dead for no reason other than someone decided that would be okay. This is not representation–and again, she is the only QUILTBAG character in the novel. Hutchinson tried to explain himself to me on Twitter and that didn’t help one bit.
Overall, Kirby is portrayed by the in-book media and the book itself as Just A Kid. In the second chapter, one reporter even asks, “So what turned this sweet young boy into this murderer?� (ARC, p. 39) Almost every chapter in the book shows him being just a kid. Maybe two show there are deeper, darker things in him and have been for some time. Thanks to rampant police brutality and the related murders of black men, women, and children, the racial lines in coverage of murders are clearer than ever. Kirby benefits from white privilege in how he’s portrayed and nothing challenges this whatsoever.
Think about how the media talks about black victims. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice were “no angels� and all their flaws were detailed to justify their deaths and fill air time on CNN or Fox News. Meanwhile, think about Dylann Roof. He murdered nine black people explicitly to protect “his country� from them. He is a terrorist, a white supremacist and actually murdered people whereas Martin, Brown, and Rice did not. News reports humanized him and he got a Burger King meal courtesy of the cops who would have shot him dead in the manhunt had he been black. Reports were full of good words from friends when similar quotes were hard to find in praise of black victims. Black victims who were 18 and under were rarely seen as the children they were. Because they were black, they could not be children. Kirby gets all the sympathy the media gives people like Roof and withholds from black victims who didn’t kill people. Fuck all that white privilege and how the novel plays along with the status quo.
I hate to say this because three of my favorite authors took part in this book, but I can’t recommend it. Time would be better spent watching some of the well-made documentaries about school shootings, finding nonfiction books on the subject, or joining the Black Lives Matter movement to fight racial bias in all forms while educating yourself on racial bias in the media in particular. You’ll have a far clearer picture of why these travesties keep happening/keep getting worse and what leads to them if you do any of that. This book won’t help much at all.
Warnings: transphobia and eating disorders.
*One Cuban girl, one Asian girl, and one Engrish-speaking Asian woman)
*The only queer character gets murdered and can’t claim their own identity
*character with an eating disorder
Though Violent Ends is a novel in seventeen points of view via seventeen chapters written by eighteen authors, it’s easy to think of this as an anthology wherein all the stories exist within the same universe. Between my curiosity about anthologies in general and my fascination with school shooting-related books, this obviously found its way onto my TBR. Reader, things didn’t work out so well. Whether viewed as a novel or an anthology, Violent Ends is largely disappointing and often comes across as out of touch.
Some of the best chapters–the ones that made the book worth reading through to the end–came from the points of view of characters with direct connections to Kirby and plenty of guilt as they contemplate if they were part of Kirby’s motivations. By happenstance, three of those four noteworthy chapters came from the three authors I read the book for in the first place! For instance, Trish Doller’s chapter from the POV of a girl who rejected Kirby. During the event, he shot both her and her best friend. Her best friend died in her arms. Women are made to feel bad if a man they reject acts out violently shortly thereafter or gets blamed if a man kills her for not giving him her phone number of whatever. It’s such a solid, unfortunately true story. Other standouts include Mindi Scott writing from the POV of Kirby’s little sister and Courtney Summers� insight into the mind of one of Kirby’s primary bullies.
Most chapters, though, are from the points of view of bystanders with less of a connection to Kirby. They’re like tales told by acquaintances in your class during free time or between bells: entertaining enough but not particularly memorable. One exception, though, is Delilah S. Dawson’s chapter in which an eating-disorder-stricken cheerleader tried to commit suicide via chocolate and Kirby stops her. Seeing as the slightest hint of nuts in something could kill her thanks to a deadly nut allergy, her attempt is very serious, but the absurdity of “suicide by chocolate� without context is still a strange phrase.
TWO CHAPTERS, THOUGH. Two stories left me a frothing pile of rage over how out of touch they were. The novel as a whole has strains of one of the issues and I’ll get to that shortly, but these two in particular were the worst about it.
For whatever reason, the Schusterman brothers decided to write from the POV of the gun Kirby used. It is a fucking gun. It has no human feelings or perspective. Trying to humanize a gun is just plain wrong. Human lives are more important than guns. Human lives are more important than guns. Considering this novel is US-set and we’re currently having a major epidemic of gun violence, this ain’t the best time to be trying to humanize a gun and give it a perspective on a school shooting. The only thing that matters about a gun used in a mass shooting is how a person as unstable as the shooter got it. Guns =/= human. Ever.
