A school shooting may be remembered through headlines, timelines, and casualty figures. Those records explain what happened, though they rarely capture the long emotional deterioration that came before the violence. Author Morgan Blair enters that difficult territory in All the Dead Fallen Leaves, a psychological literary novel available in Kindle and paperback editions. Through fictional evidence gathered after an attack, the book asks readers to observe a young man’s descent and remember the moments when his future might have changed.
Piecing Together the Life of Will Bellman
Will Bellman and his friend Taylor return to their former school on October 31, 2007. Armed and consumed by grievance, they begin an attack they have named “Tribulation.” For them, it represents a day of judgment. For everyone else, it becomes a permanent source of loss.
The novel begins with knowledge of Will’s actions. Readers are then taken backward through diary entries covering his freshman through senior years, a police statement, his final suicide note, and a magazine interview with Chloe, the girl he loved from childhood.
Chloe’s interview takes place five years after the shooting. Her account brings tenderness and sorrow into the evidence, showing how differently a person can appear to someone who once knew him closely. Her memories also reveal how difficult it can be to understand a loved one whose inner life has become dominated by guilt and anger.
The attack is never presented from Will’s immediate perspective while it is happening. Morgan directs attention toward its development and consequences. This decision allows the novel to examine violence without turning the violent act into its central spectacle.
Will’s history is filled with suffering. A childhood accident caused his sister’s death and left his face and mind scarred. He grows up carrying responsibility for something he cannot reverse. At school, bullying reinforces his belief that he is damaged, unwanted, and beyond happiness.
Even Chloe’s affection struggles to reach him. Will has loved her for years, yet shame convinces him that he has no right to accept her love.
The Friend Who Gives Anger a Direction
Taylor’s arrival offers Will something he desperately needs. He gains a companion who listens to him, shares his resentment, and appears willing to fight beside him. Their friendship eases Will’s loneliness and creates a powerful feeling of belonging.
That connection also draws him closer to danger.
Taylor is obsessed with Columbine and speaks repeatedly about Eric and Dylan. His fixation gradually turns historical violence into a personal fantasy. Ideas once presented as dark jokes begin to sound achievable, especially as Will suffers new disappointments and loses more faith in the future.
The transformation unfolds in increments. There is no isolated moment that explains everything. Readers instead see emotional wounds accumulating alongside withdrawal, fixation, hatred, and an increasing willingness to justify harm.
Will’s sympathetic qualities make this process deeply unsettling. He can be caring, vulnerable, and easy to understand. Readers know what he will eventually choose, which places every hopeful moment under a shadow. The experience resembles witnessing a slow collision while searching desperately for something that could interrupt it.
Morgan deliberately humanizes Will without excusing him. The novel suggests that treating perpetrators as a separate category of humanity may prevent people from recognizing dangerous changes in someone familiar. Will is responsible for his final choices, and his path still contains signs that others could learn to identify.
Grief, Research, and the Purpose Behind the Novel
The story began after Morgan experienced a death in the family. During that period of depression, a YouTube documentary about Columbine appeared unexpectedly. Although the case had not occupied Morgan’s thoughts for years, it remained present afterward and inspired a short story.
Readers familiar with the case encouraged Morgan to develop it further. The first draft took three months and felt almost as though the story were being channeled. Two years of editing followed.
Randy Brown, a Columbine parent, read an early draft and encouraged its release. Literary agents expressed interest while struggling to determine how such a challenging story could be marketed. After another personal loss, Morgan’s energy faded, and the manuscript remained on the shelf.
The project regained momentum after Kyle from the YouTube channel Dire Trip contacted Morgan about a Columbine documentary series. Morgan’s accumulated research proved valuable, particularly material concerning the “Columbine Effect,” in which people idolize previous attackers and become inspired to imitate them.
About the Author
Morgan Blair prefers to remain relatively anonymous so the story can feel as though it might concern almost anyone. Morgan jokingly describes themself as an eldritch horror trapped in a meat suit, passing the time by writing stories and trying to keep a pet cactus alive.
A Story Meant to Stay With Readers
The purpose of All the Dead Fallen Leaves is prevention. Lists of warning signs can disappear from memory, while stories often remain vivid.
Morgan hopes Will’s journey may encourage someone in despair to seek support or inspire a reader to help a struggling friend. The future is never required to follow the darkest path, and asking for help can become the moment that changes everything.
We had the privilege of interviewing the author. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Thank you so much for joining us today! Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do.
I’m Morgan Blair. I’m an eldritch horror who has been bound to this world in a meat suit. I pass my time by writing stories and trying to keep my pet cactus alive. But in terms of this book, I also branched out when about a year and a half ago I received a message from Kyle (Dire Trip) when he was in the early planning stages of his documentary series on Columbine. I gathered a lot of research material about the case, since the book also deals with what has become known as ‘The Columbine Effect’ and have been assisting on the documentary.
Please tell us about your journey.
The book itself is about a school shooter, told in the form of evidence gathered afterward- police statement, the shooter’s journal, a magazine interview with the girl the shooter loved, and his suicide note. The story never actually stays with the character while he is committing the atrocity. You can see the slow and terrible path from normal kid to a killer. And the kid, Will, is likeable. That’s part of the point. But since we already know he did it, that makes it worse. It deals with what has become known as ‘The Columbine Effect’ – when people idolize the killers and begin to emulate them. When they are inspired to commit their own atrocity. The main character, Will, meets Taylor, who is obsessed with Columbine.
Any message for our readers.
The entire point of the story is prevention. People don’t easily remember sterile lists of red flag behaviors to look out for. But they do remember stories. Will is likeable. His descent into despair and rage is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You know what’s happening, and the whole time you just want him to stop. And there were so many opportunities for him to do so.
Thank you so much, Morgan, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
