“In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five. “Nineteen minutes is how long it took the Tennessee Titans to sell out of tickets to the play-offs. It’s the length of a sitcom, minus the commercials. It’s the driving distance from the Vermont border to the town of Sterling, New Hampshire. “In nineteen minutes, you can order a pizza and get it delivered. You can read a story to a child or have your oil changed. You can walk a mile. You can sew a hem. “In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. “In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge” (pg. 5). Jodi Picoult’s fourteenth novel, Nineteen Minutes is a mesmerising 455-page work of contemporary realistic fiction. Peter Houghton has endured the wraths of verbal, psychological, and physical bulling since his first day of kindergarten. The only person Peter ever felt comfortable with, Josie Cormier, eventually gave way to peer pressure, and began hanging out with the ‘cool crowd’. This group often instigates harassment, particularly targeted on Peter. At seventeen, not able to handle the pain anymore, Peter lashes out in a fit of anger, shooting nineteen people in his school. In total, ten were killed. Josie’s boyfriend, Matt Royston, is one of the ten deceased, however an un-answerable question remains: why was Matt shot twice? This intriguing novel has an extremely realistic plot, is full of vibrant characters, and contains a bold theme. Nineteen Minutes is a gripping novel; a definite late-night page-turner for any reader who can handle believable tales about the darker side of real life. In my opinion, the plot of Nineteen Minutes is exceptionally plausible. To modern-day teenagers, being ‘cool’ and fitting in is sometimes the most important objective in their lives. Obtaining the desired social status often results in them giving way to peer pressure, acting in ways and doing things that they would not normally. As depicted in Nineteen Minutes, teenagers, and sometimes adults as well, usually behave in a manner that is not like the true person they really are on the inside. On pages eight and nine, the story is told from Josie’s point of view: “She understood how she was supposed to look and supposed to act. She wore her dark hair long and straight; she dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch; she listened to Dashboard Confessional and Death Cab for Cutie. She liked feeling the eyes of other girls in the school when she sat in the cafeteria borrowing Courtney’s makeup. She liked the way teachers already knew her name on the first day of class. She liked having guys stare at her when she walked down the hall with Matt’s arm around her.”These ‘popular’ crowds seldom mingle with other groups. There is, however, one exception: to bully others who they feel are ‘lower’ than they are. Like Peter in Nineteen Minutes, there is often one particular individual who is singled-out as the person to pursue, and he or she is picked on unremittingly and without any mercy. For example, on Peter’s first day on kindergarten, his mother gave him a brand-new Superman lunchbox. On the bus ride to school, a boy asks Peter if he wants “to see Superman fly” (pg. 66), after which the boy proceeds to throw Peter’s lunch out the window. This aggravation continues every time Peter brings a new lunchbox to school. I have witnessed situations similar to these a countless amount of times in my nine years of school. As depicted in Nineteen Minutes, I have also observed in my own experiences that some bullying victims handle their situation better than others. There are still, however, those who feel that they cannot hold the constant abuse any longer once they reach a certain point. The results are often ill-fated. At times, such as in the circumstances of this powerful novel, the results can even be devastating and catastrophic. Peter shoots nineteen people in a single school-shooting rampage that lasts only nineteen minutes. I believe that Picoult has taken a real situation in our society and made an outstanding work of fiction; I feel that the only separation between this novel’s plot and similar real-life situations are the people and the places.