The Hate List by Jennifer Brown is a young adult novel that tackles a disturbing topic, the aftermath of a Columbine type school shooting. The novel is narrated by Valerie Leftman a student at Garvin High School where the shooting takes place. When we meet Valerie she is in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained when she saves the life of a classmate by hurling herself at the school shooter, also a student at Garvin High. Nick Levil, the shooter, then turns the gun on himself thus ending his killing spree in which six students and a teacher are dead and others wounded.
Valerie is a hero for risking her life to save a fellow classmate, Jessica Campbell, and for bringing Nick's killing rampage to an end. What complicates this story though is that Nick was Valerie's boyfriend. She had no idea what he was planning on that awful day but many students and teachers don't believe her. The newspapers report that Valerie and Nick kept a hate list, a notebook in which they would write down things and people they hated including the classmates who regularly bullied them and made their high school life miserable. For Valerie the list was just a way to let off steam but for Nick the hate list became something much darker.
And that's the premise of this powerful novel. How does Valerie make it through her senior year when she returns to Garvin High? How does she recover both physically and emotionally? Do her friends stick by her? Are there classmates who suprisingly reach out to Valerie who prior to the shooting wouldn't have given her the time of day? The novel spends time on Valerie's parents' reaction to the shooting and then there is Nick. Valerie knows she should hate him for what he did but she still remembers the thoughtful boyfriend before the bullying began to change him and the author does a good job of letting us see Nick before the rage overtook him. Valerie blames herself. What signals did she miss about Nick and how he was changing? Why did she come up with the Hate List? Was she secretly hoping that Nick would take action? These are the questions that haunt Valerie as she tells her story to the reader.
The Hate List by Jennifer Brown was published in 2009 and was given a starred review from Publisher's Weekly. The book went on to win numerous young adult novel awards but it's not a book just for teens. Everyone will benefit from meeting Valerie who is a bright strong and complicated young woman or as the author says a character who is a hero, a villian but most of all human. A starred review from me as well.
How did I miss hearing about this book? I'm very glad you re-posted about it because it's a book I definitely want to read. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, I think you will like it. It's a young adult novel and that genre has some interesting books to check out. Curious about 13 Reasons Why. Saw the 13 episode drama on Netflix dealing with teen suicide. It was controversual though. Might read the book which I understand was a bestseller with teens.
DeleteGreat commentary on this book. The novel itself sounds so good. We hear so much about school shootings but not that much on the aftermath of such things. What happens to Valerie in this book sounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brian, The Young Adult genre is one I want to explore more but as with every genre you have to be choosy.
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