Hate List By Jennifer Brown

 

                In the "Hate List" by Jennifer Brown, Brown illustrates the life of Valerie Leftman, five months after her boyfriend, Nick, opened fire in their school cafeteria. Valerie was shocked by the event and just as devastated as everyone else who was effected by the shooting. But despite her being emotionally damaged because she is still in love with Nick, and physically damaged because she took a bullet in attempt to protect one of the victims, she still played a role in the shootings because of the list Nick and Valerie made together. The list which included everyone they hated at their school, the same list that Nick used to pick his targets.

                I really liked the way Brown gave us bits and pieces of what happened the day Nick  opened fire at the school throughout the book. I think it made it a lot more interesting because we are left visualizing and coming up with our own conclusion of what really happened that day and the role Jennifer actually played. This is also a weak part of the story because we never really get to know Nick, and what his motivation was that day he killed 6 people. I understand that Brown wanted to write a story about how Valerie was effected by the event, but I still feel like that was a very important part of the story that keeps the reader hanging on. Brown only provides us with flashbacks from Valerie of happier times that they had, painting a positive picture of Nick as the perfect boyfriend, which left me confused and wanting to know more about his character.

                The book is coming from the perspective of Valerie Leftman and the plot revolves around how she is dealing with the shooting as she comes back to school five months after the incident. For me, I found Jennifer's character extremely unlikeable and I think having the story come completely from her perspective made the story feel a bit slow and like it dragged on a bit. Some of the problems I had with Jennifer as a character was that she seemed a little self-centered, she never really showed much remorse for the victims and most of her worries were about herself and how she would deal with going back to school. The whole book you wait for her to take responsibility for building up the hate and negativity with Nick by making the list but she never shows any sign of feeling bad for what she had done. I think Brown should have worked on building a more sympathetic character, especially since she had such a strong connection with the shooter which raises the readers doubts about her from the begining.

                The book handles a lot of difficult subjects including bullying, death, relationships and grieving. Although it was a long read, I feel that a lot of it dragged and a lot of the subjects such as Valerie's home life and Nicks complex character weren't really explained well enough. I think this had the potential  to be a great book but I found myself bored and disappointed with the lack of details that Brown leaves out.

Below is the book trailer for the "Hate List"