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Hate List

by Jennifer Brown

4.08 · rating details · 5,267 ratings · 1,119 reviews

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.
Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forc...more

Hardcover, 405 pages

Published September 1st 2009 by Little Brown and Company (first published August 11th 2009)

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Community Reviews

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Oct 11, 2009

Kristi (The Story Siren) added it

Three words: Powerful, thought-provoking, & riveting.

The story initially jumps between the actual shooting in May and then following September when, Valerie is preparing to head back to school. Then it focuses on Valerie's senior year and the after math of the shooting itself. It's also laced with newspaper articles throughout the first half or so. These aspects really added a certain dynamic to the novel, and made it one that particularly stands out in my mind.

The narrat...more

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Oct 09, 2011

Aly (Fantasy4eva) added it · review of another edition

Shelves: conflicted-thoughts, its-complicated

With the electricity gone for a good two days and a mere candle to acompany me in a restless night, I spotted HATE LIST which I had purchased well over a year ago. I ignored it really, maybe because I knew it would be a conflicting read.

With HATE LIST I went through an array of emotions. There were the good parts, the bad and the in - between bits. For the most part, I spent the majority of the novel seriously pissed.

I made some notes in my diary for the first time actua...more

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Aug 04, 2009

Jennifer rated it

Shelves: bpl-mock-printz-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 09, 2010

Rebecca rated it

Hate List is one of those rare finds that leaves you completely stunned and quite literally sends your emotions running around in circles.

As I was reading Hate List I found myself on the edge of my seat wanting to know more about everything in the book. I really loved Valerie as a character, I found myself feeling so bad for her. I hated the way that almost everyone treated her. I think that in a way I found Valerie to be so relatable was because she had flaws and she wasn't perfect,...more

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Jun 12, 2011

Alyssa Cancilla added it · review of another edition

Hate List is about a young girl named Valerie who is a senior at Garvin High. She falls in love with a boy named Nick. The couple are outsiders at the school and get bullied frequently. They get called names and are constantly insulted by the students. One day they decided to vent their anger in a notebook called the “Hate List”. They write down people’s names that get on their nerves, bully them, and disrespect them. People can get on the list for doing stupid things like drop and iPod. ...moreHate List is about a young girl named Valerie who is a senior at Garvin High. She falls in love with a boy named Nick. The couple are outsiders at the school and get bullied frequently. They get called names and are constantly insulted by the students. One day they decided to vent their anger in a notebook called the “Hate List”. They write down people’s names that get on their nerves, bully them, and disrespect them. People can get on the list for doing stupid things like drop and iPod. Valerie takes the list as a joke, but Nick takes it too completely. One day Nick decides to take a gun to school and shoot all of the people on the list. On accident he shoots Valerie in the leg. After he had shot everyone he needed to he shot himself. The book occurs after the shooting. It mainly focuses on Valerie’s life after the shooting.
The characters were very real to me. They seemed to have a very relatable personality. They did have their weaknesses but overall they were relatable. Valerie was a very interesting girl. You begin to actually see how she has grown since the shooting. She is now a more emotional girl and she is not scared to show her emotions. One of the things that I didn’t like about the characters was that they were overly dramatic in some parts.
My favorite part of the book was the overall theme. The message was a really good reality check for the young adults who would be reading this book. The theme is very good because it makes the teens more aware about how they interact with other students. It shows how little small things can affect others. Just like how the popular people made Valerie and Nick feel bullied. The reason why I didn’t like this book was it took a very long time for something to happen in the book so it began to get boring in the middle.
Jennifer Browns style is crude humor and tragedy mixed into one. Some of the things in the book offended me but overall I liked her style. For me this book was very hard for me to get into and I feel that that was because it didn’t have many small climaxes throughout the book. But, my sister also read it and she felt it was wonderful and she couldn’t put it down.
I would recommend this book to people who bully others and also my friends. I would recommend this book to bully’s for obvious reasons. But, I would make sure that my friends read this book because some of them don’t think before they speak. They always say things that offend me. Sometimes I feel that I would put them on my hate list if I had one.
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Jan 22, 2012

Lisa rated it

· review of another edition

Hate List is an emotionally stunning novel. While reading this novel so many emotions and feelings are brought to life and they are never what ones you expect. The villains are not always the villains, and the good guys are not necessarily angels either. Once you think you figured someone out, a new piece of information is brought forward that changes your outlook. It is very true to real life and shows the complexity of human emotions...both good and bad.