And Hutchinson’s story. WHOO BOY, LET ME TAKE OFF MY EARRINGS. His chapter is from the POV of the first student Kirby murders: a girl who just so happened to be stalking Kirby and photographing him for an art project because he fascinates her. The hints she’s trans are clear, but she never explicitly confirms it in her own chapter. This is bad enough because that makes for a possibly trans person being among the dead, but confirmation only comes at the end of the novel from someone who hardly knew her. So now there’s a confirmed trans character dead and she didn’t even get to claim her own identity.
Oh, and this trans character is literally the only QUILTBAG character in the entire book. The only representation of that long acronym at all. Good job killing her.
This is so many kinds of infuriating that it can only be expressed properly by banging your fists on a keyboard until you’ve typed over 200 pages of gibberish. If I think about it for more than a passing second, I hear the sound of circuits popping in my head, honest to God. Trans characters telling their own stories in YA are hard enough to find. Most of such novels are written by cis people and this story (as far as I am aware) is written by a cis man. Heavily underrepresented groups like trans people need positive representation that don’t have them dying as per usual, but here lies a trans girl dead for no reason other than someone decided that would be okay. This is not representation–and again, she is the only QUILTBAG character in the novel. Hutchinson tried to explain himself to me on Twitter and that didn’t help one bit.
Overall, Kirby is portrayed by the in-book media and the book itself as Just A Kid. In the second chapter, one reporter even asks, “So what turned this sweet young boy into this murderer?� (ARC, p. 39) Almost every chapter in the book shows him being just a kid. Maybe two show there are deeper, darker things in him and have been for some time. Thanks to rampant police brutality and the related murders of black men, women, and children, the racial lines in coverage of murders are clearer than ever. Kirby benefits from white privilege in how he’s portrayed and nothing challenges this whatsoever.
Think about how the media talks about black victims. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice were “no angels� and all their flaws were detailed to justify their deaths and fill air time on CNN or Fox News. Meanwhile, think about Dylann Roof. He murdered nine black people explicitly to protect “his country� from them. He is a terrorist, a white supremacist and actually murdered people whereas Martin, Brown, and Rice did not. News reports humanized him and he got a Burger King meal courtesy of the cops who would have shot him dead in the manhunt had he been black. Reports were full of good words from friends when similar quotes were hard to find in praise of black victims. Black victims who were 18 and under were rarely seen as the children they were. Because they were black, they could not be children. Kirby gets all the sympathy the media gives people like Roof and withholds from black victims who didn’t kill people. Fuck all that white privilege and how the novel plays along with the status quo.
I hate to say this because three of my favorite authors took part in this book, but I can’t recommend it. Time would be better spent watching some of the well-made documentaries about school shootings, finding nonfiction books on the subject, or joining the Black Lives Matter movement to fight racial bias in all forms while educating yourself on racial bias in the media in particular. You’ll have a far clearer picture of why these travesties keep happening/keep getting worse and what leads to them if you do any of that. This book won’t help much at all.
August 8, 2015
Huge thank you to Simon Teen Canada for this ARC!
Have you ever read a book that physically affected you? Reading Violent Ends did that to me. It left me shaken and exhausted to the core. What's worse in the novel hit a little too close to home for me at times, when you've been directly or indirectly affected by violence, it's not an easy feeling to simply wish away.
Violent Ends is a unique beast. Written with seventeen different perspectives, it's a book that revolves around one teen, and a horrific event that changes his community. What affected me in regards to this story was that I grew up with someone who later in life became a killer.
When I was reading the perspectives of the different characters in the novel, they all provided different versions of Kirby Matheson's character: someone saw him as a loner, a loser, a great guy, an odd guy -- you never feel like you truly know who he is, which I think is part of why this novel works and is so powerful. When we think of killers, we don't always know the details as to why a crime is committed or how they eventually turned to commit an act. If you're close to killer or knew them at some point, you can only envision what you know about them from past experiences, and sometimes the person you knew in the past is nowhere near the person they become later on in life. It makes the novel feel very mysterious in a lot of ways based on how each character perceives Kirby's character, he comes across almost as though he is a chameleon.
Moreover, I loved how each story also manages to stand on its own two feet. Again, you have varying perspectives as some take place before the shooting, some weeks after, and sometimes you are getting the before, in the moment and after all at once. Each story has a boiling point, and it's one that you know if going to happen, it's just a simple question of when. I did enjoy that the book doesn't label which author wrote which story. While some of the writers have a more distinctive style than others, the flow from story to story is well done, and sometimes I'd forget that I was reading a different author's story because everything feels so inter-connected. If I had to pick favourites, I'd said they were "Miss Susie," "The Perfect Shot," "History Lessons," and "Hypothetical Time Travel." These four stories in particular stirred a lot of emotion in me, but I think all the stories as a collective are powerful.
