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

I know Brooks knew the Killers personally, I don't dispute his claims at all, But the general consensus of evidence seems to be that Eric & Dylan did what they did for "Apocolyptic fame" more then revenge.

I wish brooks would do a follow up explaining why he feels this way, but the book itself is very good & gives you a insiders prospective.

The biggest problem is that of course, no one can explain with certainly what the two killers were thinking. Brooks was friends with them in high school, but in a superficial way because they had fun together. Many red flags, not how badly the shooters were treated but how they treated others.Brooks tell a story of the future killers lying in wait, pelting little Trick or Treaters with BB guns. They damaged property,set off pipe bombs and were caught on a felony charge of breaking into a van and stealing. Brooks does mention how the pair seem to straighten out as the massacre approached,they realized they couldn't make their plans if they were in trouble. The chilling thing I think is that the killers did have friends in school, but they really didn't care who they killed. Yes Eric told Brooks to leave but that was a chance meeting, they planned to blow up the school no matter who was in it.

As a teacher of special education students for over 40 years, I am all too familiar with the hostile environment on school campuses and the rampant bullying that the athletes, wealthy students, and "Christian"students subject the "lesser" students to daily--especially my handicapped students who come from the wrong end of town and have the wrong ethnicity and religions. Countless times I wrote referrals on the "good" students who tormented my outcast students. The referrals often disappeared. When I insisted that something be done, I was belittled as "Mama ____" and there were no consequences for the perpetrators. I was reminded who their parents were, where they lived, and how important they were to the football team or student group. The rage at the injustice of the modern school environment grew in my students, their parents, a nd me. Brooks Brown's book sadly accurately describes what many students have to survive in school. When Columbine occurred, my students and I felt sad for the victims and perpetrators because we knew they were likely victims too.
Brooks' book exposes the ugly truth of the corruption in our schools and police departments. What is so beautiful about the book is that the author still has hope that good people may retake our government and schools by getting involved and becoming a part of the change. I tried to provide an "island of decency" in my classroom where students could feel safe and respected--even loved. Read this book and you will understand what parents and students are up against in today's corrupt school system.

A very great book! Literally couldn't put it down and I am truthfully saying I am not much of a reader. If you are someone whoever wondered what Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were like on a down to earth in normal society scale before they unleased their rage on April 20th 1999, this is definitely the book to give you the insight

This was a strong and easy read by Brooks Brown. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Columbine tragedy. I would like to see the book released with a new afterward to include the 10th anniversary and Brooks' feelings towards the memorial.

I've read Dave Cullen's definitive book, "Columbine" as well as all the official reports and transcripts. My old fascination was rekindled by Sue Klebold's new book, and I just discovered this one by Brooks Brown.

Brown is famously known as the kid who was friends with the killers, until a fight caused Eric to make public threats against him on his website. These reported threats were not taken seriously by the police, leading ultimately to Columbine, according to Brown.

The book exposes ineptness and cover-ups by the police department, as well as the bully culture of Columbine, where jocks rule. This is something I think happens more in small town areas where high school sports are popular in the whole community, although that's my own opinion and not Brown's. His anger at the mishandling of the case and the corruption of the public figures around him is evident as he describes many incidents, both large and small, where he feels he was failed: by his school, by the police, by the government and by his community.

Unfortunately, we get no sense of who his friends were, which is what I'd hoped to gain. It's the typical "we liked playing video games" stuff that boys do, rather than any deep insights about their personalities, and there were few memorable anecdotes about their time together. All the insights are ones that are now public knowledge. Any idea of what these killers may have been like to have as a friend is superficial, and the whys are filtered through Brown's own ideas of the culture surrounding him.

While an interesting read, I can't say I felt that I learned more about what happened and why Klebold and Harris ended up doing what they did than I knew before, but I suspect that we'll never truly know. Brown believes bullying played a large role, but few bullies become mass murderers. It is very clear that their family and friends never saw it coming. Brooks Brown had the largest piece of the public puzzle with the death threats against him, and he and his parents did their best to fit it in, but without the rest it couldn't be completed.

The one thing that is certain is that Brown was another victim of Columbine. His anger is clear. Now that it's been so long, I hope he's found peace.

Some interesting and disturbing information but interpretation is limited. He is believable but his insight and interpretation of events remains that of a twenty year old, which is unavoidable but nevertheless narrow.

I didn't enjoy this book at all. Newer information has been released since this book was published which may have colored my opinion on this, but unfortunately, I don't know. By now, "no easy answers" have turned into obvious problems that we are mostly aware of. I did learn a few things from reading, however. Brown's book does shed light on the information regarding the Internet threats from Harris and the inactive from the police regarding this. I think the book is overall poorly written, but I try to keep in mind the young age Brown was at the time of the writing. A Mother's Reckoning is a far superior book, in my opinion.

