Hate List By Jennifer Brown

Cover Rating: 2/5 Stars
Overall Rating: 3/5 Stars
Synopsis: Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he 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.

I started reading this book for no apparent reason really. You know how it is, you read a sad book and then go through a sad-book-phase. Then order some books of the same genre. About a month later your scanning your shelf for something to read and are surprised to see they are all depressing ones. Then you remember 'Oh these are from that sad-book-phase I had last month!'. Or is it just me?Anyway Hate List (I feel like there should be a 'the' in front of that) was quite a good read. It deals with the issue of a school shooting which I've never heard much about, I've never heard of it happening in England though that could just be me not listening to the news as I don't usually. It was actually a better story than I thought it was going to be. It is sad without being depressing and it explores the affects of a school shooting on everyone involved; the teachers, students and the people who were closer to the shooter.


The main character Valerie's boyfriend was the shooter and because of that everyone presumed she was involved and the discovery of the Hate List didn't make it any better. The Hate List was a book of names of people who they didn't like, nothing more, or so Valerie thought. Nick took it to extremes and targeted those of the list before turning the gun on himself. Valerie I found was quite stupid for not seeing the warning signs in Nick; his fascination with death, talk of killing them all and all his hate. I suppose she was blinded by the other side of Nick, the sweet kind one she loved. At the end of the book I liked her a lot more, she was brave and I admired that. There is not many other characters to comment on really as the focus was always on Valerie but I did really like her psychiatrist whose name I can't remember right now.


Hate List is not a light read so I wouldn't recommend if  your looking for a fluffy read but if you are looking for a book that makes you think this is the one for you. It's deep, dark and serious. The book is very real as are the reactions of the characters which I enjoyed. Overall it was a good book that I would recommend to my friends. 

Email me at: confessionsofabookaholic@LIVE.CO.UK