Violent Ends will leave you breathless, as it will cause you to ponder the past. It's terrifying, but thought-provoking. Getting the feelings of seventeen different characters and their perspectives on one event makes for an interesting writing experience, and I feel like this book does so much right in terms of the subject matter is shares. Violent Ends left me haunted, and pondering my past, and it certainly rocked me to my core.
Have you ever read a book that physically affected you? Reading Violent Ends did that to me. It left me shaken and exhausted to the core. What's worse in the novel hit a little too close to home for me at times, when you've been directly or indirectly affected by violence, it's not an easy feeling to simply wish away.
Violent Ends is a unique beast. Written with seventeen different perspectives, it's a book that revolves around one teen, and a horrific event that changes his community. What affected me in regards to this story was that I grew up with someone who later in life became a killer.
When I was reading the perspectives of the different characters in the novel, they all provided different versions of Kirby Matheson's character: someone saw him as a loner, a loser, a great guy, an odd guy -- you never feel like you truly know who he is, which I think is part of why this novel works and is so powerful. When we think of killers, we don't always know the details as to why a crime is committed or how they eventually turned to commit an act. If you're close to killer or knew them at some point, you can only envision what you know about them from past experiences, and sometimes the person you knew in the past is nowhere near the person they become later on in life. It makes the novel feel very mysterious in a lot of ways based on how each character perceives Kirby's character, he comes across almost as though he is a chameleon.
Moreover, I loved how each story also manages to stand on its own two feet. Again, you have varying perspectives as some take place before the shooting, some weeks after, and sometimes you are getting the before, in the moment and after all at once. Each story has a boiling point, and it's one that you know if going to happen, it's just a simple question of when. I did enjoy that the book doesn't label which author wrote which story. While some of the writers have a more distinctive style than others, the flow from story to story is well done, and sometimes I'd forget that I was reading a different author's story because everything feels so inter-connected. If I had to pick favourites, I'd said they were "Miss Susie," "The Perfect Shot," "History Lessons," and "Hypothetical Time Travel." These four stories in particular stirred a lot of emotion in me, but I think all the stories as a collective are powerful.
Violent Ends will leave you breathless, as it will cause you to ponder the past. It's terrifying, but thought-provoking. Getting the feelings of seventeen different characters and their perspectives on one event makes for an interesting writing experience, and I feel like this book does so much right in terms of the subject matter is shares. Violent Ends left me haunted, and pondering my past, and it certainly rocked me to my core.
May 13, 2015
I discovered this hidden gem at TXLA and I was beyond excited to start it. After finishing it I am left with a strange feeling and honestly it's taken me a few days to sit down and right this review. I've found it's hard to separate myself from the story because of my family and this really shoves the dangers that lurk in schools right in your face and I am terrified. Yes I know these dangers have been there for awhile, but I guess going day to day you just don't think about them. Now though I found I just hold on a little tighter to certain people in the morning and the day after I finished this I even cried after driving away. This is a tough issue that I don't think anyone is prepared for so if you pick this up just hold your heart because it's going to break in two.
Violent Ends is the story if a high school shooting. What makes this book incredible is that every chapter is told from a different point of view and was written by a different author. This amazing author line up includes Neal Schusterman, Kendare Blake, Trish Doller, Courtney Summers and so many more. Seventeen to be exact. What each chapter has in common though is Kirby, the shooter.
I'm not lying when I tell you that I had chills while I read this. It was very tough to get through at certain points. Some chapter did feel a little disconnected and honestly those gave me a chance to breathe a little. A few chapters really stood out and one was the point of view from the gun. I won't spoil who wrote it because for some reason I just think it's important to experience that on your own, but OMG it was chilling! I had to put the book down after that one and just get some distance. The others weren't as intense, but they all carried something within them that felt sad and broken. They really made me wonder about the aftermath in real life.
The only thing I wish I would have gotten was Kirby's story. We get to see him through seventeen pairs of eyes, but I wanted to see through his. We sort of get a glimpse into the whys of his actions, but I don't understand. I don't think we are supposed to though so I guess this will just have to be okay. Kirby was so many things and I can't help but feel conflicted towards him. Was he a monster yes most definitely, but did he have problems from multiple sides and I just don't know what to feel. I'm angry and a big ole mixed bag of emotions.
