The day you wake up teary-eyed from yawning and your body yearning for sleep, you tell yourself time to go to school. Little did you know that you might not be protected the way you believe. All because in just nineteen minutes lives can change, “In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes you can get revenge.” The superb novel Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, takes place in Sterling, New Hampshire. With the intrepid characters, the must know themes and the most unexpected setting, where bullying has gone to far in Peter Houghton's life and now has left him to commit an act of violence that will leave Sterling with the vivid memory of the day he said “No more.”

Deceiving lies and gorgeous appearances of those who are “popular” and those who are the high school “sellouts” pulls the cast of Nineteen Minutes together.
There is the nice, but always-nerdy Peter Houghton and the daunting Matt Royston, which both guys have or are now tied together with Josie Cormier. The ex-best friend of Peter's and Josie is now involved with Matt. The two are made up to make one of the most known couples in Sterling High. The characters of Picoult's novel string together the whole story line, and how the characters are described and the intensity of what takes place in their lives is somehow unbelievably true. Josie's words are lost and are the words that Picoult uses to try and foreshadow the ending. “She would never kiss Matt again. She would never hear him laugh. She would never feel the print of his hand on her waist, or read a note he'd slipped through the furrows of her locker.” Josie is one of the main characters and has done something that will make the unspoken words that rested on Matt's lips the day he passed stick like super glue in your head. And make your heart ache for those that were lost or are now haunted with the visions Peter has created.

The safest place is never where you think it is; in this case the town of Sterling, New Hampshire will have to overcome the immunity of their own thoughts. “Sterling isn't the inner city. You don't find crack dealers on Main Street, or households below poverty level. The crime rate is virtually non-existent. That's why people are still so shell-shocked. They ask how could this happen here?” Well how could it not happen there? It really never matters where you are, it matters if your paying close attention to the kid that might possibly be sitting in front of your flat screen TV right at this moment. “You might not have recognized Sterling High. There was a new green metal roof, fresh grass growing out in front, and a glass atrium that rose two stories at the rear of the school. A plaque on the bricks by the front door read: A SAFE HARBOR.” Disaster can always lead to something better. In this case the school Sterling High has overcome a drastic change all to make students feel safer. For the security of their lives they believe a new building structure can help although many can still see through the make-up pasted over what used to be there. Josie, Matt and Peter make Picoult's novel enclasp around the worlds troubled kids lives, the lives of which we live today.

Bullying can hurt inside and out, Abuse can hurt just as much. Possibly even more because the suffering is showing on the outside where people can see, where the words pass from one mouth to another, which then spills out all over the floor. The floor that which everyone has laid eyes on but never really realized that other peoples hurt is the only thing holding them up. They think it's their stable ground, but little did they know that it's not their ground to even be near. The pain that kids inflict on each other makes love seem terrifying and not real. “When I was little I used to pour salt on slugs. I liked watching them dissolve before my eyes. Cruelty is always sort of fun until you realize that something's getting hurt. It would be one thing to be a loser if it meant no one paid attention to you, but in school, it means your actively sought out. You're the slug, and they're holding all the salt. And they haven't developed a conscience.” There are so many kids that are lost and insecure because of the cruel things that occur way to many times in their lives. Young adults never really get to experience or feel love from another person because they are already wallowing in self-doubt or hate.

“I think a persons life is supposed to be like a DVD. You can see the version everyone else sees, or you can choose the director's cut- the way he wanted you to see it, before everything got in the way. There are menus, probably, so that you can start at the good spots and not have to relive the bad ones. You can measure your life by the number of scenes you've survived, or the minutes you've been stuck there. Probably, though, life is more like one of those dumb video surveillance tape. Grainy, no matter how hard you stare at it. And looped: the same thing, over and over.” Some people think themes are inutile, meaning they have no useful purpose; this is just because they aren't looking at the intricate parts. Or people are just being plain lazy and are not thinking about the details they were offered. Until the day they come to a halt, they have ran to a dead end only realizing then that a mile ago they should have listened to the directions they so dearly needed. Themes are convenient and beneficial in life and we, as people need to take advantage of these lessons more often.

Nineteen Minutes, the novel of which has taught me so much, through the relationships, the unheard thoughts, the themes and the setting where it was truly needed the most. It was a surreal wake-up call when I and the rest of the world severely needed it the most. It is in my best interest to recommend this book to young and mature adults, it will be sure to leave you with the impact of sympathy and compassion for those families that were caused great pain. Nineteen Minutes will also make you open your eyes way more than the human body will even allow.