— Constant Surveillance —

I interviewed people who knew Cole, and I read transcripts of police interviews. A common takeaway was that he dealt with issues of violence in a surprisingly objective way. He wanted to understand why he, and others tended towards feelings of frustration that led to anger or aggression.

Most boys grow up to become wonderful parents, husbands and generally positive members of society, but every parent recognizes, very early, how different boys are from girls. While I’m not here to say there isn’t a gray area, and at the risk of going too deep into nature verus nurture debate, I simply want to aknowledge how refreshing it was to read a novel by someone who wrote about their feelings so honestly. 

Demonstrating the ability to love and empathize, while acknowledging his own shortcomings in the service of a literary work, gives us a unique look inside the mind of the young American male. 

From the first moment I read his journals, I realized there was nothing gratuitous about the destructive emotions or anger expressed in his stories, and this is what makes his book so ferocious. His intuitions towards violence and confrontation coexist with an ability to process the world around him in a healthy way. We see this because of the honesty of his work, where the reader experiences observable social-emotional development in real time. 

However established this paradox may be, when this book is released, some people will still say “there‘s no room for stories of violence and destruction in literature for teenage boys.” Hopefully they realize there are two sides to the coin.

This may be one of the best mediations on boys ever written. The reader gets a glimpse into the internal workings and sometimes diabolical meanderings of what it means to be a guy in these modern times.

Is this a YA Novel? Literary prose? A graphic Novel? I still don’t know, but the world is learning that this is a book like no other, and this author has a rich and storied future ahead of him.

It’s become commonplace to blame the developing frontal cortex on the seemingly irrational decision making of young men. But, what is often missed is the sophistication of that same mind when it’s challenged to observe and document itself. How does the reactive and sometimes self-destructive mind of a 17-year old also house the observational capabilities on par with the Webb Space Telescope? 

One person told me that Cole was very philosophical about these issues that make the gatekeepers of YA nervous. Do violent video games make people more violent, or do they give violent people an outlet?” There is data to support both ideas, but