This is an excellent book. It's very insightful, factual and I appreciate Brooks Brown's honesty. He was the boy that Eric Harris told to leave right before the tragedy/attack. I really feel for the Brown Family and am very happy that the truth came out. The insight given by this young man is truly appreciated - I can't imagine having been through what he and his family have been through. This book is an important read regarding the Attack on the Columbine High School because it gives us the perspective of a young boy, (and his family), who was there and who were put through even more hell by the outright lies of a cover up by the police. This book contains a lot of factual information and a lot of heart.

Here’s the plot: The Police are bad, because apparently at the time of the shooting they should have known that there were exactly 2 shooters in the school and the amount of guns, ammo, armor, pipe bombs and other stuff they had with them. Patti Nielsons phone call to the police gave them exactly all the information the police needed to enter the school and blow the shooters away(apparently you can tell that there are only 2 shooters IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL from a single phone call, and every policeman must have a blueprint of the school inside of their head). The Christians are bad, and the only good Christian is the one that doesn’t preach the gospel(aka Rachel). The school system is bad, everyone bullies everyone, except of course the Holy and innocent Brooks Brown, and the teachers protect the “popular” students. The mass media is a truth-teller and the violent games, movies and music are just entertainment that the public wants and needs, and never desensitizes anyone to violence.

Here’s my review on it. The book is overall pretty easy to read, I was more interested in Brooks friendship and interactions with the to-be killers to better understand their mindset, and that’s what the author should have focused more on and less on preaching his own political and personal opinions. Probably would have made the book 100 pages lighter.

Brook's writing style is wonderful - engaging, intelligent, compassionate, insightful, thought provoking and above all utterly convincing. As someone from the same generation as Brooks, everything he says has such a clear ring of truth to it. All the way through it, I kept thinking, "If only Eric and Dylan had had the same level of awareness and confidence that Brooks did..." Any of us who were 'outsiders' at high school will recognise so much of what he describes. Having said that, for all the parallels I was able to draw with the atmosphere at my own high school, the horrendous degree of physical bullying, and the elevation of one specific group over another (which was encouraged by teachers and staff) was not one which I recognised, and therefore shocked, angered and saddened me. The fact that this was allowed to go on and accepted as 'the norm' is appalling.
This book offers a real insight into the atmosphere which contributed heavily to the psychological development of two young men who became killers. It is by no means an attempt to excuse their actions, nor even offer a full explanation for them - of course, there are many complex factors at play during the formative years of a teenager's life, and Eric and Dylan's home life's and individual susceptibility to mental health disorders for example, are also key factors. But if you want to know what their daily life at Columbine High was like, THIS book will tell you the unvarnished truth.

Having just finished reading 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen, I knew I had to read Brook's book, because Cullen's book, while full of interesting factual information, left me feeling very uneasy. I detected such a strong sense of bias in his descriptions and opinions of Eric and Dylan's personalities, and his assertions regarding their psychology. Much of his book seemed to be an attempt to paint Columbine High as the land of milk and honey, and some of it's teachers as saintly. He placed far too much emphasis on the opinions and conjecture of one or two people - people from a completely different generation, who were NOT privy to the reality of what the high school experience was truly like for it's students. Having read Brook's true account, I am left extremely confused as to what motivated Cullen to disregard it, and paint his own very misleading picture.
Anyway, I won't go on at length about that because other reviewers have already done so for the review section on Cullen's book.
If you want to know the truth about what a high school is like, ask the people who really lived it - the students. Brooks was a student, and as a highly intelligent observer, his account cannot be discredited by anyone who was not there.
I do feel that Eric may have been a psychopath, and that Brooks was (like everyone else) unaware of this fact. But psychopaths are not necessarily born that way. In fact, leading experts say psychopathy develops as a result of a number of key factors. They are shaped every bit as much by their experiences and environment as the rest of us. One leading psychiatrist described it recently as a case of "genetics load the gun, and experiences fire it." So even if Eric was a "budding psychopath" (a term which Cullen used in his book) that does not simply mean that his life experiences can somehow be discounted. In fact, maybe it makes them even more relevant, and very important in furthering our understanding of how the psychopathic brain comes to be.
Thank you for writing this, Brooks. I wish with all my heart that Eric and Dylan had been more like you.

