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.