Say Something: A Hate List Novella by Jennifer Brown

From Goodreads, 

"In Hate List, Jennifer Brown delivered a powerful story about grief, friendship, and forgiveness in the aftermath of a school shooting. Now, she explores an evocative new narrative while digging deeper into the themes first touched upon in her debut novel.

David Judy knows what it's like to be bullied. Shy and gentle, with a soft voice and "a girl's name for a last name," he is a prime target. Thankfully, there's one girl David feels at ease with -- Valerie, the girl who's been dating his neighbor and sometimes-friend, Nick. Valerie is kind to David and pulls him into their circle of outcast friends, where he finally feels like he (sort of) belongs. So when David starts to suspect that Nick and his friend Jeremy are planning a revenge plot against their tormentors, he wrestles with whether or not to tell someone. By the time he finally works up the courage to say something...it's too late.


David tries to put what he knows behind him -- to forget and move on -- but that's hard to do as senior year starts and he watches his old friend, Valerie, struggle in a deep, dark place of guilt and confusion. It's time to speak up. David may not be able to end bullying, but by standing up, he might just make a difference. And that's what matters."

Goodreads - Say Something

Last week I reviewed my reread of the book Hate List.  When I repurchased this book there was the included novella in the back called Say Something.  I had no idea that Jennifer Brown had written a novella to follow up the original award winner.  I was extremely excited to finish the book so that I could read this novella. 

Say Something is told by David who was friends with Nick and Valerie.  Nick was the gunman in a school shooting and Valerie was quickly associated with it because she had written a hate list.  But David is dealing with a mixture of emotions since the shooting.  He really cares about Valerie and enjoys her friendship, especially since he feels like an outcast most of the time.  David thinks that Nick and Jeremy are going to plan something against the classmates that are on the hate list.  He struggles with telling someone.  And by the time he sees the gun that Nick has under his coat, it is too late to tell someone.  In the aftermath, David continues to struggle to figure out his place and if he should tell the police the information that he knows. 

This book (yes, I'm going to call this a book even though it is a novella) focuses a lot on the bullying that took place at school.  In the first book, we learned that there was bullying going on like in most schools, but this book really emphasized how bad it was and who was being bullied.  Nick was bullied and even fought fights for kids who were being bullied.  I honestly felt like Nick was villainized in the first book, but was brought back to being just an average kid who was struggling in this book.  I felt bad for David and for Nick.  David was relentlessly picked on for his last name.  Nick stood up for David a couple times because he was just fed up with all the bullying.  I feel like most (not all) school shootings are a result of continuous bullying that has taken place.  As a teacher, I always step in and intervene if I witness or encounter a bullying situation.  The problem is that many kids won't tell an adult if they are being bullied because they are often labeled as a tattle tale and that just causes more bullying.  I don't know what is going to have to happen to fix the bullying and school shooting issue.  Part of me thinks that it is how kids are being raised today versus how they were raised 20 years ago.  Parents are less and less involved in their child's life and they place the blame on the school 95% of the time.  I think the biggest question is what can adults do and change to make a difference in how children respond and act in certain situations. 

This book is a follow-up to the first book, but I feel there was a bigger story that could have been told.  I honestly would have loved to have read a story from Nick's perspective.  There could have been a deeper back story that told of his childhood and even how he was through school.  Bullying could have been addressed and even having the reactions of peers and adults would have been extremely interesting to read.  We could have learned the real backstory to what happened and how Valerie really fit into the whole picture and plan.  It would have been a good novella instead of David's story. 

Overall, this book was good, especially since I read it right after finishing Hate List.  The focus on bullying was a good move by Jennifer Brown because it is such an issue in schools today.  I give this 3 stars.  It was good, but as I mentioned above I think there was a bigger story to tell.  

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

From Goodreads, 

"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."

Goodreads - Hate List

Awards and Nominations: 

• Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award (2010)
• Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2011)
• Missouri Gateway Readers Award (2012)
• Oklahoma Sequoyah Award for High School (2012)
• Lincoln Award Nominee (2014)

This is actually a reread for me, and I was not excited about it.  As we all know I started reading through award-winning books a few years back.  This was a book that was on the Missouri Gateway Readers Award list.  I had read it before and found the book okay.  Not great, not terrible, just okay.  I didn't want to read it again but had made the agreement with myself to read through the award books and document it by writing reviews on this blog.  Thus, I'm stuck rereading the book.  The exciting part is that the copy I have has the novella in the back.  I'll review it next week!

Valerie never wanted anyone to die.  Sure she was different than most teenagers.  Sure she had a hate list of all the things and people she hated.  She never thought that her boyfriend Nick would take things so seriously and decide to shoot the kids at her school.  Valerie too was a victim and now she is trying to recover in a million different ways.  A lot of people think she is guilty and should pay for what she did, even though she did nothing but make the hate list.  She is mentally trying to deal with and sort out her personal problems, her family problems, and all the problems that come from being at school.  The entire time you will ask what exactly happen and will Valerie ever be okay. 

In today's world, we see and hear more and more about school shootings.  Schools practice lockdown drills and students know what to do in case they have to lock down a room by themselves or with a sub.  A lot of books in the past ten years have had school shootings as a theme and central driving point behind the book.  This book of course has the school shooting as a backdrop.  But it isn't the driving point and focus of the book.  Hate List focuses on Valerie and her role in the school shooting and more importantly her role after the shooting.  I find it such an interesting approach by Brown because of Valerie's role.  She made the hate list, but she had no idea there were plans for a school shooting and she ends up being a victim.  Some people quickly forgive her and say she is innocent because she didn't shoot anyone.  While others think she is to blame and should pay for it because she made the hate list.  And through the entire book, we follow Valerie as she goes to a therapist to try to sort out her feelings and pull her life together in some way, shape, or form.  There is a big mental health push in this book, and frankly, I think it was done so tastefully.  At the end of the copy of the book I have, there's a question and answer session with Jennifer Brown.  She states that she had come up with Valerie and laid out all the details of her.  But she then had her husband who is a psychologist make a plan on how she would be treated.  I think this was a wonderful approach by having someone who is a professional develop part of the book and determine how therapy would actually be for Valerie.  The entire book was wonderfully written and laid together perfectly.  

I stated earlier that this book was just okay on my scale.  I think this is largely in part because of Valerie's entire dysfunctional family.  Her dad honestly became the bad guy in this entire thing.  He was an awful human being who blamed her for everything that had happened.  He didn't give anyone in his family the love or support that they needed during a trying time.  He was only focused on himself.  Valerie's mom was pretty scattered.  She went from thinking Valerie was going to try to kill herself to having complete trust in her, then swinging back to being paranoid and thinking she was going to kill people.  Her mom should have also been going to therapy from what I read in the book.  She was a lot to handle, but at the end of the day, she still loved Valerie which is more than I can say for Valerie's dad.  Her brother seemed pretty supportive in the beginning, but he changed too as the book progressed.  He became more like their dad and told Valerie to basically stop causing a scene and ruining things for him.  I think they all needed to go to therapy together and separately.  They were a ruining point for me because of how dysfunctional they all were.

This book wasn't as bad as I had remembered it being.  I don't think this would be a perfect fit for just anyone.  I think that anyone who is struggling with mental health issues might want to consider reading this book with a friend or family member.  It touches on self-harm and obviously the school shooting.  I give this 3 stars.  The book was okay, but it just wasn't the book for me.