I've been reading a lot aboput this tragedy recently, and this book does a great job of summing it up while debunking the myths and lies that still run rampant. The most fascinating aspect is the prolonged discussion of the most ignored aspects of the story: the police's refusal to do anything to stop the massacre BEFORE it occured, despite ample opportunity; the police's incompetence DURING the massacre (the refused to enter the school for hours after the shootings, resulting in deaths, and accidentally murdered one student trying to escape; and their massive cover-up AFTER the massacre. It's a massive eye-opener.

This is an excellent book. It's very insightful, factual and I appreciate Brooks Brown's honesty. He was the boy that Eric Harris told to leave right before the tragedy/attack. I really feel for the Brown Family and am very happy that the truth came out. The insight given by this young man is truly appreciated - I can't imagine having been through what he and his family have been through. This book is an important read regarding the Attack on the Columbine High School because it gives us the perspective of a young boy, (and his family), who was there and who were put through even more hell by the outright lies of a cover up by the police. This book contains a lot of factual information and a lot of heart.

Here’s the plot: The Police are bad, because apparently at the time of the shooting they should have known that there were exactly 2 shooters in the school and the amount of guns, ammo, armor, pipe bombs and other stuff they had with them. Patti Nielsons phone call to the police gave them exactly all the information the police needed to enter the school and blow the shooters away(apparently you can tell that there are only 2 shooters IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL from a single phone call, and every policeman must have a blueprint of the school inside of their head). The Christians are bad, and the only good Christian is the one that doesn’t preach the gospel(aka Rachel). The school system is bad, everyone bullies everyone, except of course the Holy and innocent Brooks Brown, and the teachers protect the “popular” students. The mass media is a truth-teller and the violent games, movies and music are just entertainment that the public wants and needs, and never desensitizes anyone to violence.

Here’s my review on it. The book is overall pretty easy to read, I was more interested in Brooks friendship and interactions with the to-be killers to better understand their mindset, and that’s what the author should have focused more on and less on preaching his own political and personal opinions. Probably would have made the book 100 pages lighter.

Brook's writing style is wonderful - engaging, intelligent, compassionate, insightful, thought provoking and above all utterly convincing. As someone from the same generation as Brooks, everything he says has such a clear ring of truth to it. All the way through it, I kept thinking, "If only Eric and Dylan had had the same level of awareness and confidence that Brooks did..." Any of us who were 'outsiders' at high school will recognise so much of what he describes. Having said that, for all the parallels I was able to draw with the atmosphere at my own high school, the horrendous degree of physical bullying, and the elevation of one specific group over another (which was encouraged by teachers and staff) was not one which I recognised, and therefore shocked, angered and saddened me. The fact that this was allowed to go on and accepted as 'the norm' is appalling.
This book offers a real insight into the atmosphere which contributed heavily to the psychological development of two young men who became killers. It is by no means an attempt to excuse their actions, nor even offer a full explanation for them - of course, there are many complex factors at play during the formative years of a teenager's life, and Eric and Dylan's home life's and individual susceptibility to mental health disorders for example, are also key factors. But if you want to know what their daily life at Columbine High was like, THIS book will tell you the unvarnished truth.

Having just finished reading 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen, I knew I had to read Brook's book, because Cullen's book, while full of interesting factual information, left me feeling very uneasy. I detected such a strong sense of bias in his descriptions and opinions of Eric and Dylan's personalities, and his assertions regarding their psychology. Much of his book seemed to be an attempt to paint Columbine High as the land of milk and honey, and some of it's teachers as saintly. He placed far too much emphasis on the opinions and conjecture of one or two people - people from a completely different generation, who were NOT privy to the reality of what the high school experience was truly like for it's students. Having read Brook's true account, I am left extremely confused as to what motivated Cullen to disregard it, and paint his own very misleading picture.
Anyway, I won't go on at length about that because other reviewers have already done so for the review section on Cullen's book.
If you want to know the truth about what a high school is like, ask the people who really lived it - the students. Brooks was a student, and as a highly intelligent observer, his account cannot be discredited by anyone who was not there.
I do feel that Eric may have been a psychopath, and that Brooks was (like everyone else) unaware of this fact. But psychopaths are not necessarily born that way. In fact, leading experts say psychopathy develops as a result of a number of key factors. They are shaped every bit as much by their experiences and environment as the rest of us. One leading psychiatrist described it recently as a case of "genetics load the gun, and experiences fire it." So even if Eric was a "budding psychopath" (a term which Cullen used in his book) that does not simply mean that his life experiences can somehow be discounted. In fact, maybe it makes them even more relevant, and very important in furthering our understanding of how the psychopathic brain comes to be.
Thank you for writing this, Brooks. I wish with all my heart that Eric and Dylan had been more like you.

