‘Hate List’ By: Jennifer Brown (Review)

Hate List was written by Jennifer Brown. It tells the story of a teenage girl whose boyfriend commits a schools shooting them kills himself. Everyone thinks she had something to do it with it, so we follow her through life as she faces these struggles. For my book response, I decided to answer some questions that you normally would not see in a typical book review.

My first topic is about literacy skills:

The most important literacy skill that I used in my reading was ‘Inner Voice’. I used my inner voice throughout this book because it helped me gain a deeper understanding by allowing me to relate to the characters on a personal level. When I express how I feel about a certain situation, I feel as though I am actually apart of the story and Jennifer does a good job at creating ways for me to interject my ‘Inner Voice’.  Another literacy skill that I used was ‘questioning the text’. Throughout the story I came across things that I wasn’t sure about or had a question about. When I took the time to stop and right down the questions that I had, it allowed me to think more deeply about the text and often I was able to find the answer later in my reading. From ‘questioning the text’ I was able to further understand the reading.

Next is about media an how it relates to the story, and characters in it:

The media impacted Valerie, the main character, in a large way because the news reports of the shooting often stretched the truth to fit their own narrative. This led to her being ridiculed and condemned for something that she didn’t even do. This reminded me of how the news tried to confuse the facts of the Charlottesville Riots. Because they were only showing certain sides of the story and not everything was 100% facts, someone would have to do some deep research in order to know what really happened. The principal at Garvin High school used the media to his advantage. He was afraid of losing his job after the school shooting so he wanted the public to see that everyone in school had changed and the school was now a safe place for all students. In order to accomplish this, he went to the media and forced them to do an on-air interview with him so that he could say everyone is now forgiving and accepting to all. This shows that the media is often used only to push someone’s agenda or their own personal opinion. An example of how the media presented a single story is when, after the shooting, the news only ever talked about how Nick was a murderous, evil, dark boy whose entire life was a plot toward revenged but that was not the full truth. Valerie was trying to get everyone to realize that he was a good person who made a mistake. Regardless of how hard she tried, she was never able to get anyone to see her point of view because the media constantly produced this same image of the mentally unstable and sadistic Nick. The media impacts our society by not showing the whole story of many situations.

And this is my overall opinion of the book:

This was a very good book and I enjoyed it greatly. Because it was a realistic fiction book that was geared toward young adults, I felt that I was more connected to the story and I could relate to it. Some parts were a little confusing because so many things were happening at the same time and it’s hard to keep everything straight but that doesn’t take away from the book itself. I would definitely recommend this book to others because one of the main lessons you can get from it is understanding, and forgiveness, which are lessons everything should learn. The story is about high schoolers so it would be a better read for teenagers however, I think that this book would be good for adults as well because it is very captivating and will keep you on the edge of your seat regardless of your age.