In my free time, I love to find a good book to read. Recently, I have finished a book called The Hate List by Jennifer Brown. This book is about a young couple in their junior year of high school who are bullied. Every night they go home, complain to each other about their day, and write the names of their bullies in a notebook. The young girl, Valerie, thought this list was harmless until her boyfriend, Nick, came to school one day and started shooting the people on the list, including Valerie herself.

What I have found so interesting about this book was how the author tells a devastating story about a school shooting and made it feel real. Jennifer Brown showed all of the effects of bullying and what it can sadly lead too. While I was reading this book, I tried to think of how Valerie and Nick felt, going to school everyday only to get picked on and constantly put down. It was no excuse for what Nick did to those people, but he had no one to talk too.

Throughout the book, Jennifer Brown talked about the victims and the survivors. She described how the survivors felt about Valerie, and how, over time, they learned to come together and to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before you say anything to them.

This book has taught me so much about what is really going on in the world. Going to a small school where everyone know each other, there is little to no bullying. Reading this book showed me that people should really take into consideration about how they are treating others and should only treat people how they want to be treated.