Hate List

by Jennifer Brown

Flashbacks and memory-jags litter this novel, and staying with the story's present can be a challenge for less savy readers. However, the writing is excellent, the characters strong, and the plot important for teen readers.

When Valerie was in that awful-middle school age, she realized, clearly, that she didn't fit in with the kids in her town. Didn't. Won't. Ever. And instead of just leaving her to be herself, kids and teachers and the world looked down their noses at her spiked hair, torn jeans, and taste in clothes. To deal with the acid that ate her up, she wrote a list of things she hated: mom and dad fighting, homework that means nothing, names of teachers, names of kids. And that list helped her deal with the hatred that was directed at her day in, day out. And when Nick moved to town, looking and acting much as Valerie did, the found each other and kept the list alive, because it was their proof that they could hate too.

Fast forward to the end of their junior year. Valerie had no idea that Nick had a gun, and that he had a plan. And so, when he opened-fire in the common area, methodically taking out the people who appeared on the hate list the most often, she was as shocked as the rest of the school. Trying to protect Nick's next victim, Valerie was shot. Then Nick shot himself.

Five months, countless hours of therapy, and even more hours holed up in her room have passed. And now it's September. And Valerie must face her peers and finish her senior year. And to do that, she must face the part her hatred had what happened on that awful day in May.