Valerie is broken. Sh...moreHate List is an emotionally stunning novel. While reading this novel so many emotions and feelings are brought to life and they are never what ones you expect. The villains are not always the villains, and the good guys are not necessarily angels either. Once you think you figured someone out, a new piece of information is brought forward that changes your outlook. It is very true to real life and shows the complexity of human emotions...both good and bad.

Valerie is broken. She doesn't understand exactly what happened last spring and even more importantly why it happened. Valerie is such an interesting character and one who is in a very unique situation. While she isn't the one who shot anyone, she is the one who started the Hate List and she did love Nick. As the you learn more about Valerie your opinion of her may change. Even after reading this novel I'm not quite sure what to think of her or how guilty I believe she is. At times I wanted to scream at other people that she isn't the one who shot anyone, but on anther page I wanted to tell Valerie that her actions are not completely without fault either.

Hate List is one of those books that really makes you think. One of the reoccurring questions is who is to blame for all of this. Of course, Nick is the one pulling the trigger, but what about all the actions that led him to pick up the gun. What about Valerie and the Hate List? What about all of the bullies? This is a difficult issue to discuss because a lot of the bullies died or were injured, but at the same time the bullying was never really discussed with the school. There were times it was brought up among the student's themselves, but I wonder how much of it was brought up with the faculty and the parents of this school.

There were situations in the novel where Nick was bullied that I was literally in tears. I felt so much for him during these times that I wanted to reach out to him. I know that being bullied is not a reason for him to go around shooting people and I'm not justifying his actions, but I understand a little more about where his pain and his anger came from.

Captivating and thought-provoking, Hate List is a book that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.
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Dec 08, 2011

Emily rated it

I like the characters in the book Hate List by Jennifer Brown. They are very realistic characters who face those everyday challenges after a school shooting. They don’t have the easy way out of anything and that’s what I like. Valerie the main character and known for the reason of the shooting, gets hit the hardest with trying to cope with what has happened. She has to face everyone she affected that day. Some still look at her like she is the shooter and others finally face the truth that she i...moreI like the characters in the book Hate List by Jennifer Brown. They are very realistic characters who face those everyday challenges after a school shooting. They don’t have the easy way out of anything and that’s what I like. Valerie the main character and known for the reason of the shooting, gets hit the hardest with trying to cope with what has happened. She has to face everyone she affected that day. Some still look at her like she is the shooter and others finally face the truth that she is a hero. Victims of the shooting who have lived look at life differently, and thank Valerie for what she has done. They want her to begin a new life and be a part of them.

I found the plot of Hate List very realistic. The things this teenage girl had to face are reality. School shootings do happen so real people face these hard times. They have to find a way to continue with life still knowing that they have hurt so many people. Valerie, being a senior and trying to finish her last year in high school, faced many obstacles throughout the year, and still found ways to make it through. There were many parts of the story where people lost faith in Valerie which added a twist to the story, because you never knew how she was going to react.

I think the Hate List made a very good point. When someone is forced into a tragedy, they don’t have a choice whether they want to face it or not. Although they do have a choice to believe in themselves and decide that they are strong enough to make it through or not. This book shows how Valerie took every step head on. She might not have always had the best of faith in herself, but she still kept moving forward. I liked the quote “Valerie Leftman is a hero. More courageous than anyone I’ve ever known – a bullet the least of the scary things I’ve seen her face this year. Valerie single handily saved my life and stopped the shooting of May second, 2008, from being worse than it already was.”, because she reached the point in her life when people finally were able to overlook her as the “shooter” and instead a hero. She made a difference; she didn’t have to handle the after shooting as well as she did. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys real life stories, and who like to read about how teenagers make it through their struggles.
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Nov 17, 2011

Ann rated it

Shelves: slis-5425

Hate List has so many subtle points that I’m not sure I picked up on them all. There is an underlying worthwhile theme about forgiveness and realizing that everyone has good and bad inside them, but beyond that is so much more. This is one of the few novels that uses flashbacks to best effect; the story is nominally about showing the aftermath of a school shooting and how Valerie deals with being Nick’s (former) girlfriend, but her shock and depression is augmented by seeing how blind she was to...more

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Nov 14, 2011

Lucy (ChooseYA) rated it

Shelves: chooseya-s-recommendations, books-i-own

In her debut novel, Jennifer Brown has definitely not shied away from a controversial subject.

