Nineteen Minutes- Outside Reading Post 4

In the novel Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult describes high school life and the quest for popularity. I think that Jodi Picoult does some of this well, and some of it seems unrealistic. I think that Picoult stereotypes too much and some of her characters only fit into the typical high school kid molds- art kids, jocks, quiet loners, nerds, cheerleaders, etc. I think that some of her characterization is unrealistic at times because I don't think that kids are only strictly in one group of friends at high school- I think that a lot of people bounce around from group to group and that a lot of people are friends with a wide variety of kids.
I think that she labels some high school kids as extremely cruel. In the novel, the main character Josie struggles with being in this clique, and watching her friends bully her old best friend Peter. Josie is in the popular crowd, so therefore Picoult makes this crowd out to be very mean and snobby. Josie is friends with the cheerleaders and the jocks. I think that her depiction of these characters is too embellished. I find the actions of some of her characters unbelievable. For example, Josie's "best friend" Courtney decided it would be funny to send a love note that picked on boy Peter Houghton sent to Josie to the entire student body. Courtney was snooping through Josie's emails and came across a sweet but slightly pathetic email from Peter, "The email opened, and Courtney started to read. 'Oh my God,' she murmured. 'This is too fucking good.' She swiped the body of the email and forwarded it to RTWING90@yahoo.com. Drew, she typed. Spam this out to the whole wide world" (316). I find it very hard to believe that any girl would find this funny. I find it so extremely cruel and I really cannot imagine any girl in my grade who would've even thought about doing that. I feel like there is a certain line that some people just don't cross, and the characters in Nineteen Minutes do. Another example of the over cruelty of the characters in this novel is when Josie's boyfriend Matt comes to visit Josie at work- where coincidentally Peter works there as well. When Matt is talking to Josie, he all of a sudden turns to Peter and says, "'Stop looking at me, homo'" (204). While Matt continues to verbally abuse Peter, Josie just stands there and watches Peter shrink down in embarrassment. I think that any other teenage girl would've told her boyfriend to knock it off, after all , Peter and Josie were best friends when they were younger. But Josie just watches it happen. I think that ignoring the issue of bullying is just as bad as being the bully himself.
While I read this novel I became frustrated and was so shocked by the way Picoult depicted these cruel kids. There was not one nice person in the entire student body that befriended Peter or even stood up for him. This, I find hard to believe. I think that out of all those kids, there would've been one girl or boy with enough courage to stand up and say, "stop".