This book provided a painful and factual look at the Columbine tragedy. It's hard to embrace the idea of what killers are like to the people who knew them in life and prior to their crimes. Brooks Brown does this insightfully and with a hard-to-swallow attempt to see the other side of the fence's view. Brown was an insider to the world of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold for a while in his childhood. He knew them before they went on their murder/suicide spree. Their friendship ended when Brooks began to suspect the truth, but the fact that no one took the account of a similar teen seriously nor did his parents have much luck seems the most shocking to me. I applaud his attempt to show the uneasy portrait and the way that even people whe think we know can never be really "known" to us.

I picked up Brooks Brown's book after reading the Jeff Kass book on Columbine. Kass' book was excellent, and had the benefit of time and the author being a professional journalist. But even though Brooks Brown's book is now over 10 years old, it is hard to top the persepctive and information from someone who actually knew the killers and grew up with Dylan Klebold. The book is a very quick read, and I finished it in a weekend.

To me, the strongest part of Brown's book is how conflicted he is over the events that unfolded at Columbine. Brown mentions several times that he feels guilty for being friends with killers of 13 innocent people, yet Brown states point blank that Klebold and Harris don't deserve a free pass for what they did. That being said, Brown's book really drives home the point of how horrible a place Columbine was for kids not in the popular/athletic clique.

Some of the items that really stuck out to me from Brown's book: I was familiar with the snowball incident in which Eric Harris cracked the windshield on Brown's car, but I never knew how scary Harris' temper was when confronted by Brown's mother. The Kass booked touched on Harris's website and his threat against Brooks Brown, but this book covered the threat in more detail and really shined a light on how incompetent/corrupt local law enforcement and politicians were.

I didn't know that Brown was also friends/acquaintances with Rachel Scott. This book really fleshes out who she was and how overt many students were in trying to impose their religious ideas on the student body at large. What a chaotic scene that must have been when Scott's casket was opened at the end of her funeral service.

Even though Brown's book is now dated, it is a must read for anyone interested in Columbine because it was written by someone who knew the killers and went to school at Columbine. The only big downer for me in the book is that it did get somewhat preachy regarding political ideology. I am not a lockstep Democratic voter or Bill Clinton apologist, but it seemed very much a stretch to attribute Jefferson County sherrif John Stone's arrogance and lies at least in part to Clinton's lack of ethics in the Lewinski scandal.

Overall, though, the book is hard to beat because it was written by someone who knew the central figues and lived through Columbine.

I picked up "No Easy Answers" after having read Dave Cullen's wonderful "Columbine," which sparked an interest to find out more about the attack and the killers themselves. Brown provides unique insight into the personalities of Harris and Klebold, as he was friends with both and spent considerable time around them, even in the months and days before the attack. This book provides a lot of evidence that the police department was lying to the victim's families and suppressing evidence. Cullen's book mentions this as well, but since Brown's family was directly involved in these situations, it has more immediacy in this book.

Brown places basically all of the blame for the attacks on the bullying Harris and Klebold suffered through in high school (though he does not excuse what they did). Although I'm sure that bullying had something (maybe even a lot) to do with fueling their rage, I don't agree that it was the ONLY thing. It is just one piece in a puzzle that we most likely will never know the solution to. Despite this, "No Easy Answers" is a really good book; I plowed through it in two sessions within 24 hours. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about the Columbine tragedy.

This book got me hooked on the Columbine topic. I've read Cullen's book and didn't agree with everything he said. Brooks Brown's book is by far better.

The most important aspects you will learn in Brown's memoir is that the social environment of Columbine High School was toxic. Bullying was out of control and the teachers/principle did nothing about it. The perpetrators (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold) didn't see any future for themselves and lost hope/touch with reality.

Brooks discussed events about Eric and Dylan's experience of being bullied- Examples: Eric shoved in lockers, ridiculed for having pectus excavatum/small frame, Both Eric and Dylan squirted with ketchup in cafeteria, glass bottles thrown beside them.

One of the obvious reasons why I think Dave Cullen discredited himself is that he described Columbine High School as a friendly perfect place where everyone got along..... and then suddenly out of nowhere two evil kids went on a killing spree.

The idea of the book is not intended to praise murderers. Brooks wrote it so that people would understand the minds of Eric and Dylan. It's very tragic that innocent people died that day. It was also tragic that the teens slipped through the cracks of society.

I absolutely loved this book. Out of all the books on Columbine out there, I rather read a book from someone who was there and lived through it. I'm glad I did, because this book was excellent. I literally could NOT put it down. I liked it so much that I recommended it to my teacher when we covered Columbine in class, and now he's reading it. This truly is the truth about Columbine. There's so much false information out there. This book is a breath of fresh air to anyone who actually researched about Columbine in search for the truth.

