No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School

by Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt

Book Overview

Now with a new Afterword on what has happened since the book was first published On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, walked... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590560310
• ISBN13: 9781590560310
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Lantern Publishing & Media
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book

Gives you more insight into the shooters life and what the victims went theough

A must read

If you have learned anything about the Columbine case, you know that this is an essential piece to getting closer to the truth. And an essential piece of the puzzle of uncovering what you might think have been part of the potion of disaster that day. Brooks is honest and to the point.. there really are no easy answers for what happened at Columbine.

A Wonderful First-Hand Account of A Tragedy No One Should Have To Deal With

I just finished reading this book due to my interest in the Columbine shootings and what Brooks Brown had to say in his own words. I was deeply moved by his story and what he has put up with all of these years. Most reviews are written on a positive note, but I can't help but point out the negative reviews. Sure, you want answers, you want beliefs that reflect your own. Well, this book is about what this young man went through. Just a teenager about to graduate from high school-befriended two lost souls who manipulated and deceived everyone around them. How would you tell your story? It's about your experiences, your feelings and your struggles. I don't see it so much self-serving, as self-healing and therapeutic. Who are you to judge this person who had his whole world turned upside down, who was blamed for being a suspect for so long and by so many in his community; Who was forbidden to return to school along with other associates of the gunmen, just because of who they were. This society has a lot of soul searching and listening to do. Perhaps if more people had listened to Eric and Dylan, they wouldn't have felt the need to get their message across in such a selfish and cowardly manner. To me, this book wasn't supposed to be about praising the law enforcement and Washington D.C. for their efforts to find answers and to prevent something like this from happening again. What has changed in our schools since that April day in 1999? Not much from what I can see. And just recently, a college kid who worshiped Eric and Dylan, took 32 innocent lives along with his own. Perhaps if we read more accounts by Brooks Brown, these angry teens would begin to understand that they are not alone and that they have people they can talk to; whether it be on-line, such as on forums that Brooks mentions at the end of his book, or with other people their age that might go speak at their schools. 'No Easy Answers' is just that-there aren't going to be solutions to this ever growing problem in our society, but there can be people who will listen, empathize, and make known that change starts little by little. I believe that Brooks Brown has accomplished change-in his community and in the minds of many people out there. I for one, loved his book and will read it again, as a reminder of the hell he went through that day. No one deserves what any of those victims and families went through, but if they want to write a book to let people know what they dealt with so that it will help them heal, then I condone it 100% Freedom of speech is one of the greatest gifts in this country after all. Best of luck to Brooks in all he does and I hope that he continues to write more books to help those lost souls out there.

Info you won't find anywhere else

What this book offers is a unique perspective that you will not get from the media or other parents who wrote books about their deceased children. Some are mad that Brooks Brown didn't offer a concrete solution to the shootings, therefore his motives for this book must be completely self-serving. I think that these one-star reviews are undeserved. The charges that Brooks wrote this book for the money are ridiculous, because it is almost impossible to make money from a book, unless you are as big as Stephen King. You will read that Brown believes that it would be wrong to place blame on one thing for what happened (such as music, video games or gun control, the "easy" answers), so he offers several events that combined led up to the tragedy: The police for ignoring the warning signs a year before the shootings, the staff at Columbine for ignoring the bullying, and the parents (Eric's especially) for not opening their eyes. There is also some hard-to-find information, such as what Eric's Doom levels were like, the stuff that was on his website, discussions of the basement tapes and what day-to-day interaction with the killers was like. This makes Brown's book different from all the others. It is clear that Brown wants as much accurate information as possible to be available, as well as to defend himself against the false charges lobbed at him from the police department who knew that they had dropped the ball in preventing the attack. Yes, a lot of the book is about Brown's life, but it all ties into what led up to the shootings. I did not read anything that was extraneous or uninteresting. In fact, this book seems to have the most credibility of anything I've read about Columbine. There are a few books in existence that try to turn the victims into martyrs for their faith, when religion had nothing to do with the shootings. No Easy Answers is much more believable, because like life, the answer is not always wrapped up neatly with a little bow. Highly recommended.

Learn the whole truth about the causes of Columbine

The Roman poet Virgil once wrote, "From a single crime, know the nation." Brooks Brown, who knew both Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, gives a unique perspective on the root causes that may have led to the infamous Columbine massacre, a list that includes intense bullying, preferential treatment given to athletes and a culturally-ingrained intolerance for anyone deemed to be different from the status quo. Detractors of both the book and the author seem to be entirely missing the point Brown makes in this book, i.e., the same sort of "bullying" behavior that one reads in the hostile comments left on the various reviews here are just the sort of thing that probably helped to perpetuate the hate and discontent felt at Columbine. When will people ever learn, one must ask? All in all, this one is an excellent read and I highly recommend it for learning the whole truth behind the causes of the Columbine massacre. Curt Rowlett, Author of Labyrinth13

REQUIRED READING FOR LITTLETON COMMUNITY

This book is a must read, but I expect that most people in the Littleton community will be so threatened by it, that not only will they not read it, but they will make it worth their while to condemn it. I implore the Littleton community to read this book with an open mind and an open heart.I live in the Littleton community and have for several years. My children have graduated from school and have moved on with their lives. For those of you in the community who think that Brooks Brown is out of line, perhaps he has touched a nerve in you that you would prefer to go untapped. If you find yourself furious with Brown, it would behoove you to pull back and try to gain some insight as to why you are reacting this way. What you find may surprise you. After all, anger stems from fear.What I am about to say is shocking, but it is fact. A year after Columbine a 16 year old in the Littleton community received a death threat while at school. The threat was from a classmate. The classmate called the 16 year old's home. The parent's were told that their 16 year old would die that very day. The kid's car would blow up ( it was parked on school grounds) and anyone within a 500 yard radius would be killed. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Dept. was called. The kid con- fessed and was booked with a Class 6 felony. There was no bomb. However, the lack of concern on the part of the police was disturbing. They refused to search the boy's home, even though the boy was known to brag about knowing how to make pipe bombs. The Jeffco authorities were also informed that the kid had brought a knife to school several times. Two months later, the 16 year old received another threat. Again th Jefferson County Police were disturbingly bored by it all. Shocking, isn't it? By the way, the kid was put in the Diversion Program and transferred to another Jeffco school. The police could have prevented the killings at Columbine and a year later they were no more interested in preventing another one from happening. This I don't understand.There are "no easy answers" as to why our culture in America isso violent. One problem that does contribute is that adults simply do not listen to the children. We adutlts think we know better because we are older. It's not too late to start listeningand we can begin by reading this book with an open mind and anopen heart. We owe at least that much to those children who died that day at Columbine. We owe it to the children who survivedbut were left with physical and or emotional scars. We owe it toour children to protect them. Let's start by being willing to hear the truth, painful though it may be.I applaud Brooks Brown for having the courage to speak up. I applaud him for his efforts in seeking the truth. It's time forthe adults to follow his lead. Don't shy away from the truth. Thetruth is the only path to genuine healing for this community.

The best book about Columbine yet

If you are at all interested in what happened before and after the Columbine tragedy, this is the book to read. This isn't a cold clinical analysis or profile of the killers, this book is filled with stories about the boys told by someone who actually knew them. Disturbing as some may be, it is important for us to see the whole picture. This personal perspective is what is lacking in so many of the other Columbine books. Not to mention what an easy read it is. I couldn't put it down!