Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.
Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.
THE REVIEW
Before I picked up Hate List, Jennifer Brown’s stunning YA debut, I thought about the tough task Brown had—making Val likeable. A girl involved in a school shooting? I was convinced I would find Val despicable and weak at times, considering the role she played in such a horrifying event. I would probably pity Val and her plight, caught between her high school tormenters and the ultimate bully, her boyfriend Nick.
But I was surprised by Val’s strength. Pity Val? The idea seems completely laughable to me now. Ms. Brown immersed me so deep into Val’s head, she pulled me back to my own high school years when I was teased yet also befriended. Val is real, alive. I know her. Part of me was her. Val exhibits that contradictory mixture of confidence and insecurity inherent to the teen experience. She’s tough and vulnerable, but never a subject of pity.
The story opens in the fall, as Val awakens for her first day back at school, her mother frantically calling Val’s name, hand grasping the telephone, ready to dial 9-1-1 if Val doesn’t answer. The reader immediately understands Val’s fragile state and the strained relationship between mother and daughter.
Brown weaves back and forth in time, between Val’s first day at school and the morning of the shooting on May 2. Newspaper snippets give a subjective and somewhat sanitized view of the violence and victims, juxtaposed with Val’s real-time perspective. There’s what everyone thinks and what actually occurred. Val believes her boyfriend Nick has very different intentions on May 2—standing up for his girlfriend, not bringing the school down—and the reader feels as helpless and shocked as she does when the violence begins.
Brown paints a vivid, complex portrait of Nick that never succumbs to stereotypes. We see Nick through Val’s eyes—the Nick who understood how Val suffered through her parents’ troubled marriage, the Nick who made her feel safe and beautiful, the Nick who could recite Shakespeare. We also realize how Val missed the warning signs of Nick’s tragic actions. The hate list they created united them; hating people who hated them deepened their bond. It was a joke to Val, but a manifesto to Nick.
Val’s innocence is so well documented that when she is questioned by detectives, presented with incriminating evidence—the hate list, the surveillance video, the emails—you want to shout, “Leave Val alone! That’s not how it happened! Tell them, Val!”
Rich with layers, Hate List explores Val’s deep emotions as she moves through her grief, loses friends and gains unlikely ones. Her family unravels and she learns dark secrets about how her parents feel about her and each other. At its core, Hate List examines the complexity of relationships. How we can misinterpret those we love the most. How we often see only what we want to see, not what’s really there.
What’s really there in Hate List is an expertly crafted tale, an ordinary girl coming to terms with an extraordinary event—and becoming an extraordinary young woman.
HATE LIST
Coming September 2009 from Little, Brown BFYR
Contest announcement!
I’m giving away an ARC of Jennifer Brown’s Hate List.
Just leave a comment below to be entered. Blog or Tweet about the giveaway and you’ll receive an additional two entries.
Contest ends May 31 at midnight EST. Winner will be drawn on June 1. Good luck!
42 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 23, 2009 at 11:40 am
Heather
Wow, Tara. Sounds like a well woven tale. I’m putting it on my reading list.
May 23, 2009 at 11:51 am
Jenny Tonks
Sign me up! Will blog and tweet about it too!
May 23, 2009 at 12:07 pm
YA Novel Giveaway « Young Adult Author
[…] on over there and read her fabulous description of the book–it will make you want to buy it, win or […]
May 23, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Lexie
Sign me up 🙂 I’m especially interested in this. Back in Jr. High, before Columbine happened, my friend and I (two disaffected youths who didn’t fit into any of the cliques at the school in our small town that worshiped our terribly sports teams) came up with two things to pass the time and amuse ourselves: the ‘black list’ which was everything we disliked and were annoyed by. Food, shows, people, teaching methods….and after one particularly bad day of torment we started the ‘We’re so sorry you had to die’ eulogies for classmates and teachers who fantasized about seeing die. The both of us did it for fun–the eulogies were more ‘And remember when he/she split her pants at graduation?’ sort of things where we relayed all their worst moments, but after Columbine happened we quietly decided to burn that notebook in case anyone got the wrong idea about us.
May 23, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Tanja Cilia
Stranger things have happened – we have all heard of tragedies when someone things he has a divine right to play God. But we have never heard a “backstory”.
