Title: Hate List : A Novel
Author: Jennifer Brown
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-04144-7
Pages: 408
Why I choose this particular book: Along with an English teacher at the local high school, I help run a teen book club at my library. I'd read this book before and thought it would be a great choice for the club. October is National Anti-Bullying Awareness Month and this book is a great way to start a conversation. I
requested this through my library's
catalog and received it through inter-library loan.
Hate List is a hard read but not because of the writing, rather the subject matter is difficult to get through. The book picks up about six months after a shooting at Garvin High School. Valerie (Val) is heading back to school after her boyfriend, Nick, shot and killed several students and one teacher as well as wounding more students before shooting himself in the head. Val, in her attempt to stop Nick, was also wounded which incidentally (purposefully?) caused her to save the life of 'Miss Perfect' Jessica. Though Val's been cleared by the police for her actions leading up to the shooting Val, and most of the people in her life, still blame her for having been the mastermind behind the Hate List - a list of students, teachers, situations, actions, or whatever Val and Nick decided they hated. Val used the List as a coping device to deal with the problems she had at home and the bullies she faced at school and never dreamed that Nick would take it to such an extreme level.