Valerie Leftman is a reluctant senior at her high school five months after someone opened fire in the school cafeteria before killing themselves. Her boyfriend to be precise. While Valerie was shot and injured, the fact she was dating Nick Levill and a little notebook called the Hate List has ruined her reputation. The Hate List is a notebook of everyone Valerie and Nick hated at school and ...moreIn her debut novel, Jennifer Brown has definitely not shied away from a controversial subject.

Valerie Leftman is a reluctant senior at her high school five months after someone opened fire in the school cafeteria before killing themselves. Her boyfriend to be precise. While Valerie was shot and injured, the fact she was dating Nick Levill and a little notebook called the Hate List has ruined her reputation. The Hate List is a notebook of everyone Valerie and Nick hated at school and home, a list that she started. While Valerie didn’t intend for anyone to die, many around her believe she is just as guilty as Nick, including some of her family.Throughout her senior year, Val is forced to not only face her peers and family, but her guilt as well as grieving for her boyfriend and trying to understand him.

This is the sort of book that could easily undermine a serious subject, however Brown manages not to make it overly didactic or melodramatic. The integration of the newspaper articles about the shooting is a really effective way to break up the chapters and as a result you learn about the shooting more as the novel progresses.

Val is a complex protagonist; on one hand it is easy to hate her for the list, however there is something really understandable about her situation. We all have people we don’t get on with and sometimes we joke they should die, but it doesn’t mean we want them dead or want to kill them and Valerie epitomises this. Her actions during the shooting with two characters in particular (I won’t spoil it) are very effective at showing the complexity and dilemma of this.

It is also commendable that Nick is not just a cookie-cutter villain but has depths and you feel an element of sympathy for him. That said, I found his comments, knowing he wasn’t taking them lightly, as very chilling.

The impact on the school is also exceptionally well written and full of pathos without feeling like an after-school session. People don’t hold hands and sing after the shooting, but the school changes.

The snowball effect on Val’s family is also well explored and while her situation is one the majority of people cannot completely empathise with, the disputes and distances between family members is universal.

All in all, this is a commendable debut and I look forward to seeing what Jennifer Brown writes in the next few years. From the book, there is a summary of her new book Bitter End, which was released in May 2011 in the US but I have not seen in the UK yet.

NB-This review was originally posted on chooseya.com on October 24th 2011 by Lucy/ChooseYA(less)

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Oct 29, 2011

Lori Anaple rated it

Shelves: ya-is-not-just-for-children-anymore

It is hard to say that I liked this book given the subject matter. But I did find it interesting. Brown tackles a tough subject with an interesting turn: the school shooters girlfriend.

I like books that make you think, and this book does. Young adults face so many challenges today and more often than not they face more than one at once. It seems to me that making a "hate list" isn't really all that crazy. Therapists are always telling people to "write their fee...more

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Oct 06, 2011

Kelly Herta rated it

I enjoyed this book. I didn't think I would like it contemporary realistic fiction but I do. The author does a good job developing the main character, Valerie Leftman. I think teens will like this book because deals with the issue of being an outsider in school, which many may feel they are. Don't expect a happy ending but rather look for a nice sense of closure at the book's conclusion.

Valerie has a boyfriend, Nick. They are considered outsiders at their school. Neither have very...more

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Oct 04, 2011

Amy_lberry rated it

A brutally real look at the terrible consequences of intolerance, hate, and bullying. Haunting and emotionally jarring this book examines the aftermath of a school shooting from the perspective of the shooter's girlfriend. Valerie and her boyfriend Nick made a "Hate List" identifying all those people who made them feel victimized, but when Nick begins shooting the people on the list, Valeria jumps in front of the gun to stop him. Starting from the moment Valerie wakes up in the hosp...more

