Shooter ***

Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter. New York: Harper Collins, 2004.

This novel reminds me a lot of Myers' Monster in format. The book takes the form of a report from the Harrison County School Safety Committee, which includes psychiatrists, psychologists, FBI agents, etc. The committee's purpose is to determine the status of safety in the county's schools after a school shooting the previous year. The novel takes the form of transcripts of interviews with Cameron, then some newspaper clippings and other documents, and finally culminating in diary entries from Leonard.

Leonard is the student that shoots and kills 2 students and wounding more before turning the gun on himself. The people interviewed after the incident are his girlfriend Carla, who has some issues herself but wasn't involved in the shooting. Most of the interviews are with Cameron, Leonard's best friend who was with him during the shooting.

This novel, like Monster, is interesting because the reader has to fill in a lot of information themselves. All there is in most parts is dialogue, with no narrative in between to explain what the characters look like, what they are doing, etc. There is a lot left to the imagination, which some readers will enjoy and others will find annoying, depending on their reading preferences. I would recommend this to anyone that is interested in books that revolve around crime or anyone that enjoys books that get deeply into the psychology of its characters.