Hate List

Whereas Valerie understands Nick’s resentment toward the people on the hate list, she draws the line at actual violence and death. She states, “All those things we talked about—why didn’t I see it? Why didn’t I see Nick was serious?” (155). To her, the list serves as a way to exorcise bad behavior like Christy Bruter’s, the type of person “who saw someone looking weak and vulnerable and just pounced on it” (156). However, people see things differently than Nick and Valerie, which Stacey’s collaboration with the police afterward reveals. Stacey explicitly condemns Nick and Valerie’s list and emphasizes Valerie’s threats toward Christy before the shooting. Stacey’s view reflects the community’s attitude toward Valerie, and recasts bullies like Christy as victims and Nick and Valerie as villains. 

During recovery in the hospital, Valerie moves between news coverage and banal channels, such as the Food Network, to pass time. She sees:

pieces of [the shooting] highlighted on one of those late night TV news magazines. [She’d] heard it quoted on one of those morning talk shows, and [she] tried not to think about how ironic it was that the coiffed newspeople who found the notebook so fascinating were just the kind of people that would have ended up in it (162).