May 23, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Tanja Cilia
thinks!
May 23, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Corey Schwartz
Wow! Sounds very intense. I’d love to read it. I’ll Tweet so give me an extra two entries!
May 23, 2009 at 1:33 pm
solvangsherrie
Sounds like an amazing book–please enter my name in the contest!
May 23, 2009 at 6:57 pm
beth
What an interesting concept behind a book…I’d love to win a copy!
May 23, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Nancy
It sounds like an important book. Thanks for sharing your review.
May 23, 2009 at 8:55 pm
YA literature – Hate List « Random Thoughts
[…] I read Tara Lazar’s review of Hate List, and it sounds like another book that I will want to read and consider using with my […]
May 24, 2009 at 9:01 am
[TSS] Big List of Book Giveaways, Fiction Edition – May 24 - Ms. Bookish
[…] List, by Jennifer Brown, at Tara Lazar (ends May […]
May 24, 2009 at 9:25 am
Jackie
I’m dying to read this book, I’ve been hearing such amazing things about it. Exactly the thought-provoking kind of theme that makes me reach for YA lit again and again.
May 24, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Stephanie
This is such an interesting concept… and I’ve been on a YA kick lately. Would love a copy!
Thanks for having the giveaway!
May 24, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Stephanie
Just tweeted about it as well!
May 24, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Shari
Wow — sounds like an amazing story! Please enter me in the draw (and I’m off to twitter to tweet about this right now…). Thanks! 🙂
May 24, 2009 at 4:13 pm
MJ
This sounds interesting and a little different. Please count me in.
mj.coward[at]gmail.com
May 24, 2009 at 11:41 pm
HilLesha
Please count me in. 🙂
May 25, 2009 at 1:16 pm
tammisauer
Oh, I am HOOKED!
Count me in. I’ll tweet on this, too.
tam
May 26, 2009 at 9:21 am
Christy
ohhh! sounds awesome! Count me in. I’ll tweet about it!
Christy
May 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm
gaby lapus
This sounds interesting! Please count me in.
gaby317nyc AT gmail DOT com
May 26, 2009 at 6:10 pm
mindy
sounds fabulous thanks for the giveaway
May 26, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Hillary Fairchild
I would love to read this! Please include me in the giveaway! Thanks so much!
May 26, 2009 at 8:39 pm
texasheartland
It sounds like a great read and would love to add it to my list this Summer!
May 27, 2009 at 6:32 am
susan
sounds like a great read, would love to read it on the beach! Things I hate vs. something I love!
May 27, 2009 at 11:22 am
Jason
This sounds like a great book. Thanks for the chance
May 27, 2009 at 12:07 pm
kim v
Sonds great!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Kimspam66(at)yahoo(dot)com
May 27, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Heather
Sounds great!
May 27, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Mary
This sounds very well written and highly plausible – please count me in to win!
May 27, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Mishia
Wow! Sounds like a great read. Thanks!
May 27, 2009 at 5:32 pm
JessicaMarie
I would love to be entered, thank you for the opportunity! ^_^
May 27, 2009 at 6:38 pm
MMW
Sounds like a fantastic book. Enter me please!
May 27, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Sharold
This would be an interesting book to read and share with others.
May 27, 2009 at 6:59 pm
wendy wallach
would be great for my daughter to read.
madamerkf at aol dot com
May 27, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Sarah Z
Sounds like a great read!
Thanks
May 27, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Sheila
Sounds great! Please enter me!!
May 28, 2009 at 5:31 am
sandy
sounds interesting
May 28, 2009 at 6:08 am
Belinda
This sounds like a good read. Thanks!
May 28, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Nicole C.
This sounds like a great book!!
May 28, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Marie
This looks like a really intense but very good read.
marielay@gmail.com
May 31, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Tiff Emerick
Sounds great! Retweeting you now, too 🙂
June 6, 2010 at 7:39 pm
The Hate List by Jennifer Brown – a guest blogger review « Practically Paradise
[…] reviews available online: Carrie’s YA Bookshelf LibrarillyBlonde blog Tara Lazar’s blog Sarah Miller’s blog Hate List facebook page Dog-Eared and Well Read […]