Hate List Reading Response

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

                                                                                                                                    -Nelson Mandela

            In life, time and time again, people fall apart but the hard part is picking yourself back up. Falling down is never fun, but that doesn’t mean that you should be afraid of recovering. Last year whenever I was having any problems I would try to face them head on instead of shying away from them. In Hate List, by Jennifer Brown, the author portrays the main character, Valerie and her struggle in the aftermath of a school shooting. Valerie’s boyfriend, Nick, took the “hate list” that they had made of the people who they hated. Nick shot people who are on the list, as well as shooting himself. Throughout the book, Valerie deals with people not understanding that she didn’t do anything to hurt anyone. Even people close to her realize this. In this book, Valerie is exposed to many very difficult experiences that cause her pain, but she is able to overcome them.

            Pain is something that we all experience in our lives at some point or another. Pain is inevitable. Therefore, “Just like there’s always time for pain, there’s always time for healing” (p.273). Consequently, you can always get back on your feet after falling down. Moving on, no matter how hard, is always very important. If you don’t more on with life you will miss all of the great opportunities that it has in store for you. In life, we should try to make the best of our lives as well as making our lives fun and enjoyable. Once Valerie was able to go back to school and make friends she was more satisfied with her life.

            However pain is not always feeling hurt physically, it can also be feeling hurt emotionally. Because of what happened Valerie was thinking, “I didn’t want those people dead…And you never would’ve never even known about that list had Nick not lost it. But Nick lost it, not me! Not me!” (p.301) This pain that Valerie is feeling is that no one understands her. Even Valerie’s parents don’t really believe her or trust her. Her dad thinks she should go back to a mental hospital and her mom is just uneasy around her. This makes Valerie feel even worse about herself and because of this, Valerie’s inner pain becomes even stronger then it was before.

            Valerie experiences a lot of pain throughout the book, whether it is being shot by her boyfriend or having to face many people who are angry at her or who think she is guilty. But Valerie is able to cope with this pain, she doesn’t just let the pain get the better of her. I believe that in life we shouldn’t just focus on our inner suffering, but instead try to move past it and live life to the fullest. In the book, Valerie overcomes her loneliness and anger by going back to school and moving on. Overcoming fears is harder then it seems. In my life, up to this point, I haven’t been able to overcome any of my bigger fears. After reading Hate List I’ve realized how essential it is to overcome your fears. In the end, being able to cope with pain helps in getting through the hardships that one has experienced throughout life.

Every Day

            A really good book that I read over the summer was Every Day by David Levithan. It is a book that is about a character named A who is not a boy or a girl, but who switches bodies every day. One day A could be a tall boy and the next day be a short girl. A lives in different people’s bodies for a single day and lives that person’s life as closely as possible to the way that he or she would have lived it. A tries not to interfere with people’s lives until one day when A meets Rhiannon. On that day, A is Justin, Rhiannon’s boyfriend, and after spending the day with Rhiannon on the beach A falls in love with her.

            Since A takes on the form of a different person every day, Rhiannon realizes that she has to learn to love A even though A looks different each day. This shows a theme that trying to love someone no matter what they look like is what is most important. It is the inside that really matters. It is a hard thing for Rhiannon to learn to accept A for who A is on the outside and not just on the inside. This is because Rhiannon has trouble dealing with the fact that A changes bodies each day. Learning to love someone in this way is very hard and has its ups and its downs. For example, some days A is a boy and some days A is a girl. This makes Rhiannon a little bit uncomfortable. But despite all of these challenges A and Rhiannon still try to do their best to keep up their relationship.