Skip to main content

HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown


copyright: 2009
primarily marketed for: young adults

I believe that if everyone read Hate List the world would be a better place.  I always say that the story is in the character, and this book is no exception.  This is the story of Valerie.  The book opens immediately after her boyfriend Nick brought a gun to school, shot multiple people (including Valerie), and ended things by turning the gun on himself. 

Jennifer Brown does a beautiful job of unfolding the details of the events of that day throughout the book via news articles.  It is gruesome and detailed, but because the reader gets the details in small doses, it is slightly less horrifying and easier to absorb. 

As the author unfolds the events of that day, Valerie begins her journey of coming to terms with those events, her journey of healing.  Many of the people around her, including herself and her parents, wonder if she is to blame because she is the one who started the Hate List that Nick referred to as he shot people.  Valerie has to deal with missing Nick, with coping with the fact that there was a side to Nick she did not see, with facing her peers as she returns to school, with figuring out who she is in her post-Nick world.  Luckily she has the help of a realistically supportive therapist and a new artistic outlet for her feelings. 

Despite myself, by the end of this book I had tears streaming down my face.  I know I was crying for Valerie, for the strength it took for her to do what she did at the end (you just have to read the book), but I also know I was crying out of a desire to retract every mean thing I have uttered back from the universe.  You simply cannot read Hate List and be the same person you were before you flipped that first page.  Jennifer Brown is on my list of new favorite authors!
Labels:

Comments

  1. ShannonDecember 1, 2011 at 11:00 PM

    I just found your blog and my goodreads.com account has been on fire for the last few minutes! :) I teach 6th grade reading/language arts in Alabama. Would you be able to add an email subscription button for me? Google reader is overwhelming! :)

    Shannon
    http://6thgradescottforesmanreadingstreetresources.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Christy Rush-LevineDecember 2, 2011 at 4:13 PM

    You taught me something new! I added the e-mail subscription button per your request. I didn't realize it was an option. Thanks for finding me and nudging me to try something new! In case you are interested, I have another blog you might want to check out at:
    http://readwriteinspire.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. ShannonDecember 2, 2011 at 5:09 PM

    Christy-

    I just signed up for this blog! Thanks so much for adding the email button! :) I am headed over now to check out your other blog.

    Shannon
    http://6thgradescottforesmanreadingstreetresources.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

copyright date: 1943 primarily marketed for: everyone The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupéry was a reread for me.   I read this book for the first time when I was in high school.   All I remembered about it was that I expected it to be too complex for me to understand, and I was surprised when at its charming simplicity.   I always remember feeling like I had a special place in my heart for The Little Prince , but I didn’t remember exactly why. It was written so long ago and is translated from French that it is no wonder I first expected to find its meaning elusive.   However, I am sure that if you pick up this book, it will nestle itself into a special place in your heart as well. Simply, The Little Prince is the story of a clever man who has never lost the child inside of himself and finds himself stranded in the desert after a plan crash.   In the desert, he happens upon the little prince who is traveling to earth from his d...
4 comments
Read more

ONE FOR THE MURPHYS by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (5 th grade and up) I sort of expected One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt to be one of those overly sappy books with unrealistic, sickeningly sweet characters.  However, although the storyline might make it sound sappy, the characters are realistic and dynamic.  After a traumatic incident that lands both she and her mother in the hospital, Carley Connors is taken away and placed in foster care with the Murphy family.  The only life Carley has known is one of put-downs, food scraps, and shopping for clothes in Salvation Army drop boxes.  Until she meets the Murphys.  The Murphys are too good to be true: Julia, the mom, happily makes home-cooked meals for her three boys and firefighting, sports-loving husband.  In fact, Julia isn’t even rattled by Carley’s rough around the edges attitude.  At first, Carley despises the Murphys and the way they make he...
4 comments
Read more

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green

You knew it was coming.  How could I not share?  EVERYONE MUST READ JOHN GREEN’S LATEST WORK OF ART: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS .  Throughout my life (well, at least from 4 th grade, when I was introduced to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl until now, the 7 th month of my 34 th year of noticing the universe) the name ‘Augustus’ immediately evoked an image of a chubby, stubborn, chocolate-loving boy, doted upon by his mother, with the last name of Gloop.  The name ‘Augustus’ made me giggle about this character’s gluttonous follies inside the chocolate factory. Until reading John Green’s beloved new book The Fault in Our Stars . From now on, the name ‘Augustus’ will forever evoke an entirely different image and an entirely different set of emotions.  A casually hot, lean, limping ‘Augustus Waters’ has forever replaced the ‘Augustus’ of the book I treasured as a child—an unlit cigarette held loosely between his lips.  A longing sigh ...
9 comments
Read more