cover image She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall

She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall

Misty Bernall. Brilliance Audio, $17.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-56740-492-0

It's bleak and wrenching to hear the family of a slain teenager try to make sense of what happened. Bernall's daughter, Cassie, a 17-year-old junior, was a victim in the student-led massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Mother, father and brother trade off narration, starting with a description of Cassie's last morning, eerie in its normalcy, as she prepared for school. Then the terrible event of her death is reconstructed, with the help of eyewitness reports from fellow students. It is from these that the Bernall family first heard of Cassie's ""martyrdom,"" how she was asked about--and affirmed--her belief in God before she was shot. The tape would be a morbid tearjerker if it stopped there, but thankfully the author goes further, describing the day-to-day reality of Cassie's own troubled adolescence (she had been attracted to Satanism and with a friend had fantasized about killing her parents). This allows for an intimate discussion of parenting, faith and understanding that plays especially convincingly on audio. Simultaneous release with the Plough hardcover. (Sept.)