Book Review: HATE LIST

Author: Jennifer Brown
Number of Pages: 405
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 1, 2009

One morning Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick Levil, opened fire in school and killed several students before eventually shooting himself. Not only is Valerie still grieving for Nick five months later, but she is also dealing with the complicated aftermath of the shooting. Valerie had jumped in front of another girl to stop the shooting, taking a bullet to her thigh in the process. But few thought of her as a hero, because Valerie had worked with Nick to build a Hate List. Valerie thought of it as a joke- she never really thought anything would come of it, and she certainly didn't want anyone to die. Nick however, had used the Hate List to choose his targets. When everyone suspects you of a crime you didn't commit, will you ever feel as though you are forgiven?

Before reading Hate List I had never read a book about a school shooting, so I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect. What I thought would be a lot of depressing rambling crunched into the form of a book turned out to be a fantastic novel that really made me think. It was very sad, but there was a lot of hope and happiness in it as well. This book really exceeded my initial expectations.

The fact that this book was written from the point of view of Valerie, the girlfriend of the shooter, made it a lot more interesting to read. Anyone in that position must be feeling emotions that are so contradictory- I don't know how they would handle it. Should you hate him? But he was your boyfriend.... But he killed several people.... But he was so nice to you.....? It must have posed a challenge for the author to write from this perspective, but I think that Jennifer Brown did an excellent job.

Overall, this was a really great book!

My Rating: :0) :0) :0) :0) :0) 5 out of 5 smileys.

Would I recommend it to a friend?: Definitely. Actually, the reason I read this was because a friend recommended it to me.

Yours,
NutFreeNerd