The Story Archive

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lionel Shriver · 2003 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

Eva Khatchadourian writes letters to her absent husband about their son Kevin, who killed several of his schoolmates two days before his sixteenth birthday. She asks again and again what she did, or failed to feel, in the years before. Its refusal of maternal consolation made it a controversial book, and it won the 2005 Orange Prize.

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Attributes

Genre
PsychologicalThriller
Theme
MotherhoodGuilt & ConscienceIsolation & AlienationGood vs EvilIdentity & Self
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
The Great MotherVillain / Tyrant
Form
EpistolaryUnreliable NarratorNonlinear / Fractured
Symbol / motif
The House
Conflict
vs Personvs Self
Mode / tone
RealistIronic
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

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