The Bookworm says... Yes! Hate List by Jennifer Brown is a very original story. A good original. Valerie is going out with a boy named Nick, and couldn't be happier. They are the "losers" at school, and are picked on often. To vent, Valerie starts a "Hate List". Nick helps her with this list, and they hate the popular kids together. On May 2nd, 2008, one of these "popular kids" broke Valerie's MP3 player, and Nick says he has the perfect revenge. Valerie assumes he is going to insult her, maybe spit on her shoes or punch her boyfriend. But instead, he walks over to Christy Bruter, and says "You've been first on the list for a long time", pulls out a gun, and shoots her. He then proceeds to shoot many people on the list, and some that were just in his way. Valerie jumps in front of a girl named Jessica Campbell, with whom she is not even close to friends, and saves her life. Nick then turned the gun on himself. It is a long recovery for those injured,and a long grieving process for those who lost loved ones. Valerie is a suspect of the shooting, because it was her hate list. Valerie struggles to get her name cleared, her leg healed, and her conscience cleared. Will the stress of this event be too much to handle? This book was excellent, and surely not anything I have ever read before.
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
VOYA Perfect Ten
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
"The list was my idea. I didn't mean for anyone to die. Will you ever forgive me?"