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Oct 02, 2011

Ana rated it

· review of another edition

The Hate List:
"It's hard to move on"
by Jennifer Brown
Valerie Leftman and her boyfriend, Nick, are outsiders at the school and get bullied frequently. They get called names and are constantly insulted by the students. She didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, though she couldn’t stop him.
Nick Levil and Val created a hate list. Everything and everyone they hated was on it. Valerie spends the summer hiding out from her friends and anyone else who knows her after ...moreThe Hate List:
"It's hard to move on"
by Jennifer Brown
Valerie Leftman and her boyfriend, Nick, are outsiders at the school and get bullied frequently. They get called names and are constantly insulted by the students. She didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, though she couldn’t stop him.
Nick Levil and Val created a hate list. Everything and everyone they hated was on it. Valerie spends the summer hiding out from her friends and anyone else who knows her after Nick puts an effective end to the school year with a aggressive and deadly shooting spree, killing students and teachers from their shared “hate list” as well as innocent bystanders before concluding his own life. After the incident Val has to go back to school and face everyone who lost someone or that was hurt. None of her friends from before the incident pay any attention to her; they act like they never were friends with her. There is one person at school who tries to become friends with Val, one of her greatest enemies from before the episode. Val saved her from being shot, but she has no idea why. She's trying to get on with her life but everyone thinks it was her fault also and she can't get over the idea that Nick hurt all those people. She still loves Nick but step by step she gets over him.
The Hate List was an amazing and powerful book about a girl that has to move on with her life and forget what happened in the past. Jennifer Brown created a suspenseful and realistic story. I felt like I was Valerie, the descriptions were so real. I couldn't put it down. I loved the Hate List overall. It was absolutely a terrifying story, something that could happen anywhere at any point in time.
The Hate List is a heavy read, emotional and intense. I highly recommend this fantastic novel to anyone who can handle extreme realistic fiction. Hate List is one of those rare finds that leaves you completely stunned and quite literally sends your emotions running around in circles.
It will blow your mind.(less)

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Sep 29, 2011

2nakia w rated it

· review of another edition

Valerie spends the summer hiding out from her friends and anyone else who knows her after her boyfriend Nick puts an effective end to the school year with a violent and deadly rampage, killing students and teachers from their shared “hate list” as well as innocent bystanders before ending his own life. Just as in the dark about Nick’ actions as every one else, Valerie didn’t have any idea that Nick was planning to execute such an event and though she is injured saving another student on the lis...more

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Sep 23, 2011

Allie rated it

I enjoyed the Hate List overall. It was definately a frightening story, something that could happen anywhere at any point in time. Valarie was a very realistic charactter, which is where I must start the more negative aspects of the book, before I continue on to nicer parts of why I gave it a three.

1.Valarie is indeed realistic. Sadly, I am starting to believe that in YA novels, there is such thing as too realistic. Sure, a real teenage girl would have huge personal self centered iss...more

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Sep 21, 2011

Dena rated it

I purchased Hate List this summer to read for Master’s Seminar, but I went a different direction with my thematic unit and put the book to the side. Wow! This is quite a book. I really didn’t know what to expect, and I still don’t know what I really think about the novel. I don’t know how many people might think this, but I actually felt sympathy for Valerie and Nick. Unless you teach high school, I don’t think you can understand just how much bullying there is not only in the halls, but ou...more

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Sep 17, 2011

Traci rated it

Valerie Leftman’s life wasn’t exactly the easiest before the big incident. She got teased in school, pushed around and her parents seemed to be drifting further and further apart. But, it got a whole lot worse after her boyfriend, Nick, brought a gun to their high school and starting shooting and killing students and teachers. To make it even worse, everyone found out about Valerie and Nick’s “Hate List”, a list of people and things that they hated enough at a particular moment to write down....moreValerie Leftman’s life wasn’t exactly the easiest before the big incident. She got teased in school, pushed around and her parents seemed to be drifting further and further apart. But, it got a whole lot worse after her boyfriend, Nick, brought a gun to their high school and starting shooting and killing students and teachers. To make it even worse, everyone found out about Valerie and Nick’s “Hate List”, a list of people and things that they hated enough at a particular moment to write down. Nick and Valerie had written down hundreds of people’s names, and it seems as though Nick was picking targets from that very long Hate List as he was shooting up the school. Making things even more complicated for Valerie and her town is the fact that she actually jumped in front of the gun as Nick attempted to shoot their classmate Jessica Campbell. Valerie was shot in the leg saving someone she hated more than anyone else – was she the hero or the villain?

In this new book by Jennifer Brown, we get to know Valerie, high school senior and school shooting survivor and possible culprit. She wasn’t ecstatically happy with her life, but she had finally found a group of friends and a wonderful boyfriend, Nick, to help her get through those horrible school days where she was teased and picked on daily. Her parents seemed to be heading toward getting a divorce, but even that was okay – even though she and Nick went through torturous high school days, they spent their nights together talking and getting to know each other. Valerie really liked Nick, he was caring and kind, and she thought they’d be together forever.

