I jumped into this book thinking it would be centered around an action-packed school shooting scene from the start, so the beginning definitely felt slow to me, especially with all the hard words stuffed into what was supposedly a casual and intimate letter. The book in general was hard to read much of in one sitting, at least until I hit the last third of the book when things started picking up with Kevin's adolescence. 
 I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this. The prose? The letter format? The words I distantly remembered from hours of SAT prep? Or maybe Kevin's unbelievable "evil" at age two? His unlikely so-called intelligence and agenda existing simply to ruin Eva's life? I think what bothered me more was how unnecessary the whole letter-formatting was. The only times I remembered this novel was supposed to be a giant string of letters was when Eva referred to her husband in the second person. 
 Plotwise, the book could be summarized into two categories: reasons why Eva believes she is better than the rest of the universe and reasons why Eva hates Kevin. Neither categories were interesting enough to be the driving force of the book. The first just made me hate Eva more and more throughout the book, and the second just made it impossible to sympathize with anyone in the story. 
 Was this book well-written? Most definitely. Lionel Shriver is the bomb. 
 But did I actually enjoy the book? Maybe I would have, if I didn't hate all the characters that were mentioned more than three times. (view spoiler)[ Eva is an attention-seeking, hypocritical poor excuse of a mother who seems to personally offend me with every thought she has, Kevin is a caricature of a villain especially in his infancy (which I understand is partially a result of Eva's warped view stemming from her bitter resentment), Franklin is the stereotypical stupid jock 30 years out of high school, and Celine is a spineless mary sue who only exists to juxtapose Kevin. 
 Also the ending was a definite let-down. First of all, I thought Kevin's Thursday's escapade was much less exciting than I thought it would be after pages and pages of build up. Of course, Eva plays a part in this with her annoying detachment and emotional vacancy. Speaking of Eva, she spends countless number of letters recounting the reasons why her son is the devil reincarnated, but after one strange bonding session, she decides 16 years too late that she loves her son after all. Um??? (hide spoiler)] 
 Overall, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is not a book I regret reading or buying (but only because I got it for $2.50 at a local library book sale), but it is a book I will most likely not pick up again (back to the book sale it goes?). I'm planning on continuing this theme of disturbing and dark books by moving on to read Columbine by Dave Cullen.