Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Holy powerful punch to the gut book lovers!! I read this because my son bought it and it sounded like it would be powerful but also because I wanted to make sure it was ok for him and so I could talk to him about it since school shootings are a fear of his. Not debilitating, but he is of the thought that it is only a matter of when not if his school has one, he began to feel this after Parkland and watching nothing happen to protect students from easy access to guns. He is a smart kid and has lots of opinions.

HATE LIST is the Valerie's story. It is the story of the aftermath of a school shooting, yes, and it is a story about the way bullying impacts people. But it is so much more. Val's parents are a mess, even before That Day. Nick is Val's boyfriend. He reads Shakespeare, plays video games with Val and lets her win because everyone needs to be a winner sometimes, he makes her feel safe and accepted, and he loves her. But he is so angry and while she is too Val doesn't realize how much more angry he is and how much deeper it goes. Not until he comes to school and opens fire on the people who have been so awful to them over the years. When Val started the Hate List she thought it was a way to vent, she didn't know or didn't want to know or wasn't able to see, that's what she is trying to figure out now AFTER That Day, what Nick was saying to her wasn't just blowing off steam. 

Val faces her school and peers and teachers and community after That Day and it isn't pretty or easy, for anyone. Forgiveness is not easy, to give or take or ask for or offer even when not asked for.
Parents aren't perfect, family is hard, so is friendship. Sometimes people learn from tragedy sometimes not so much. But life finds a way, or tries to. Like in real life the people in the world Brown created don't all get a happy or clean ending, some are ok, some are almost there and some have a long way to go before they heal, some may never heal. 

This was so well done, so respectfully done, and that is huge because with all the school shootings over the past few years this could have been quite exploitive but instead it is hard and painful and lovely and life affirming and scary and just so damn good!!!

(Finished August 16, 2018)