This is a book that I had been looking forward to reading for a long time, until I finally found it in Solihull Waterstones and was absolutely overjoyed! So far that's the only store I've seen that stocks her books, and I'd liked to read more from her ever since I read this.
The book takes place in an American high school after a school shooting, and follows the life of Valerie, the girlfriend of the shooter, Nick. When Valerie and Nick started a 'hate list', a list of everything and everyone that the couple hated, Valerie just thought it was a bit of fun, or perhaps maybe just a way of letting those feelings go by putting them on paper. But the victims of the shootings all came from that list, and they would have all died, had Valerie not stood in front of a victim before Nick could stop her, getting a bullet to her leg for trying to intercept it. This led to Nick killing himself, leaving Valerie to clean up the mess, and explain his actions. Everyone at school thinks she was a part of it, that she must have known he would do it, and this makes her return to school, after her leg gets better, absolutely unbearable.
Although the book is told solely from Valerie's point of view, there are excerpts from newspaper articles to tell the story of the shooting in more details, especially telling the reader of the victims that the reader obviously never gets to meet. It was strange to read a book about a school shooting, as it was and still is a delicate matter, especially in America, where this book comes from. But I thought the subject matter was handled delicately and with respect to anyone who may have been affected by events like those in the book.
I really enjoyed this book, and I think it's a really important book to read. You don't know how deep someone's resentments lie, until the day they take it too far. If people had a decent outlet for their anger, perhaps massacres like that in the book could be prevented.
Verdict: 5/5
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