Picture for a moment your best friend from childhood. Picture yourself with him or her and think of all the great memories you had together as children. Picture yourself playing hooky during high school one spring afternoon. Picture yourself hearing that your best friend just murdered fellow classmates and took his own life. "I knew Eric and Dylan were dead long before they announced it on TV," Brooks states. "Still, actually hearing the newscasters say it made it real. My friends were gone."

This is what Brooks Brown went through. He would later be accused of "being in" on the massacre, before finally being claimed innocent long after the incident.

Brooks is mostly known for being the last person to talk to Eric Harris on April 20th, right before shots rangout, outside the West entrance of Columbine High. "Get out of here. Go home." Those were the last words Brown would hear before his life was shattered.

This book is split into two parts. "Columbine", part one, tells about growing up in Littleton and gives us a window into the world of Eric Harris; a kid that was clearly dangerous. It tells of Eric's life, and the warning signs that were clearly ignored, and also discusses personal experiences, from a snowball thrown into a windshied to written threats on a website, that show a kid in distress. Part two, "Aftermath", is just that. It discusses some of the most emotional parts in the book, including Rachel Scott's funeral being turned into a call for Christians to "take back the country". Brooks also tells of the accusations against him and how the families of the victims were effected.

This is probably the best written telling of the tragedy at Columbine available. Most other books are given a religious spin, which I think blinds the message that we as a country need to learn from what happened. Some think that Browns love of Ayn Rand gets in the way of his writing, but I disagree.

Brooks Brown was there through the entire tragedy. It gets me choked up inside to even think of going through half of what he did. Yet, despite all the horrible things he's gone through, he manages to write with a familiar clarity and seems very down to earth. Brooks ends his memoir by saying, "I saw all of this, and I haven't given up. Neither should the rest of the world." I thought that was very brave and rational. "Learn from the injustice of Columbine," he goes on to say. And we must, if anything is to be done. As the title says, the book doesn't offer any one answer to the question as to why this happened, but it does paint a clear picture of the hostile atmosphere of Columbine and discusses the many factors which led to the murders.

I recommend this book to anyone who ever went to highschool. There is so much here I recognize from my own experiences, and that, I think, speaks volumes about where we are today - not where we should be.

In a poem that Brooks wrote the day after the killings, he says that, "They may call us Columbine-in name we are/But the real name we earned surpassed Columbine by far/ The only name I care about that the media was giving/ Is the truth about who we are: WE THE LIVING."

I HIGHLY recommend this book, since it was written by one of their close friends, and it gives a very great insight into the minds of these gentlemen and you will learn that on every day aside from April 20th they were victims. These gentlemen were picked on everyday of their lives and the media's claim that it is because of Metal Music and Violent Video Games is the cause is false. No one ever wants to admit that their football star angel son bullies kids, and its always the "freak of nature that brings it upon themselves." I know differently because I was just like Eric and Dylan and I feel a complete connection with them as I was picked on for the way I dressed and the music I listened to. With that being said, I DO NOT condone that actions and the extremes these men went to to solve their problems, but if someone is pushed to those extremes where they do not value their life or anyone elses then we need to step back and really dig deep into their social lives and see how their school life was not their home lives.

Two boys, who went through troubling times from grade school to high school. Continually mocked, ignored, abused, and bullied from classmates caused Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to express there anger with violence. There lives were tough because the other kids excluded the boys making them total outcasts. So resulting to letting everyone feel their pain they decided to get even with everyone they knew.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Even though it really happened and was quite sad, it showed me how the world is feeling and what people are going through. It shows you, your not the only one who has problems. It was a right to the subject book, and was really interesting. I couldn't put the book down. I really like the type of writing style Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt used in explaining the event. It's creative and easy to understand.
They also had their display of chapters in an order that confuses you and interests you at the same time. They first start you off at the present scene, then gave you a little background with the past, and then at the end of the book Brooks Brown discusses what he tries to prevent in the future and how people where affected greatly by Eric and Dylan's revenge. It was a very emotional book, but it tells you that no matter what you face in life you need to stay powerful and above all don't give up hope.

