Violent Ends by David Shaun Hutchinson and Other Authors (Book)

Cover

What is the context?

As a new age anthology, Violent Ends follows the decision of Kirby Matheson to walk into his school gymnasium with a 9mm pistol. After killing four students and a teachers, Matheson then turns the gun on himself and commits suicide. This anthology reflects the attitudes peers, parents, and teachers have towards Kirby Matheson. Violent Ends also follows interactions between close friends of Kirby and those he decided to save. The idea to compose such a book was made by Shaun David Hutchinson. He is a young adult author, born and raised in Florida. Hutchinson always wanted to be a writer, but thought the dream was not possible. Today Hutchinson is the author of five young adult novels. The first design for Violent Ends was for Hutchinson to write it himself as an anthology. After much though and realization that anthologies can be quite boring he chose to team up with 16 other authors. Violent Ends as a whole is 17 short stories written by 17 authors and ultimately edited by Hutchinson. Hutchinson came in contact with most of the authors during 2010 and through his old agents. With the final product Shaun David Hutchinson gives all credit of success to the other authors and puts any faults on himself.

Shaun David Hutchinson

Back Cover

What is the author communicating and how?

The themes for this anthology are things are not always what they seem and that people have more connections than meets the eye. Each chapter of the book brings the reader in close contact with a new character. Each character has a different relationship to the school shooter, Kirby Matheson. For many people Kirby is an outsider and has a very intimidating face. For other Kirby loves to play Dungeons and Dragons and has had a relationship with the same girl at his school for quite some time. Kirby and his close friends often sneak out of their houses and into lounges to play Dungeons and Dragons. Kirby has a sister and his parents keep down a strict household. What the book allows people to realize is that Kirby had many warning signs of committing such a terrible crime. The characters in the book are mostly teens in high school. While they struggle with many problems they are all connected in particular ways. In one of the chapters a waitress recognizes Kirby because his parents bought her childhood house. Though Kirby does not know his family pizza night means anything to the waitress, she secretly knows the person Kirby is. The most compelling chapter is told from the point of view of the gun and allows the deepest look into Kirby Matheson and what he does when he is alone.

Why I find it beautiful?

I find this book beautiful because it is a new-age young adult book. All books that I have read are either from one person’s point of view or multiple, but not on the level that this anthology is. When 17 different authors come together to write a book, one would think that the book would be choppy or not fit together. The editing of Shaun David Hutchinson creates a cohesive and other worldly story. On his website, Hutchinson writes a bio and explains that he always had problems with group projects. This book was his last attempt at working with a group and it was, in my opinion, very successful. I think that altogether this book has a very strong message of how people aren’t always what they seem. While many thought Kirby was a mean outcast, he tried to help anyone in any way that he was close with. It is interesting to see how the writing styles are so different between chapters. By having 17 different authors the book’s multiple point of views are developed in a different way. When one person writes from 17 characters, all the people seem to become the same. With 17 different authors the characters are better developed.