Hate List by Jennifer Brown

I had the honor of seeing Jennifer Brown speak at the MLA Spring Institute last year and I instantly fell in love with her. She was funny. She was down to earth. She was a great speaker. I couldn't wait to read her book.

This was a wonderful book. It was one of those perfect teen books. It dealt with serious subject matter in an honest way but was also full of hope. I wanted to read it constantly and actually got really frustrated at myself for being so tired all week and passing out every chance I got to read.

Val's boyfriend, Nick, shot up the school. That's pretty bad. His final shot was to his own head, killing him. That's horrible. What could make it worse? Nick targeted people who were on a list him and Val had created together and she's survived. The Hate List was meant to be a way to vent. Val started it one day when she was having a particularly rough time. Just writing down all of the people and things and ideas that she hated made her feel better. She never meant for anything like this to happen.

Now, two months later, she's going back to school to finish her senior year. She took a bullet to the thigh and she's been in the psych ward and she's in counseling. She's scared but just wants to get it over and fly under the radar. The only problem is that flying under the radar is now impossible. Some people thing she's to blame for the shooting. Other people think she's a hero. Val, however, has no idea who she is anymore.

Watching Val struggle to put her life back together was really satisfying. I couldn't help but cheer for her the whole way!