While I wasn't impressed with Browns' annoying (and constant) references to Ayn Rand and pastiches of her already less than impressive work in an effort to perhaps conceal emotions too painful to deal with, we are here offered a first person viewpoint of a sensitive, intelligent young man who befriended Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Brown's primary feeling is that the death of 15 young people at Columbine High School had nothing to do with video games, music, the desire for infamy or anything of the kind. Eric and Dylan were two young men who, in the throes of alienation and despair, combined their legitimate rage at constant mistreatment into an excuse for a quite illegitimate reaction, the vicious murder of 13 other young people. Eric (who Brown seems to feel was disturbed from the getgo) and Dylan, whom Brown suffered through junior high with, became progressively more hateful toward not only the group of morons harassing them at school but humanity in general. We are given some insight into their deteriorating minds when Brown recounts an instance in which they shot a little children with bebe guns on Halloween night--and laughed about it.
If Eric and Dylan had simply been evil sociopaths, Columbine as culture shock would be easier to absorb, simply a glitch. But this was not the case. While Eric had anger problems and Dylan was clearly predisposed to violence from a certain age, these tendencies seem to have emerged from two boys who had been rejected one too many times.
To my mind at least, this eyewitness narrative takes us right back to the original feelings about Columbine when it occured, that these were two isolated and abhorred young men with something horrific to prove. All the convoluted nonsense about 'fame' goes out the window. This, Brown aptly comments, serves the authorities well in their sweeping dismissal of the idea that something might have actually been wrong with their little community to begin with. The psychological trauma of the incident on Brown is probably indescribable and, to an extent, irreversible. He is commendable, however, for reaching through the haze of mediated lies and excuses to deliver truth in this heartwrenching tale of two boys who degenerated from kids with extreme potential to hopeless murderers.

I read this after reading Dave Cullen's Columbine. I think you need to read both and see the YouTube videos to get a fuller picture of what must have happened, though we'll never really know it seems. What I thought was really rich about this book was how much he talks about bullying, and very specifically, the kinds of bullying that went on at the schools these kids went to. It's shocking. I've heard of verbal abuse and taunting, but the physical abuse, with adults not caring is astounding. I've often said that adults have greater protection against people abusing them than children do. If anyone at my workplace so much as raises their voice at a colleague, they're reprimanded and well on the way to being fired. How "boys will be boys" is an acceptable excuse is just laziness in dealing with conflict imho. The other aspect of this book (and Cullen's) that was so shocking was the utter incompetence of the police during the tragedy and after. It's absurd. I read stories like this and others where the police just don't act in a wise way but then in others where they exert their powers relentlessly and it really makes you wonder, are police officers in it for the power trip of being able to lord over people they pull over, or do they really care about protecting us? I'm sure most law enforcement officals are the latter, but this book highlights the worst in our law enforcement--it makes them look like buffoons at best and cowards at worst.
I was also touched by how passionate the Brown family has been about trying to get to the bottom of this. I applaud their courage, their steadfast pursuit of full disclosure and answers, their relentless questioning of authority. We need more families like that in our world.

I purchased this book after watching the documentary "Columbine Killers" about a month ago. I was very young when Columbine happened, about ten years old. I read this book under twenty four hours (after the first chapter I was hooked), transfixed, mesmerised by the story in front of me. Brooks shares his story on what really happened, as a personal friend of Dylan and Eric he shares his experiences. This seems to be a chance for Brooks to work out his true feelings, desperately searching for meanings and explanations to what happened on April 20.

He describes in depth the horrific atmosphere of Columbine, I was bullied myself and I think teenagers can relate to this hugely-especially the comparision to a prison yard. Brooks describes his relationship with the two killers, his relationship with Eric was particularly rocky and how he drifted apart from Dylan. This book is a real insight into not only the masacre, but also what these two teenagers were really like. Dylan sounds goofy, shy and lonely and Eric comes across as someone who can be extremely manipulative, solitary, cunning and frightenly intelligent. THIS is the book for you if you want to know what Columbine was really like, I've seen interviews with Dave Cullen who wrote another piece about the masacre which seems to be the total opposite of what Brooks writes. Cullen describes Harris as a 'ladies man' with 'lots of dates' which there is no evidence of, it is even evident in the countless videos of the two teens online that this is untrue. A prime example of this is the canteen video which depicts Harris talking to girls, most of whom turn or walk away. I don't see how Cullen can make these claims after not knowing the students personally. Brooks was there, and he knows what really happened and he tells us in this book. Brooks's book has the most credibility of anything written about Columbine, Harris and Klebold.
The police ignoring the warning signs a year before the tragedy, the tutors at Columbine who ignored the bullying is shocking and horrifying. Brook's book is unique in that he describes his day to day experiences with Eric and Dylan, some are amusing, shocking, horrific and terribly sad. The chapter 'Friendship renewed' is very difficult to read as he talks about mending his friendship with Eric and Dylan, weeks before the masacre. He describes how Eric seemed to have 'Worked through his issues' and how Dylan was excited about going to university. It is sad as these boys were very intelligent, had a lot to give and if they had been more accepted, got more support, maybe the incident would never have happened? Brooks doesn't try and make us angry at the two for doing what they did, he tries to help us understand why they went the way they did and for that we have to look at society and even at ourselves, which for some is difficult to do.

