Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Summary from Goodreads: 

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Source: 

I got this book from my local library! 

My Thoughts: 

“Just like there's always time for pain, there's always time for healing.” 

This is such an easy 5 star rating for me. I loved this book and I thought it was amazing. I feel guilty whenever saying it was amazing because the subject of the book is so terrible and heartbreaking but Jennifer took this heartbreaking topic and turned it into such a great story that I will never forget. 

School shootings are such terrible things and they get me so upset. I wish we had world peace and there was no children or parents that had to worry about the safety of themselves or their children when they are walking into school or dropping them off to school. 

I loved how we got some chapters that were set at the day of the shooting and some chapters that were showing us Valerie after the shooting. I felt like this was a great way to organize this book because I wouldn't have liked to have a huge information dump about all the school shooting details at one time. 

This book made me feel so many emotions. Happy and sad at the same time. I was so mad at some characters and I was rooting others on and was right by their side through the entire story. Other characters grew on me while the story went on and I learned more about who they really are. 

This has got to be one of my top five favorite books of all time! I just loved it and can't wait to read some more of Jennifer's books!

My Rating: