A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy

Sue Klebold

Feb 2016 · Sold by Crown

About this ebook

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Sue Klebold, mother of one of the Columbine shooters, about living in the aftermath of Columbine.

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives.
 
For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?
 
These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother’s Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.
 
Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother’s Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.
 
All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues.

— Washington Post, Best Memoirs of 2016

Ratings and reviews

I have often wondered how she has coped with everything and how after reading the book "Nineteen Minutes" really opened my eyes and made me realize that not every parent knows their child like they think they do. I find Sue's story one of courage, strength, integrity and most importantly, very honest! I admire her for telling her story in the hopes that it can change the course of courses of many lives. It was hard to read because as a mother, I could see myself feeling those same things. I know she didn't intend for her son to do what he did and I know she'd change it if she could. But since she can't, she's done the next best thing. Told her story in the hopes of preventing another tragedy from taking place. To teach us parents to not ignore the little changes we see in our children and to not just brush it off as something they're going thru. She's helped to make me a better listener and to be more aware. To the victims of her son's choices, I truly offer my condolences and hope that you will see the good in this. We are in no discarding the true victims here. We just want to keep it from happening again. This is a must read for ALL parents! Thank you Sue, you're amazing!

I am only about 5 weeks younger than Dylan and always felt drawn to this tragedy. For years, I ached to know what/how his parents felt, as he was certainly the more complicated of the two boys involved in this. This book certainly sheds some more light on inner workings of the Klebold household; things I personally suspected were proven to be true. Dylan was not a sociopath, and my theory seems to hold up: "Eric wanted to kill. Dylan wanted to die." Heartbreaking. I pray the Klebold family finds peace.

This was a hard book to read. You can't help but grieve for Sue Klebold. For the pain she has endured. The pain of losing her child, it breaks your heart. But through it all, she had the courage to pull herself out of the darkness and found a way to help others. I believe every parent should read this book. I believe it will help us be more aware of signs to look for and question and listen to our children more, to prevent suicide and tragedies like Columbine.

About the author

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters at Columbine High School in 1999 who killed 13 people before ending their own lives, a tragedy that saddened and galvanized the nation. She has spent the last 15 years excavating every detail of her family life, and trying to understand the crucial intersection between mental health problems and violence. Instead of becoming paralyzed by her grief and remorse, she has become a passionate and effective agent working tirelessly to advance mental health awareness and intervention.