Not a graphic novel, but read The Hate List

The Hate List by Jennifer Brown I originally set out to review graphic novels and gather information to use if any were ever called into question at my library. I'll start doing that again soon.s However, I do need talk about this book, especially in regards to the current talk in our culture. This doesn't discuss really why the events happened, but the book focuses on the girlfriend, Val, of the shooter, Nick, and follows her through her first day back at school to the end of the book. There are flashbacks to the day of the shooting, as well as different snippets of news reports. You see Val interact with her therapist (who can do back handsprings), her family, and her schoolmates. Through it all, there's the underlying question that Val has to deal with which is how much is she at fault? How much did she encourage Nick when she started keeping a Hate List of people that bullied them, pissed them off, or picked on them. The Hate List started as Val's idea, and it was something that tied them together through their years of dating. You get the idea that Nick's life wasn't the greatest. However, things aren't totally rosy for Val. True, she gets pretty good grades, lives in a nice house, and has a nice younger brother, but ... well, her parents fight all the time and would have been divorced if it hadn't been for the shooting spree at the school. Plus, most of the kids call her Sister Death and go out of their way to torment her. (On the day of the shooting, one of the girls broke Val's mp3 player on the bus to school. She was one of the first people shot by Nick.) (Okay, her dad is also a complete asshat. I know what the author said in the back of the book, but what her father said to her was beyond wrong.) While we are seeing all of this colored through Val's eyes, she rings true as a narrator, and as a traumatized teen. The last quarter of the book had me in tears. I felt so much for Val and what she was going through. The ending worked. I will say, though, given this amazing book, I have a hard time bringing it up to teens. It may be me, but in light of the number of shootings, it's hard for me to bring up the topic. I do plan on putting this on a realistic fiction display and seeing how it does. I highly recommend this book. Brown did a fantastic job writing the story and creating realistic characters.