This book destroyed me and I can guarantee that the next 10 I read will be HEA's and complete fluff because I need that in my life right now. This was too real and yes I think it needs to be out there, but I can still grab all my fluff and mean it.
Violent Ends is the story if a high school shooting. What makes this book incredible is that every chapter is told from a different point of view and was written by a different author. This amazing author line up includes Neal Schusterman, Kendare Blake, Trish Doller, Courtney Summers and so many more. Seventeen to be exact. What each chapter has in common though is Kirby, the shooter.
I'm not lying when I tell you that I had chills while I read this. It was very tough to get through at certain points. Some chapter did feel a little disconnected and honestly those gave me a chance to breathe a little. A few chapters really stood out and one was the point of view from the gun. I won't spoil who wrote it because for some reason I just think it's important to experience that on your own, but OMG it was chilling! I had to put the book down after that one and just get some distance. The others weren't as intense, but they all carried something within them that felt sad and broken. They really made me wonder about the aftermath in real life.
The only thing I wish I would have gotten was Kirby's story. We get to see him through seventeen pairs of eyes, but I wanted to see through his. We sort of get a glimpse into the whys of his actions, but I don't understand. I don't think we are supposed to though so I guess this will just have to be okay. Kirby was so many things and I can't help but feel conflicted towards him. Was he a monster yes most definitely, but did he have problems from multiple sides and I just don't know what to feel. I'm angry and a big ole mixed bag of emotions.
This book destroyed me and I can guarantee that the next 10 I read will be HEA's and complete fluff because I need that in my life right now. This was too real and yes I think it needs to be out there, but I can still grab all my fluff and mean it.
August 31, 2015
3.5 stars
Violent Ends is a bold and fascinating project with a very unique perspective. School shootings are always a tricky and very sensitive subject in fiction, and because of the horrifying circumstances of such a situation, there isn’t always much space within these stories to humanize the shooter � aside from the fact that a lot of people wouldn’t want to sympathize in any way or form with someone like that, either. The only other book I’ve ever read that attempted something similar is , but that one’s more focused on the aftermath from an “accomplice’s� perspective rather than the actual shooter. In any case, what these authors came together to do is pretty unique and admirable, certainly thought-provoking. Months after having read it, I’m still thinking about it.
The format the authors chose for this anthology worked flawlessly with the idea. To provide 17 different points of views with 17 different voices and writing styles was a genius idea that gave dimension to Kirby as the subject study of this anthology and more impact to the story. Technically speaking, the novel is extremely well-made and delivers the intended message to a certain extent.
There are some really extraordinary tales in here; my favorites were History Lessons by Courtney Summers, Holes by Hannah Moskowitz, and the startling raw and disturbing Survival Instincts by Tom Leveen. Kendare Blake’s and Cynthia Leitich Smith’s (something I never thought I’d say) were pretty good too. As a whole, the anthology is generally well-written, but I didn’t like the ways some of these authors decided to approach the focal point of Kirby.
For some reason, the anthology feels disorganized. I shifts back and forth between past and present, and what was initially a pretty interesting way of looking at a character from different point across times turned exasperating at some point, mostly because, in spite of the authors� best efforts, some of the stories failed to give much insight to Kirby at all, leaving him in the periphery of the tales they were trying to tell. I understand that that was the point of the entire anthology, to look and give layers to a character through the eyes of others, but that didn’t always work out in some of the stories.
Most of the stories in this book handled the subject in a very ham-handed and unsubtle way that screamed the message “he was human too!� at the reader’s face rather than allowing the message to show itself through the story. Others pretty much stepped over the line and became full blown after schools specials with important lessons! thrown in there to add more drama to an already pretty dramatic story. Others simply circled the core of the anthology from strange and extravagant points of view, giving us preposterous characters with ridiculous motivations, most of them stalking or being fascinated by Kirby in a very obvious manner for no other reason than because that was the only way to keep tabs on the central character for the length of a single short story.
No short story in this anthology is bad, but, for a collection with so many amazingly talented authors, I was disappointed with how the majority of them were just okay, whereas a handful only could be labeled as great.
I still think Violent Ends is an anthology that’s very well worth the read. The final product is good in general and the message is there, somewhat bumpy, but there nonetheless.
Violent Ends is a bold and fascinating project with a very unique perspective. School shootings are always a tricky and very sensitive subject in fiction, and because of the horrifying circumstances of such a situation, there isn’t always much space within these stories to humanize the shooter � aside from the fact that a lot of people wouldn’t want to sympathize in any way or form with someone like that, either. The only other book I’ve ever read that attempted something similar is , but that one’s more focused on the aftermath from an “accomplice’s� perspective rather than the actual shooter. In any case, what these authors came together to do is pretty unique and admirable, certainly thought-provoking. Months after having read it, I’m still thinking about it.
