This is a book that is quite popular among young adult readers. So many of my students have read it and loved it, so I wanted to give it a try.
The story of Hate List centers around the main character, Valerie and her involvement in a school shooting. She and her boyfriend, Nick, began a "hate list" where they recorded names of people and things that they hate. While this sounds like a pretty mean thing, it was a way for them to vent their frustrations in a non-violent way; unfortunately, Nick takes the list too far and goes on a shooting rampage at their high school.
I thought the way Brown presents the teenage experience was right on. She deals with issues like bullying, friendships, and romance in a very realistic way. Once the shooting takes place, Valerie's struggles are developed in a way that allows the reader inside Valerie's head. The flashbacks she has of the "normal" Nick that she fell in love with are very powerful and got me thinking about the friends and families of the real-life school shooters that I have heard and read about.
The way that Brown structures this book is quite interesting: she begins with a section from a newspaper, and continues to include parts of the article throughout the book. This allows the reader to hear about the story from a different perspective, actually quite similar to our current media. Because the main character questions how the media treated the school shooting, it made me wonder how media in our own lives functions and the impact it has on people's opinions.
Overall, I would rate this book a seven out of ten. The story is well developed, the characters are realistic, and the topic is quite interesting; it's definitely the type of book you continue to think about long after you are done reading it.
