Every 15 Minutes Commentary

I just finished reading Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline. In this book, a psychiatrist, Eric, is working with a young boy who suffers from OCD, Max. In addition to having OCD, Max stalks Renée, whom he is in love with. Then, Max’s grandmother dies which was the only thing keeping him mentally stable. When Renée is found dead in a park almost immediately after Max’s grandmother’s death, both Eric and Max are considered murder suspects. Max then threatened to shoot hostages and blow up a bomb at a mall, and Eric saved the situation by stopping him. In the end, it is discovered that Laurie, who was best friends with Eric, had been manipulating her coworker, Sam, who killed Renée, into manipulating Max to do terrible things. In this journal,

I will be evaluating and connecting.
Laurie is both controlling and phony. One demonstration of her power in the book is by her ability to get Sam to do whatever she desires. Laurie accomplishes this by sleeping with him and making herself so appealing that he falls in love with her. This is an appalling thing to do because the actions are not sincere. They are only for manipulation purposes. By doing these things, she gains full control over Sam and gets him to kill Renée. Laurie needs this full control because she has a demand for superiority, and this is show when she says, “I will be the worthier adversary” (Scottoline 33). This quote proves that she has a need for being better and above everyone. Another reason why Laurie is controlling is because she has a master plan. She is eventually going to get Sam to kill Eric for her. Laurie wants to get back at Eric for choosing his ex-wife over her. She says, “Years and years, I’ve been your friend. You had to know I wanted you. You had to know I was waiting for you, but you didn’t choose me over her” (Scottoline 424). This quote proves that Laurie is still angry and disappointed with Eric’s decision many years ago. Another major aspect of her master plan is that Sam will receive all the blame. Laurie brainwashes Sam into thinking that he is going to kill Eric because he wants his job. By doing this, she will get the revenge she desires without the consequence. Sam will take the punishment off her shoulders, which is the perfect deal in her eyes. In addition to being controlling, Laurie is phony. On the inside, she is a dark, murderous person, but she hides it very well. She is a book, showing a cover to the world but having a real story inside. One way that she hides it is by being helpful to Eric. When Eric is first presumed as a murder suspect, Laurie sends him her brother, Paul, for a lawyer. She is also helpful by assisting him in putting his house back together after the detectives tore it apart. She does these things because she wants to act normal in the situation at hand so he does not get suspicious of any strange actions. Laurie is also phony by acting really sincere and kind. Early in the book, she takes Eric on a run to catch up. Later, she invites him over for a delectable homemade dinner. She does these sincere things because then he will never see her murderous plot coming. In conclusion, Laurie is both controlling and phony.
While reading Every Fifteen Minutes, I made two connections.

The first connection is acting like a person you are not. In the novel, Laurie acts really sincere and kind. She is the absolute last person you would expect to manipulate a person into murdering others. However, due to being a sociopath, she does not feel typical feelings or show any of her thoughts. This hiding can make the sociopath seem like a typical person, but when a person rips off the mask he or she is hiding under, a dangerous side is to be revealed. A time that I had to act like a person that I was not occurred a few summers ago. I was in a wedding and had to shed the sweatpants and sweatshirt for a fancy dress. Also, I had to sit at the head table and act very ladylike. In addition, I had to have as good of manners as a grown adult. I had to pretend to be someone I was not and this was very challenging for me. The whole night I felt like I did not belong in my own skin and was just wishing for it to be the time when I could go back to my old self. Another connection I made while reading my novel is having to move on. Immediately after being cleared of his murder charges and arriving home, Eric starts cleaning up his house. The novel states, “Eric wants to put it all behind him, and there was not time like the present” (Scottoline 406). This quote proves the he knows that if he were to put these things off and do them later, they may never get done and trigger terrible memories of the events that

occurred. Then, when he gets back to his working environment that is in shambles due to a fire, he starts to put that back together too. He wants to put everything to get back to normal as soon as possible. The last way he moves on is by not holding grudges against any of the people who were apprehensive of him while the murder accusations were still on the line. If he would have continued to hold certain grudges, he would never have fully moved on. The past would have followed him into his present life. In my life, I have had to move on with a difficult friend situation. She had said many mean, thoughtless things about my friends and me. I started to move on from these things eventually but it took almost a year. It was a very difficult decision to allow her back into my life and give her a second chance. Even though I let her back into my life, I still approached all situations involving her with caution. In conclusion, I connected with having to act like a different person that I was not and having to move on from a difficult situation in the past.
I think I should receive a 13/14 because I included quotes in both body paragraphs and introduced them and analyzed them well. I included many examples from the text to support my evaluations. Also, I deeply analyzed things that the novel characters had to do and linked them to my life.