YMMV / Nineteen Minutes

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The book was released on March 9, 2007. A little over a month later, the shooting at Virginia Tech happens.
  • Then, over a decade later in 2018, shootings at high schools in Florida and Texas kill 17 and 10 people, respectively. Not only are they among the deadliest high school shootings in American history, they are (currently) the only post-Nineteen Minutes high school shootings in which the gunmen achieved as much carnage as Peter did in his (fictional) shooting.^note All high school shootings that occurred between the release of Nineteen Minutes and the Florida and Texas shootings never killed more than five people.
• Moral Event Horizon: You'd think that Matt would've already reached this point way early on, having been revealed to be manipulative, physically abusive, and a merciless bully, but it's not until there's a flashback of him threatening to kill himself to make Josie take him back where he's really crossed the line. Alternatively, raping Josie and showing complete indifference to her pregnancy fears could also qualify.
• Values Dissonance: The portrayals of Peter, Matt, and Courtney fit into stock archetypes that became increasingly unfashionable throughout the 2010s and 2020s: Peter is a Troubled, but Cute nerd who is pushed to the brink and to violence by monstrous Jerk Jock Matt and vicious Alpha Bitch Courtney. In recent times, this is viewed as a complete misreading of the Columbine massacre and a dangerous amount of sympathy.
• The Woobie:
  • Peter.
  • Josie's life is no slouch in this department either.

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