Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Hate List by Jennifer Brown is about Valerie, a high school senior who has never quite fit in.  She has been the victim of the meanest school bullies since she started dressing and acting differently in middle school.  Valerie found a soul mate in Nick when he moved to town when they were both freshmen.  Together, they could weather the bullying.  Valerie started the Hate List in a red spiral notebook as a way to vent about being constantly picked on my the other students at school.  Each time something happened, she'd write down the bully's name.  Eventually, the list grew and grew, with names on the list multiple times.  Valerie always thought of the list as a way to get out her pain, but Nick took it to a different level.  On May 2nd of their junior year, Nick brought a gun to school and shot several of the students on the Hate List.  Valerie, once she realized what Nick was doing, threw herself in front of the last victim and took a bullet in her leg.  Immediately after accidentally shooting Valerie, Nick shot and killed himself.  Now, Valerie is left to deal with her injury, the loss of a boyfriend she truly loved, and the accusatory attitude of most of the people in her small town - including her own parents.  Bravely, Valerie returns to her high school in the fall, only to find that her friends have abandoned her.  She does, however, find a friend in the most unlikely place.  It takes her awhile to accept it, but Valerie eventually becomes friends with the girl she took the bullet for - the queen bee of the school, the one who was at the top of the Hate List due to her constant bullying and nastiness.  With the help of her psychologist Dr. Heiler, her art instructor Bea, and a new notebook filled with her sketches, Valerie learns a lot about herself and her classmates, and realizes that she has never quite looked at anything in her life in a way that allows her to "see" what is really there.

This was an awesome book.  I really liked the way it alternated between Valerie's current reality, her relationship with Nick, and the newspaper clippings.  After reading the Author's Note at the end, I realized that I read the story exactly the way she intended it - as Valerie's story, not the story of a school shooting.  It truly is the story of Valerie's survival and growth as she works through what happened.  I would recommend this book to mature readers who like the works of Sarah Dessen and Jodi Picoult.