But, who was this boy that killed people in front of her? The media, her parents, her schoolmates all thought he was a monster, but that wasn’t the Nick that Valerie knew and loved. Was she wrong? Were they? Throughout the course of her final year in school, readers move with Valerie as she questions herself and everything she thought she knew to be true. Feeling at times responsible for Nick’s actions and totally confused by them, as well, we see Valerie experience a life that’s been totally undone. Following her as she attempts to salvage broken relationships as well as create new ones was a moving and emotional experience.

Hate List is a powerful book that looks at violence and bullying from all different angles and would be a great book to read in tandem with Dave Cullen’s recent release Columbine (Twelve, 2009).
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Sep 16, 2011

Najentel rated it

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Summary:
The Hate List is a story about the power of hate and the strength of forgiveness. Valerie Leftman and her boyfriend made a list of all the people and things they hated. Valerie was unaware that this list would become a blueprint for unthinkable violence. Now her boyfriend is gone and she must return to high school to face the consequences of their actions.

Reaction:
I was surprised at the various emotions I experienced while readi...more

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Sep 16, 2011

Ruby rated it

A school shooting is a difficult, even impossible, event to imagine. To be part of it in some way and then return to the scene of the crime is unthinkable. This is what Valerie Leftman does in Hate List. And even though she didn’t have anything to do with the shooting, she was a victim of bullying and she helped write the hate list that targeted people at her school. Before she could stop him, her boyfriend, Nick, carried out the shooting and then killed himself. She grieves for him while livin...more

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Sep 14, 2011

Christetta Butts rated it

HATE LIST BY JENNIFER BROWN
Valerie Leftman is entering her senior high school year after being implicated, then cleared as an accomplice to a school shooting which occurred in May of the previous school year and executed by her boyfriend Nick Levil. Her involvement is questioned when the police find a “hate list” which she created and happens to contain the names of many of the students that were shot. Valerie made a choice to stay at her alma mater, but facing her fellow students is a s...more

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Sep 05, 2011

Lisa rated it

Shelves: star-reader-2011-2012

In the aftermath of a school shooting, seventeen year old Valerie Leftman is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life and find a way to begin again. Her boyfriend Nick was the shooter and turned the gun on himself after killing a teacher, six students and wounding countless others, including Valerie. Valerie struggles to understand how it all came about and her role in it. There's grief, anger, remorse, and tremendous guilt. She loved Nick but she never meant for him to hurt anyone. S...more

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Sep 04, 2011

Zschahna rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: gelesen-2011, geliehene-bücher

Jennifer Brown behandelt in ihrem Buch ein Thema, welches leider immer wieder in den Medien auftaucht und dadurch auch an Aktualität nicht verliert: den Amoklauf an Schulen.
Noch nie hat mich ein Buch so mitgenommen, wie dieses. Ich hatte sehr oft Tränen in den Augen und habe die ganze Zeit mit Valerie mitgefühlt.
Die Autorin hat es geschafft, alle Blickwinkel zu beleuchten und sich nicht irgendwelchen Klischees zu bedienen. So zeigt sie die Hintergründe der Tat, die Geschichte des Täter...more

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Aug 30, 2011

Frances rated it

You know, it seemed a little slow and I almost didn't finish it, but something kept me reading it and I think it was the emotions. It's hard not to imagine yourself in Valerie's position as you're reading, wondering along with her to what degree she should feel guilty and what she should be doing. It just touches on so many raw, gut feelings. This is a great book for discussion and a great book for introspection. On the negative side: it gets a little repetitive; the way it jumps around in t...more

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Aug 23, 2011

JenniferJ rated it

Shelves: own

This was Valerie's story but I could so easily see my younger self and lots of other folks in her and Nick's places. Highschool is hard and I dont mean just academic wise. As Jennifer said lots of folks will believe this story is about a school shooting but it's not. The shooting is the end result of ignorance. Kinda like a pimple that has grown to its extreme and must burst to let out all its poisons.

Nick is portrayed as a villain because he was the one who shot everybody but when i...moreThis was Valerie's story but I could so easily see my younger self and lots of other folks in her and Nick's places. Highschool is hard and I dont mean just academic wise. As Jennifer said lots of folks will believe this story is about a school shooting but it's not. The shooting is the end result of ignorance. Kinda like a pimple that has grown to its extreme and must burst to let out all its poisons.

