Book Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Title: We Need To Talk About Kevin 

Author: Lionel Shriver
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Pages: 477
Format: Paperback

Genre: Fiction
Rating: 10/10

Thought provoking, nuanced, ambiguous, horrific, dark, multi-layered, disturbing, unputdownable, engrossing, terrifying, even haunting – these are some of the words which popped into my mind while reading this extraordinary book. I often forgot that it was a work of fiction but it could have easily been a real story.

In ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ by Lionel Shriver, the story unfolds through a series of letters by Eva Khatchadourian addressed to her husband, Franklin. Through her candid letters, Eva tries to pursue the possible reasons that eventually led her first born Kevin to murder seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher, three days short of his sixteenth birthday. She ruminates, evaluates, examines several incidents, feelings and experiences from before Kevin was born leading up to the present context (two years after the unfortunate incident).

In the beginning, she is taken in by the idea of having a child “for a change” but eventually when she finds that she was pregnant she did not like the idea any longer. Pregnancy felt intrusive in her personal space. Even after the baby was born, she failed to feel the connect with her newborn. She detested the changes it brought to her body and to their lives. In her letters, she candidly admits to her faults and her failings as a mother, in order to single out the reasons that eventually led Kevin to commit the unthinkable. 

She confesses to being a bad mother. When little Kevin tells her that she did not want him. In response, Eva tells Kevin that he would not want himself. All in the guise of being factual. She was also envious about Franklin's attention for the baby. The way baby responded to him and he behaved with the baby. 

She felt early on that Kevin was not an ordinary child. There was something odd about him. He was evil by birth. But she forever struggles to convince Franklin about this because Kevin is always the regular, loving, enthusiastic child in front of him. Eva believed that Kevin was a scheming, shrewed boy, not a little innocent child. The way Kevin behaves in front of Eva is almost eerie but Franklin always laughs off all such incidents. He might have been even unreasonable in convincing himself that there could not be anything wrong with his child. Eva goes up to the extent of having a second child Celia to prove (even to herself) that Kevin was certainly different and her own emotions as a mother were quite alright for the second child. A lot of times, Eva seemed even scared of Kevin.

Eva comes across as cold, proud and also vulnerable at times, but still Eva and Franklin could be any regular couple and that is what terrifies the most. This could happen to anybody!

The story telling and characterization are probably one of the best that I have ever read. This book is in the league of classics. A must-read if you are also a parent! It is the kind of book that stays with you long after you have finished it. You cannot stop thinking about it. 

It is a difficult book to read but always engaging, never slow. I cannot recommend it enough!

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