The format the authors chose for this anthology worked flawlessly with the idea. To provide 17 different points of views with 17 different voices and writing styles was a genius idea that gave dimension to Kirby as the subject study of this anthology and more impact to the story. Technically speaking, the novel is extremely well-made and delivers the intended message to a certain extent.
There are some really extraordinary tales in here; my favorites were History Lessons by Courtney Summers, Holes by Hannah Moskowitz, and the startling raw and disturbing Survival Instincts by Tom Leveen. Kendare Blake’s and Cynthia Leitich Smith’s (something I never thought I’d say) were pretty good too. As a whole, the anthology is generally well-written, but I didn’t like the ways some of these authors decided to approach the focal point of Kirby.
For some reason, the anthology feels disorganized. I shifts back and forth between past and present, and what was initially a pretty interesting way of looking at a character from different point across times turned exasperating at some point, mostly because, in spite of the authors� best efforts, some of the stories failed to give much insight to Kirby at all, leaving him in the periphery of the tales they were trying to tell. I understand that that was the point of the entire anthology, to look and give layers to a character through the eyes of others, but that didn’t always work out in some of the stories.
Most of the stories in this book handled the subject in a very ham-handed and unsubtle way that screamed the message “he was human too!� at the reader’s face rather than allowing the message to show itself through the story. Others pretty much stepped over the line and became full blown after schools specials with important lessons! thrown in there to add more drama to an already pretty dramatic story. Others simply circled the core of the anthology from strange and extravagant points of view, giving us preposterous characters with ridiculous motivations, most of them stalking or being fascinated by Kirby in a very obvious manner for no other reason than because that was the only way to keep tabs on the central character for the length of a single short story.
No short story in this anthology is bad, but, for a collection with so many amazingly talented authors, I was disappointed with how the majority of them were just okay, whereas a handful only could be labeled as great.
I still think Violent Ends is an anthology that’s very well worth the read. The final product is good in general and the message is there, somewhat bumpy, but there nonetheless.
February 6, 2019
Wow! This was brilliant. I definitely enjoyed some stories more than others, but as a whole, it was incredible. The story was sad and heartbreaking and each perspective added just a little bit more. My favorites were:
“Survival Instincts� by Tom Leveen
“The Perfect Shot� by Shaun David Hutchinson
“Presumed Destroyed� by Neal and Brendan Shusterman (BRILLIANT)
“Grooming Habits� by Elisa Nader (had me reeling!)
Overall I just loved this one!
“Survival Instincts� by Tom Leveen
“The Perfect Shot� by Shaun David Hutchinson
“Presumed Destroyed� by Neal and Brendan Shusterman (BRILLIANT)
“Grooming Habits� by Elisa Nader (had me reeling!)
Overall I just loved this one!
June 9, 2020
17 yazardan 17 bölüm. Tek bir hikayeye bağlı farklı karakter gözünden yazmış yazarlar hikayeyi. Yalnız aynı olayları tekrar tekrar okumak beni baydı.. Zor okudum kitabı. Hele 200.cü sayfadan sonra benim için hiç akmadı. Kitabın sevdiğim tek noktası verilen ayrı hikayelerle Kirby'nin iyi bir insan mı kötü bir insan mı olduğuna karar vermek bakış açınıza bağlı. Kirby bir kurban mı yoksa sadece cellat mı?
Ayrıca bana göre kitapta tutarsızlık vardı. Kirby ye aşık kızlar, bir sürü arkadaşı varmış gibi anlatılırken... Bazı bölümler de dünyanın en ezik kişisiymiş gibi bahsediliyordu.bir bölümde çok yakışıklı derken birinde kargaya benzetiliyordu. Herhalde yazarların birbirinden haberi yoktu kitap yazılırken 🤣🤣
Ayrıca bana göre kitapta tutarsızlık vardı. Kirby ye aşık kızlar, bir sürü arkadaşı varmış gibi anlatılırken... Bazı bölümler de dünyanın en ezik kişisiymiş gibi bahsediliyordu.bir bölümde çok yakışıklı derken birinde kargaya benzetiliyordu. Herhalde yazarların birbirinden haberi yoktu kitap yazılırken 🤣🤣
July 25, 2023
“Kirby Matheson has always had a gun in his hands. You just weren’t looking close enough.�
Check your content warnings on this one.
