HATE LIST, by Jennifer Brown

HATE LIST

by Jennifer Brown

(Little, Brown)

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.

There's a sketchy line between the way things look and the way things are -- sketchy enough that it's not always easy to tell which side you're on. Hate List is real enough to make you sit up and wonder.

In middle school, I floated on the fringes of a crowd that would eventually become the loser-freaks. As time went by, their eyeliner, reading material, and boot soles all darkened. I stuck with them through V.C. Andrews and Depeche Mode, then drifted away when they began graduating to Anne Rice and Marlboros. If I hadn't bailed, would I have noticed if one of them blew a fuse and began crossing the line? Maybe. Like Valerie, could I have missed the the shift of their customary death-centered banter into something more ominous? Probably.

On the other hand, could I have found myself on the Hate List? Entirely possible. By high school I'd firmly entrenched myself in the Nobody in Particular clan, but I can remember laughing while some higher member of the food chain jacked up Jason Hills like it was some kind of indoor sport. Creepier yet, one girl I ate lunch with swore I'd tormented her little sister in elementary school, yet I don't have the slightest recollection. And when somebody finds their way to the edge, that's all it might take, really.

(Available in September)