Brooks Brown is a crucial, incredible, loud voice for young people. Highly recommended.

Brooks Brown speaks genuinely about the Columbine tragedy. I give him the highest rating for his effort. I am thankful to Brooks Brown for finding the courage and willpower to share his personal experiences and opinions and I do feel they are worthy of contemplation in supplement to other accounts regarding the Columbine tragedy. I also appreciate co-author Rob Merritt's collaborative efforts in co-writing this book with Brown. I would close by stating that I truly hope that writing this book has helped Brown to find some sense of closure. I think that what Merritt and Brown have done here will help many others and that makes their efforts worthwhile.

Brooks Brown was friends with the Columbine killers (Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold) and shares his analysis of WHY they committed this act, as well as some insight into their personalities. Brooks speaks of the cruel bullying environment at Columbine and how school administrators did nothing to prevent it, but even encouraged bullying. The teachers and administration favored the jocks and popular kids and would punish the kids who were bullied if they showed any resistance.

Eric Harris and Brown met through their mutual friend Dylan Klebold, however, Harris turned on Brown and began threatening his life on his web page. Brown details how they reconciled and how Eric warned him not to go into school on April 20, 1999 while on a cigarette break.

The police scrutinized Brown severly as a possible suspect in the massacre, but it was probably retaliation because Brown's parents criticized the police department for incompetence. If everything that Brown says about the Jefferson County Police Department is accurate then the incompetence is startling. He seems to be credible, especially if you take into account the absolutely poor response by the SWAT team (i.e. it seems the SWAT team was simply afraid to enter the school).

The only thing missing in this account is detailed and intimate accounts of their friendship. I get the sense that Brooks hung out with Harris and Klebold at school; but never went to parties, sleepovers, restaurants, and things that close friends do. It seems his relationship with Eric and Dylan was shallow, and I initially had the impression that they were very close. This being said, they were teenagers and not completely developed socially.

What is still mysterious is that the killers were highly intelligent from all accounts and were ready to graduate from high school, so I am thinking "What the heck"...why didn't they just go to college and have a successful future. In addition, many of their victims were younger than the killers and appeared timid (almost like they were victimized by the same bullies that supposedly victimized Harris and Klebold). If their problem was with bullies, they did a pretty poor job of targeting the bullies.

Anyway, it is the best book on Columbine out there and it is a quick read. So read it if you are interested in the subject.

Even this long after Columbine, as I parent, I cry. I cry for those killed, and for those who faced the bullying that left them feeling that the only way out was to kill.

Brooks does a great job of telling what happened & Rob adds the journalistic touches without interfering with the flow of the telling.

I feel as though this is THE MOST accurate account of everything that happened at Columbine. From previous to the attack, to the actual incident, and to the aftermath. Such an amazing perspective. I can't even imagine what Brooks went through. Being friends with the murderers.. Must have been hard. This book is great. I love it and will probably read it multiple times.

Well written account of the maelstrom of events and questions surrounding the 1999 attack at Columbine from someone tragically close to the perpetrators and events. Young voices such as Brooks Brown's deserve to be heard if we are to learn anything from these tragedies.

Regardless of how long ago it was, people today are still attempting to understand the cause of the tragedy at Columbine High School. An incident which many things has been blamed for - video games, rock music, easy availability to guns, bad parenting, and countless other reasons under the roof. Brooks goes on to explain that although video games were an outlet for Eric and Dylan's rage, they weren't the cause of it.

Brooks Brown, who grew up with Dylan Klebold, and later met Eric Harris, tells his story before and after the events that shocked America. He talks about Eric and Dylan - and the cruel, unjust treatment they receieved from the popular jocks at the school. He talks about growing up with Dylan, the shy introverted teen who he saw a shocking change in before the murders, he talks about the warning signs that were left ignored, and the aftermath of dealing with a tragedy - and being friends with those who had caused it.

I have been "interested" you could say in the Columbine High School tragedy for a long time, and yet from this book I learned a lot. I found myself relating at times, to the treatment that Eric and Dylan suffered from as a result of being the outcast status in school. Brooks presents the facts honestly - and in such a way that afterwards you can't help but wonder what is going on in high schools today. Clearly, there is something wrong here, and Brooks, by writing this is hoping to make people to understand what really went on, in hopes of preventing it from happening again.