This is a story centered around a school shooting. Told from 17 different perspectives from 17 different authors, it was an interesting concept. In the end, it was an average read for me. There were a few perspectives that I could have done without. There were a few that stood out. But it was engaging enough to finish which is good because I have been not finishing a lot of books lately!
I’d say if this is something you might be interested in tackling, do so. It not too graphic, but it could absolutely still be triggering/upsetting.
Check your content warnings on this one.
This is a story centered around a school shooting. Told from 17 different perspectives from 17 different authors, it was an interesting concept. In the end, it was an average read for me. There were a few perspectives that I could have done without. There were a few that stood out. But it was engaging enough to finish which is good because I have been not finishing a lot of books lately!
I’d say if this is something you might be interested in tackling, do so. It not too graphic, but it could absolutely still be triggering/upsetting.
May 14, 2017
Grade: A+
Who is Kirby Matheson? The boy who befriended bullied kids? The kid who tried to protect you? Your victim? The oddball? The loner? The boy you who was once your friend? Your secret crush? The unpopular kid with whom you couldn't be seen? The kid with a gun? The monster? The shooter? Your brother?
VIOLENT ENDS tells the story of seventeen people who knew Kirby at different periods in his life and in different capacities. Each chapter is written by a different YA writer, each one of the seventeen POVs written in either first or third person, each a fascinating glimpse into Kirby. I devoured this unique novel in one sitting, eager to understand why this kid became a killer.
Of course, there are no easy answers, no real answers at all. Armchair psychologists, media, jurors and peers can theorize, but because Kirby died and we don't get his POV, there can never be real answers. I never saw him as a monster or a victim, but as a kid trying to find his place in his world. Acceptance. Friends. Esteem. An introvert who lived more in his head than among others, unskilled at asking for what he needed. The seventeen flawed narrators let him down in small and large ways, deliberately and by omission, recognized or denied their contribution to who Kirby became in varying degrees.
Yes, Kirby pulled the trigger, but he did not become Kirby-The-School-Shooter in a vacuum.
I didn't want VIOLENT ENDS to end. I wanted more from each narrator (except the gun), more backstory and more of what happened in the aftermath. I would love sequels in the separate POVs (a series?) because I was that interested. Collaborator/Editor Shaun David Hutchinson can you make this happen? Please?
My only tiny criticism is that I was a little confused in who lived, died and who knew who. If each chapter had had the narrator's name and disposition, that might have helped?
THEMES: violence, school shooting, family, friends, bullying, short-stories, peer pressure
VIOLENT ENDS is an important book that should be read by teens, their parents and their teachers. It would be a great classroom read for English, Psychology or Sociology classes. It's so good I'm about to reread, even though I have another book I can't wait to read in the queue.
Who is Kirby Matheson? The boy who befriended bullied kids? The kid who tried to protect you? Your victim? The oddball? The loner? The boy you who was once your friend? Your secret crush? The unpopular kid with whom you couldn't be seen? The kid with a gun? The monster? The shooter? Your brother?
VIOLENT ENDS tells the story of seventeen people who knew Kirby at different periods in his life and in different capacities. Each chapter is written by a different YA writer, each one of the seventeen POVs written in either first or third person, each a fascinating glimpse into Kirby. I devoured this unique novel in one sitting, eager to understand why this kid became a killer.
Of course, there are no easy answers, no real answers at all. Armchair psychologists, media, jurors and peers can theorize, but because Kirby died and we don't get his POV, there can never be real answers. I never saw him as a monster or a victim, but as a kid trying to find his place in his world. Acceptance. Friends. Esteem. An introvert who lived more in his head than among others, unskilled at asking for what he needed. The seventeen flawed narrators let him down in small and large ways, deliberately and by omission, recognized or denied their contribution to who Kirby became in varying degrees.
Yes, Kirby pulled the trigger, but he did not become Kirby-The-School-Shooter in a vacuum.
I didn't want VIOLENT ENDS to end. I wanted more from each narrator (except the gun), more backstory and more of what happened in the aftermath. I would love sequels in the separate POVs (a series?) because I was that interested. Collaborator/Editor Shaun David Hutchinson can you make this happen? Please?
My only tiny criticism is that I was a little confused in who lived, died and who knew who. If each chapter had had the narrator's name and disposition, that might have helped?
THEMES: violence, school shooting, family, friends, bullying, short-stories, peer pressure
VIOLENT ENDS is an important book that should be read by teens, their parents and their teachers. It would be a great classroom read for English, Psychology or Sociology classes. It's so good I'm about to reread, even though I have another book I can't wait to read in the queue.