Nick is portrayed as a villain because he was the one who shot everybody but when it really boils down to it he was just as much if not more so the biggest victim of them all. Dont think I am condoning what he did, but you cant ignore what drove him to it. He didnt just say ok today I think I am gonna shoot up some people.

Valerie is left to pick up the pieces not just of her life but of those around her. Even her own parents have awkward feelings towards her, though she was not the shooter but in fact a hero for stopping the shooting as quickly as it began and blocking one of the intended victims. Valerie's therapist keeps telling her to "See whats really there." I pondered on that statement for a long while during my reading and it made me reflect back to some of my own highschool experiences and the people I "thought" I hated. It's hard when your in a situation to be able to step outside of it and analyze it sometimes but this story made me think about that.

My thoughts are I believe Valerie to be a good person and feel the hate list was just her way of coping with her feelings, by writing them down. I dont think she would have ever done anything further with the list, whereas Nick felt he had to take action...had to remove what he "thought" were his problems.

Jennifer has done a remarkable job of expressing feelings and views from both sides of the equation here and I highly recommend that everybody not just young adults should read this book! If you've ever been bullied, pushed around, felt hatrid, or if you've even been a bully yourself, READ THIS BOOK.

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Jul 29, 2011

Brina rated it

· review of another edition

Die 16-jährige Valerie und ihr Freund Nick waren schon immer die Außenseiter auf ihrer Schule. Durch die ständigen Hasstiraden, die die beiden Schüler täglich ausgesetzt sind, verbünden sie sich umso mehr und stellen eine sogenannte Hassliste her.
Hierbei listen sie sämtliche Mitschüler auf, die sie jemals gemobbt oder gedemütigt haben.
Für Valerie ist diese Liste ein reiner Zeitvertreib, der ihr hilft, das Geschehene zu verarbeiten.
Doch für Nick ist diese Liste weitaus mehr.

...more

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Jul 06, 2011

DeAndra Bias rated it

Hate List was a very inspirational book for me to read. I've been through alot with losing myself and not being sure I was so taking the journey I did with Valerie really helped me.... Some people would think this is Val's story, or a story about a high school getting shot up, or maybe even Nick's story... But for me it was a book about how much hate and anger is in the world. And how real bullying it is and how hurtful it can be til the point where someone just cant take it anymore. I also thi...more

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Jun 22, 2011

Kate rated it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Probably it wasn't a good idea to read Hate List right after finishing Columbine by Dave Cullen, but despite the tragic event that really kicks off Hate List, the book is a wonderfully emotional read. From the first page to the last, you find yourself faced with the reality of those left behind after a school shooting. Valerie is not always an easy character to sympathize with, but it's impossible not to connect with her. The media has made a habit of labeling school shooters with a "out...more

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Jun 16, 2011

Jennifer rated it

Recommends it for: Teenagers over the age 16; Teachers; Parents

Recommended to Jennifer by: Rebecca Johnson

Shelves: young-adult

Hate List is, in one word, intense. Reading the book blurb on the back, gives you a little insight into what the book is about. It doesn't, however, tell you how much emotion you, as the reader, will feel. You feel everything Val is feeling. Her guilt, her pain, her fear, and most of all, her sorrow and grief. Valerie is a perfect heroine for girls that are a little different, though in the beginning, she doesn't seem that way. I found myself crying when she did and even times when she didn...more

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May 14, 2011

Mikey T rated it

Valerie’s boyfriend opened fire in his school cafeteria, killing 7 and wounding many others. The Hate List she helped him create served as his guideline for killing. She thought the list was just a means of venting, not a list of people to kill. While she is cleared of any implication in the crime, her family and community still view her as the same person she was before. She makes the brave decision to return to school for her Senior year. What will happen to her and the community around h...more

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May 09, 2011

Jodi rated it

Hate List didn't disappoint me. It didn't exactly wow me either, but that was mostly due to the ending.

I liked the way that the story went back and forth from present day in Valerie's life to the day of the shooting. I also really liked how many of the flashback chapters started with an obituary-like article about one of the victims.

It's easy to see both sides in this story in spite of Valerie being the narrator. While I really do want to sympathize with her (ugh, her p...more

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“Because who you are is supposed to be the easiest question in the world answer, right?” — 53 people liked it

“Life isn't fair. A fair's a place where you eat corn dogs and ride the ferris wheel.” — 49 people liked it

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