Brooks doesn't offer reasons - or answers to why Eric and Dylan did what they did, but merely presents a poignant glimpse into two seemingly-normal teenage boys who went along the hopeless and destructive path of mass murder, and subsequently gives people a greater understanding on these two. And the one line that seems to explain everything, "Eric and Dylan created this tragedy, but it took a school like Columbine to create Eric and Dylan"

And while this book is mostly about Columbine, it has an important message that could be applied to a lot of teenagers. Bullying affects a lot of teenagers, but the important thing for a bullied person to do is realize that high school is only a small part of life and that they should live through it, and rise above high school pettiness and make a better life for themself. Perhaps if Eric and Dylan had realized this, those 15 people would still be here today.

I thought that this book was well written and that the author really knows what he is saying in the book. No one knew Eric and Dylan more than Brooks and while it may be disturbing to some people, I think that if anyone who wants to know what happened at Columbine and what people like Eric, Dylan and the author went through there(before, during and after the shootings), then I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

This book is troublesome for a variety of reasons, the main one that I can identify is that as you read it, you realize that in addition to not being an objective account, the book ends up being a treatise and a type of apologia from the author. This is NOT an account of the horrendous tragedy that befell the Columbine community.

Brown laments the environment of bullying, and general teen angst that permeated his life up to that fateful day, but casually includes Harris and Klebold, almost as an afterthought. This book is far from an objective account of the massacre, and while it doesn't purport to be the same type of work as Dave Cullen's excellent treatment of the subject, I expected more than a 'Columbine was a bad environment to live in because of bullying etc'. Further, the author makes sweeping generalizations regarding fairly complex topics such as the effect of media and peer pressure in our society.

Note, the book isn't poorly written. It's grammatically fine and there are no glaring mistakes from the 'nuts and bolts' side of things, however, it simply is a rather juvenile look at the happenings of Columbine and tragically serves only to reduce the incident and the motives behind the obscenity to nothing more than a few simple 'I told you so's'

I can't remember ever being as disappointed, and quite frankly disgusted, in reading in what I thought was going to be a serious treatment by an individual with a unique, 'first hand' perspective.

I am a college student that has written MANY research papers on the Columbine tragedy. I had heard Brooks Brown mentioned before, and had read a few other limited books on the topic written by the parents of victims. However, at a professor's recommendation, I purchased this book, and found in it one of the best resources for the tragedy. It does not try to glorify the tragedy, nor does it present it from an outsider's view. This book presents one of the most tragic, interesting tales of one person's struggle with not only being bullied in high school, but dealing with the consequences of being friends with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. So I offer my sincerest thank you to you, Brooks, for writing such a poignant look into the tragedy at Columbine High School.

I found this book very interesting because, like everyone else with a television, I saw WHAT happened in Littleton, CO. I wanted to know HOW it happened. As a 50-year-old grandmother, I can still remember growing up being the "outcast". I was picked on and ridiculed through school because my family was poor and I didn't have the nice clothes that others had. The story is still the same. What's changed is the way kids are raised. In my day, kids didn't get "time out" or "a talking to". Not that I'm advocating beating children, but I do know that we never heard of these tragedies when I was growing up because kids feared their punishments from the parents. When the strap or the paddle were waiting for you, you thought twice about doing things. It seems ironic that people have adopted the theory that corporal punishment will traumatize our children and make them violent, when the violence seems to have really come out, and continues to escalate as parents become more lenient in punishing their children. I think Mr. Brown de-emphsizes the Klebold and Brown families' accountability out of respect for the fact that their sons were actually the first victims in this tragedy. I can't imagine being in the position of feeling the pain of losing a child, and at the same time, having to deal with the fact that that child took so many other lives. We are all accountable, and Brooks points that out to a certain extent. It is written well, although Brown has made himself a little too much the center of attention. I really liked the book and think it is the best account of the events without a politcal or religious agenda. It's a good read, you should buy it!

I have Writen many papers on Columbine High School when I was in school. I have looked at web site, looked at all the information that I found I have spoken with people and authority's for my papers. Brooks Browns book told quite a bit that had never been told before that shows friendship and distructive behavior. It talks about how Dylan and Eric began their friendship, unless someone who was there in the library or in the school writes a book we will never know who said what. What happened we only have the accounts that have been told to others and their family's. This is a great book and if you want to know how Eric and Dylan started off this is the book for you.

"No Easy Answer" is a look at the Columbine massacre from the perspective of Brooks Brown, a friend of the two shooters. As a retired middle school teacher, I can tell you that the bullying and teasing described in this book does go on. This book is a page-turner that gives the reader a look at the sociology of the present-day high school. I highly recommend "No Easy Answers" for anyone interested in learning more about school shootings. I also recommend the young adult novel "Give a Boy a Gun" by Todd Strassor.