December 4, 2017
Incredible. I can't even believe how much I loved this book.
We know that Kirby Matheson goes on a shooting spree at a school, but this isn't about that. It's a collection of short stories - each one a different point of view - and each written by a different author. Some of them don't seem to connect to either Kirby or the shooting or the rest of the high school until somewhere else in the book a story connects the dots for you and makes you lose your breath. There is even a chapter from the point of view of the gun. The GUN.
I still haven't stopped thinking about this book and I found these at the very back:
Meet the authors, watch videos and more at:
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com
We know that Kirby Matheson goes on a shooting spree at a school, but this isn't about that. It's a collection of short stories - each one a different point of view - and each written by a different author. Some of them don't seem to connect to either Kirby or the shooting or the rest of the high school until somewhere else in the book a story connects the dots for you and makes you lose your breath. There is even a chapter from the point of view of the gun. The GUN.
I still haven't stopped thinking about this book and I found these at the very back:
Meet the authors, watch videos and more at:
TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com
June 29, 2021
this book was the reason i started writing because it was genuinely the most thought provoking collection i have ever read in middle school (and it also introduced me to some of my favorite authors). my friends and i actually wrote a book in a similar style, but we never finished it sadly.
i think i am going to have to revisit this book because it was pretty amazing in 8th grade me’s mind!
(not sure if the date/year is accurate so i might have read it earlier)
December 6, 2017
Onvan : Violent Ends - Nevisande : Shaun David Hutchinson - ISBN : 1481437453 - ISBN13 : 9781481437455 - Dar 338 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2015
July 4, 2019
3,5 / 5
17 yazarın (ilk sayfada 18 yazar diyor ama 3 kere saydım 17 yazarın hikayesi var 🤔 ) birlikte yazdığı kurguyu okumak başta bende nasıl birşeyle karşılaşacağım konusunda şüphe uyandırsa da kitabı okumaya başladıktan sonra bu şüphe aklımdan uçup gitti. Oldukça klişe bir konu, ancak farklı yazarların, farklı karakterleri anlatmasıyla bu klişe durumu ortadan kalkmış. Sadece fazla uzatılmış gibiydi. Sonlara doğru biraz sıkıldım artık bitmeliydi diye düşündüm.
17 yazarın (ilk sayfada 18 yazar diyor ama 3 kere saydım 17 yazarın hikayesi var 🤔 ) birlikte yazdığı kurguyu okumak başta bende nasıl birşeyle karşılaşacağım konusunda şüphe uyandırsa da kitabı okumaya başladıktan sonra bu şüphe aklımdan uçup gitti. Oldukça klişe bir konu, ancak farklı yazarların, farklı karakterleri anlatmasıyla bu klişe durumu ortadan kalkmış. Sadece fazla uzatılmış gibiydi. Sonlara doğru biraz sıkıldım artık bitmeliydi diye düşündüm.
March 11, 2018
3.5 stars
December 18, 2017
A solid 4 stars.
Mr. Hutchinson and the other writers craft a magnificently flowing novel told from seventeen differing perspectives, from the best friend of the schools' football team who watched his friend die in his arms after being shot to the actual gun used in the school shooting that killed six and left five injured.
The plot centers around several MC's, as each author tells a different part of the overall story, but the angst-driven killer who calmly walks into the school cafeteria and opens fire (and although it looks like a random shooting, the shooter has fairly specific targets in mind) is the MC if one must choose a MC. The shooter, Kirby Matheson, has been bullied his whole life, has had a terrible home life, but yet does some of the nicest acts one can imagine for certain people. He is a unselfish person in one person's eyes and a shy, reclusive and even evil youth to others.
The manner in which all seventeen stories merge into a engaging, flowing and intriguing plot is amazing. Seamless in from the end of one story to the beginning of the one following it, this reader marveled at the many authors' talent for smooth transition for blending well this other authors to create a spellbinding and suspenseful novel that never kept this reader lacking for wanting to read on to the very end. For an excellent read about a very sensitive topic in today's schools, this is the book for you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2015
The Perfect Shot, Presumed Destroyed and History Lessons were my three favorite stories.
October 1, 2017
Anytime I read a book that deals with the situation that takes place in the book it is difficult. The way the authors did this with so many different point of views made it such a unique read. They way they showed things from Kirby's past as far back as middle school that could have contributed to his state of mind. To do what he did is inexcusable but I think people need to take a look at what happens to these children early on in there life. He was bullied from the age of 9 and put down and criticized up to the very end. Being abused on so many levels even by his teacher. It was just so horrible. The different point of views especially the point of view of the gun was so incredible. I think everyone should read this. I feel bullying in school needs to be address better than it is and should start in early elementary school. I know books like this schools and some parents would rather there children not be exposed but I feel everyone needs to be exposed to how the way people are treated can really effect them. I recommend this book to all of my friends. So heartbreaking on so many levels. I was mad and sad and sometimes thankful while reading this book. It is definitely a five star read for me.
