Book Review: The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb


At first I thought this book was all about Columbine High School shooting with discussion about the aftermath. But that wasn't really what it was all about. It was a combination of the aftermath of some sort of traumatic situation (as I thought) and about the family history of one of the characters. Seeing how the two intermingle.

I listened to it on CD - as opposed to reading it. And several times I stopped listening and moved on to something else. It just didn't entertain me the way I thought it would. Eventually I got more into the story as we moved towards the family history part of the book.

While parts of this book wasn't as entertaining as I was hoping - other parts evoked strong emotion. After just having a baby thinking about a tragedy like Columbine and how it affects so many people outside of the original victims just scared me.

I have often said expectation frame whether you like or dislike a book. If you think it is about one thing and it isn't it can mean you like it better or worse then originally thought. And this is one of those books that wasn't what I expected and negatively affected my view of it.