User:Evillmunky/Draft of Nineteen Minutes

Plot summary
Peter is counting cinder blocks in jail, thinking he shouldn't be there. Jordan, his lawyer, listens to Peter's life story, even though it take some time to get him to talk. He goes on telling his lawyer that ever since nursery school he has been bullied. Jordan asks him if he talked to the teachers but they didn't do anything, "Ignore them," the teachers would say but nothing ever changed.

Josie tries to kill herself.

The Houghtons keep blaming themselves for Peter's rampage, questioning their parenting skills.

After questioning his sexuality, Peter devolps feelings for Josie. He sends her an e-mail confessing his love for her, but it soon backfires after Courtney reads it and forwards it to the whole school.

The trial begins and Alex struggles to keep a calm face. When the judge has a hard time reading off the names, she gives the case over to a new judge, which leads to Josie being called up as a witness. Throughout the novel, Josie never tells the whole story, but instead says, "I can't remember."

Since Jordan's idea to say he had post-traumatic syndrome does not get him an aquittal Alex must spend 22 years in prison.

At the end of the novel Alex and Patrick walk the halls of Sterling, which is a completly different school due to a recent remodeling. When she notices a student being tripped, Alex says, "After all that, nothing has changed."

Characters

 * Drew: One of the popular kids who was only wounded in the shooting.
 * Brady: Another popular kid who dated Courtney.
 * Derek: Peter's only friend after Josie leaves him for the popular crowd.
 * Mr. McCabe: A closeted gay teacher who ends up dying during the shooting.
 * Joey: Peter's dead brother.
 * Logan: Josie's biological father.

Autobiographical Elements
Jodi Picoult says her "children struggled with fitting in and being bullied" which made them "guinea pigs" for her characters in the novel. She knew the topic, bullying, was a universal one because everyone has experienced it in some way.