June 23, 2019
Ich muss sagen, dass die Idee einen Amoklauf an einer Schule durch viele Perspektiven und unterschiedliche Stimmen zu beschreiben mich direkt fasziniert hat. Vor allem weil ich mir nicht vorstellen konnte, dass diese Art der Erzählung für so ein Thema funktionieren kann. Ich hatte weder erwartet ein stimmiges Gesamtbild zu bekommen noch dass mich die einzelnen Geschichten wirklich berühren. Doch ich wurde eines besseren belehrt.
Die verschiedenen Autoren verschaffen dem Leser einen wirklich guten Eindruck von den Geschehnissen vor und nach dem Amoklauf, wobei aber keine Perpektive aus der Sicht des Täters vorhanden ist. Man bekommt daher zwar eine Idee davon was zu dieser Tragödie geführt haben könnte, doch kommt Kirby Matheson nie selbst zu Wort und man sieht ihn immer nur durch die Augen der anderen. Genau dieser Punkt macht Violent Ends so besonders, denn für eine solche Tat gibt es keine gute oder nachvollziehbare Begründung und ich begrüsse es sehr, dass dies auch gar nicht erst versucht wurde dem Leser geben zu wollen.
Eine sehr gelungene Kurzgeschichtensammlung, die sehr interessant mit einem schwierigen Thema umgeht und gut zeigt warum viele der hier vertretenen Autoren im Jugendbuchbereich zu Recht so erfolgreich sind.
Die verschiedenen Autoren verschaffen dem Leser einen wirklich guten Eindruck von den Geschehnissen vor und nach dem Amoklauf, wobei aber keine Perpektive aus der Sicht des Täters vorhanden ist. Man bekommt daher zwar eine Idee davon was zu dieser Tragödie geführt haben könnte, doch kommt Kirby Matheson nie selbst zu Wort und man sieht ihn immer nur durch die Augen der anderen. Genau dieser Punkt macht Violent Ends so besonders, denn für eine solche Tat gibt es keine gute oder nachvollziehbare Begründung und ich begrüsse es sehr, dass dies auch gar nicht erst versucht wurde dem Leser geben zu wollen.
Eine sehr gelungene Kurzgeschichtensammlung, die sehr interessant mit einem schwierigen Thema umgeht und gut zeigt warum viele der hier vertretenen Autoren im Jugendbuchbereich zu Recht so erfolgreich sind.
June 9, 2024
“Something tragic happens in the world every minute of every day, and nowhere is really safe, but home is the only place we really have to go back to in the end�.
A school shooting occurred, and although many were affected, 17 different authors give insight into even the smallest encounters with Kirby Matheson, a student who one day decided to open fire on the day of an assembly, killing five students, one teacher, and injuring more. In the end, he takes his own life too. Through it all, we never get to understand the decision-making of Kirby, nor are we able to grasp his feelings, and I think that is the point. This “villain� is full of compassion, but there is an unsettling rage in him that can no longer be contained, but even so, he specifically saves certain people’s lives. At times, it is dark, overwhelming, sweet, and engaging, and yet you may not find the answers you are looking for. Kirby is a human being, and something broke him at an early age. What was Kirby’s childhood really like, and what role did the people in his life really play? Even though this is a YA novel, it makes you think of how we treat others, ignore them, and belittle them, but we also see how compassion can go a long way.
A school shooting occurred, and although many were affected, 17 different authors give insight into even the smallest encounters with Kirby Matheson, a student who one day decided to open fire on the day of an assembly, killing five students, one teacher, and injuring more. In the end, he takes his own life too. Through it all, we never get to understand the decision-making of Kirby, nor are we able to grasp his feelings, and I think that is the point. This “villain� is full of compassion, but there is an unsettling rage in him that can no longer be contained, but even so, he specifically saves certain people’s lives. At times, it is dark, overwhelming, sweet, and engaging, and yet you may not find the answers you are looking for. Kirby is a human being, and something broke him at an early age. What was Kirby’s childhood really like, and what role did the people in his life really play? Even though this is a YA novel, it makes you think of how we treat others, ignore them, and belittle them, but we also see how compassion can go a long way.
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