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Left behind

October 13th, 2009 Jane J. - Central Library

There are books that stick with you long after you close the back cover.  The Hate List by Jennifer Brown is just such a book.  Known more for her humor columns in the Kansas City Star (she is the two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck Global Humor Award), Brown surprised everyone with her not-at-all funny novel about the aftermath of a school schooting.

As The Hate List opens Valerie Leftman is about to start her senior year of high school.  While that may seem like an everyday occurence to most of us, for Valerie it is a traumatic return to the scene of the crime.  Technically it wasn’t her crime.  But try convincing anyone of that when even Valerie has her doubts.  How can anyone forget that five months ago Valerie’s boyfriend Nick Levil opened fire in the commons and killed six students and a teacher.  Though she was wounded in her attempt to stop Nick and saved a fellow classmate in the process, Valerie is guilty by association and design.  As the investigation shows, she was the first to come up with the list of things and people she hates and Nick’s targets were the very people who bullied them the most and who topped the list.  Just about everyone, including her mom and dad, feel that Valerie is to blame for setting Nick on his deadly course by creating the list in the first place.

As the title and subject matter might suggest, this is a difficult book.  Brown doesn’t let her characters off with easy answers.  Valerie’s recovery is helped by her smart and sympathetic therapist, but nothing will ever be the same for her.  She has complicated feelings about Nick - can she still love the guy she knew before or must she hate what he became - and her family is being torn apart.  All of which is handled with skillful realism by this first time author.  By interspersing the events of the attack with newspaper articles and Valerie’s present day struggles, the author makes sure nothing is white-washed.  Very well done.

Entry Filed under: Young Adult