Hate List

Author:  Brown, Jennifer

Reading level:  Grade 14 and up

Summary:

This is a novel about kids being bullied at school. At the end of their junior year, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend pulls a gun in the Commons, leaving six students and a teacher dead and many others wounded. Valerie is hit by a bullet in the leg trying to stop him, just before he ends his own life.  She has no clue that the “hate list” they created would be used to target victims in a shooting spree.  She created a list of tormentors to ease the pain of being bullied and to release the anger of witnessing her parents fighting all the time.  After being investigated by the police, she was freed to go because she had nothing to do with the shootings.  However, her parents and neighbors didn’t seem to agree. With the help of a patient and insightful therapist, Valerie bravely returns to school after the summer to face the challenges before her. Told by Valerie in then-and-now chapters, with a few "excerpts" from local newspaper articles added for perspective, this is a startling, powerful, and poignant account of the incidents leading up to, immediately following, and continuing through the teen's senior year of realization and recovery. Valerie is stronger than she knows—a beautifully drawn character who has suffered pain, guilt, and incredible stress as she heals from the shooting, the loss of a troubled boyfriend she deeply loved, and difficult family circumstances.

Reviews:

This is a wonderful story about self-redemption and self-discovery.  I wasn’t sure if I want to read this book or not because the title seems too “weird” to me.  I didn’t know what to think of it because it starts off a bit slow but the pace picks up soon after that.  Soon enough, I was staying up all night to read and finish this amazing book.  The subject of being bullied in school becomes very alarming in our society today. Hate List deals with a subject that is sure to strike fear into the hearts of everyone who reads it. It’s a book that immediately brings to mind images from other school shootings like Columbine and Virginia Tech. And those images help make this book so powerful. But Hate List isn't about the actual shooting its about what happens next. How do you move forward from the horrible incidence. How do you deal with the fall out? This is Valerie's story. She's returning to school after her boyfriend did the unthinkable and she has to face her role in the events that occurred on that fateful day.

This book has flashbacks to that horrible day in May, but I think this book isn't really about the shooting; it's about Vallerie and her story of getting her life back together after the shooting.
To top all of the "drama" from the shooting, somehow, her dad seams to blame her for it. Her family is slowly sort of falling apart.

Award:  YALSA 2010 Best Fiction Book for Young adults