My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Caught in a swirl of
confusion of a school shooting, Valerie saves another student's life, getting
shot in the process. When she awakes in a hospital bed, she discovers from detectives
and news coverage that her boyfriend, Nick Levil, was the Garvin high school
shooter and she was suspected to also have a role in the crime.
Valerie and Nick were
relatively average teens, with normal angst and drama. They were picked on in
school, which led to them beginning a notebook of all the people they hated,
dubbed the 'Hate List.' Valerie had no idea that Levil would later on pick his
targets from the very same list.
The book is set during
Valerie's senior year, with flashbacks to the shooting and her life before it.
She is confronted by animosity and bitterness from her classmates. She becomes
a true outcast, until she begins an unlikely friendship with the girl she
saved, who is also the most popular girl in school. 'Hate List' brings to light
the effects bullying can have, on not just the victim, but everyone involved.
When
I first bought Hate List, I was intrigued and excited. How would I feel if
someone I loved was a murderer? How could my family and friends believe I was
responsible for a shooting? How could I move on from a tragedy like this? I was
hooked for the first few chapters; my interest piqued with the article clipping
and the flashbacks. The other 300 pages left me feeling unconnected and cold
towards the characters. The characters were flat and very black and white.
Either good or bad. On Valerie's side or against her.
I was
disappointed that Brown never went into more detail about Nick. He would have
been a fascinating character! Who was Jeremy and how did he influence Nick in
the last few weeks of his life? She introduces Jeremy for three paragraphs and
never says anything more.
Bea,
the two-dimensional crazy old woman whose sole purpose is for her to discover
art, made no sense at all. She was completely unnecessary.
Her
parents did not find her innocent and were weary of Valerie. Her father
threatened to disown her and told her he still thought her responsible for the
shooting. I know people hold grudges and should be expected to think that way
sometimes, but his character never rang true to me. He is a lawyer and didn't
even care when detectives questioned her daily, with no guardian present?
Doesn't sit right with me. Her mother felt a little more believable, trying to
shield her from the media and outside world. She seemed a little
over-protective at times, but she obviously cared for her daughter.
Nick
and Valerie were often described as outcasts, which was completely untrue. They
had interests, close friends, good grades. Here is Valerie describing how she
felt about school, "Never again would Garvin High have that exciting and
intimidating look it held for me as a freshman. Never again would I equate it
with mind-bending romance, with euphoria, laughter, a job well done. None of
those things most people think of when they imagine their high schools." I
don't know about you, but I don't associate high school with delight and
excitement or a sense of accomplishment. And an outcast definitely wouldn't
use those adjectives.
Another thing that bothered me was the fact that Valerie was outraged by the
media painting a picture of peace and holding hands at Garvin, when that's
exactly how the book was ended! She even confronted Angela Dash about the phony
stories and how after tragedies like the shooting, things don't just go away
that simply. Even after the confrontation and visiting the victims' families,
you still do not know much more about them and the book has a happy ending with
the families of Garvin coming together with forgiveness. Brown ended this book
in the most hypocritical way possible.
I was
disappointed with 'Hate List.' The book was very light, despite its topic. I
was expecting a darker take on this story and more than one view on a subject
like this. I guess I should have seen it coming when the book opened with a Nickelback
quote.
View all my reviews on Goodreads.com
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