Ravenhill

By Timothy Hillmer

Book Overview

Ravenhill is the story of one fateful day in an American high school in 1997. As told from multiple points of view, the novel unfolds a few hours after an act of violence leaves five people dead and shocks the community.

Leonard, a ninth grade student, has a secret so horrific he hides it beneath his bullying and a tough-guy attitude. Lara, one of Leonard's targets, is trying to show no fear of his persecution but is prepared if Leonard carries through with his threats. S.A.M. Bond is his own superhero with a secret he must guard at all costs. Mr. Hardin, the English teacher, has his own personal demons, including the death of his young daughter. Paul, the custodian and former priest, is fighting alcoholism. All these personal problems, attitudes, and anxieties erupt the day before the winter holiday break.

Without flinching, Ravenhill attempts to answer the question of who might be responsible when a sudden violent act explodes and a quiet town is changed forever.

"This explosive novel is a compelling and disturbing view of the violence and terror and loneliness present in our schools in this age of guns and mayhem, when even the best efforts of good people can't prevent tragedy."--Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong and Eventide, and a finalist for the National Book Award.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826339859
• ISBN13: 9780826339850
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Masterful Construction

The disaster "Ravenhill" builds to is no secret. We know from the back cover that five people in a high school are going to die---and early on we guess that a gun will be involved. Still, out of the large cast of characters, all richly developed, we don't know who the five will be, and we don't know how the moment will unfold. And believe me, much of it will come as a surprise. The plot is a masterful construction, but it's driven by a well-established engine, the desires, the needs, the failings of the people we meet in the book: the students and teachers, the custodian and others. The author shies away from none of them, including the evident bad guy, a troubled and dangerous student named Leonard Lamb. Lamb is more like a lion, or a hyena. He makes life miserable for almost everyone---but on page 57, Hillmer enters his point of view and actually manages to win some sympathy for him, starting with Leonard's "Crap Rap," in which he sings, "I'm a player/I'm a dealer/I'm a loser/I'm a prick." There is no faceless evil here, but a guy who suffers like everyone else. When the author took on Lamb, I knew I'd follow him every step on the way to the coming tragedy. But there are other fascinating characters here as well, including S.A.M. Bond (short for Secret Agent Man), whose attraction to another ninth grader, Lara Wright, "Her Majesty of Midnight," is a classic portrait of teenage obsession. After Lara glides by him in the hall in her full gothic splendor, unaware of him, S.A.M. "lingered in the perfumed wake of her passing and felt a certain radiance of the soul that ripped through him like a Geiger counter clicking to life." Hillmer has his finger on the hidden life of a high school. And in a book in which the ending looks predictable, nothing else is.

Excellent read - highly recommended

I could not put down this new book by Timothy Hillmer. I had enjoyed the writing in his first novel, Hookmen, but the subject matter of Ravenhill is vastly different and I wasn't sure what to expect. Hillmer writes his characters with great depth and knowledge of the life experiences that can deeply affect personalities. This is not just another piece on school shootings. The characters in his book remind me of people I know, or have known, and that is part of what makes this subject matter so appropriate. Hillmer shows the human side to inhuman acts and forces us analyze how a situation so horrific can come about. I highly recommend Ravenhill - you will not be disappointed.

A Great Novel for Adults and Teens - Very Powerful

Tim Hillmer's new novel is a careful dissection of a complex problem - one that has become distinctly American over the past decade. The aim of this book is not to simply novelize those headlines and news stories on school shootings that now seem to appear and re-appear every few years; it is not an objective re-telling of the events leading up to those real-life tragedies. Rather, this book is a commentary on an analysis of violence, and the author deals with his subject on a variety of levels. He connects the explosive violence of a school shooting to the kind of everyday violence that we as human beings experience daily - those minor but destructive exchanges we all take part in, both as victim and perpetrator. The characters are realistic, their histories rich. The complex interactions between the personalities that people this story help to shed light on a very dark, very prevalent, but very ignored truth - that this contagion of violence is spread willingly by human beings. Ravenhill is an excellent read - highly recommended.

Highly recommended second novel

A fine, satisfying read. Where lesser authors would have given us black-and-white, Hillmer works in grays, refusing to dispense simple answers in response to complex questions. The plot is compelling and the conclusion unpredictable. But I think Hillmer's greatest achievement is in bringing Ravenhill, the school, to life, making it the main character in a cast of strong, fascinating players. One last note: If you enjoy this book, seek out Timothy Hillmer's first novel, The Hookmen.

Characters with depth; disturbingly real

This is not a retelling of Columbine. I've read several novels about violence in school, and Ravenhill is truly in a different league from the rest. Told from several different perspectives (a teacher, a janitor, several different students, an assistant principal, etc.) the novel unravels the events on the last day of school almost minute by minute, marching toward the fateful eighth period where...well... What makes this book stand out so much to me is how real each character is. All of them are deeply flawed, yet so completely loveable at the same time. Each character has something inside that makes you want to reach out to them--they are so deeply human, scars and all. When the end comes, I was left feeling like I was one of the members of the community of Ravenhill, grieving alongside them. However, unlike so many books fictionalizing school violence, this book left so much room for discussion about what people can do to reach out to each other. There is hope in the despair that I can cling to and bring into my daily life as I reach out to my students as a teacher. How many books can you say that about?