Hate List

Jennifer Brown’s debut novel Hate List tackles the subject of a mass shooting at the fictional Garvin High School. The shooting leaves multiple students and a beloved teacher dead and culminates in the suicide of the shooter, troubled outsider Nick Levil. Nick’s final victim is his girlfriend, Valerie Leftman, an unintended target who survives the shooting. In one final attempt to stop the shooting, Valerie calls out to Nick, taking a shot meant for her tormentor, popularity queen Jessica Campbell. As Nick corners Jessica, Valerie intervenes, causing Nick to shoot Valerie in the leg. Valerie manages to secure Jessica’s safety and Nick kills himself.

The novel begins on the day Valerie returns to Garvin High, roughly six months after the school shooting. Throughout the novel, Valerie explains the origin of the hate list, a list she invents to record bad things that happen to her, like bullying or fighting between her parents. She shares the list with Nick Levil. Immediately, the two bond over their shared unhappiness, and the list. The novel depicts how the two form a friendship that evolves into a star-crossed romance. Valerie shares flashbacks to establish the bullying the two endure.