My rating comes predominantly from the subject matter - examining the family dynamics of a school shooter through the mother's perspective. Very interesting! The book's description on the back cover is really what caused me to purchase the book. For people who find serial killers/criminals and their mindset intriguing, this book really entertains that fascination. 
 I go back and forth on the actual writing. Mostly, I really liked the formatting of the story - letters from the mother to the father - and I liked the mother's language. It's very wordy and descriptive, and it mirrored much how I think and (wish I could) write myself. However, the lengthy sentences, many with uncommon words, can also be a bit of a drawback. This is definitely not a beach read. It takes concentration. I often found myself having to reread sentences and even entire paragraphs because I lost focus and wasn't able to absorb what I had just read. 
 The main reason I gave four stars instead of five: as much as I liked the characters, I also found myself getting frequently annoyed with them. For one, the main character, Eva, she's a liberal. I am not. So we fundamentally disagree. But it wasn't so much that she was liberal but that conservatism was written in an inaccurate light. And I see where liberals think that way of conservatives, but like I said, it's a fundamental disagreement. The things Eva hated about conservatism are the very things I like about it. And unfortunately, I felt like the close-minded views weren't just Eva's, but the author's as well, which left me feeling a little attacked, for lack of a better word, as a reader. 
 And then there's Franklin. I actually really liked Franklin at the beginning. Before Eva and Franklin had Kevin, Franklin was a light-hearted person and seemed very compatible with Eva. But after Kevin came into the picture, he changed into a completely different character. The change was so big for me that it almost seemed forced and simply unrealistic. I can't see Franklin being the kind of husband he was before Kevin and then being the kind of dad and husband he was after Kevin. He was written to be a completely oblivious parent, totally blind to the flaws of his child, and unwilling to admit when his child did wrong. I know there are parents like that in this world, but the extent of Franklin's blindness seemed way to stereotypical. So not only did I dislike Franklin, but I also disliked Eva for portraying him this way. 
 And then there's Kevin. The school shooter. I liked Kevin as a character. He was the most consistent. But at the end, there was a change in him. A welcomed change if you can call it that. But the change also seemed a little abrupt, and with the change coming at the very end of the book, there wasn't very much in the way of explaining why this change suddenly occurred. Basically, I wanted the change to happen, but I wanted it to happen in a more realistic kind of way. 
 And Celia, just to round out the main characters, I go back and forth with her. Overall, I like the character, who I think came into the story at the perfect time when the story was starting to fall flat for me. I also viewed her as "the dog" - doesn't offer a ton of substance, but it's the dog, and the dog better not die. Well... I didn't really like how needy she was portrayed at times, but I think she offered a nice contrast to Kevin. 
 I got through the book rather quickly, just over a week to read. As I got to the middle of the book, I started feeling anxious. Like I wanted the story to hurry up already. A lot of time was spent fleshing out Kevin's early years, and I wanted to get more into the teenage years and specifically, the school shooting. But as I started growing impatient with the pace, Celia came in and things picked up again.