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.
