This week's focus is on Jennifer Brown's Hate List, and it's an amazing representation of this month's theme: Resilience. Valerie faces doubt and and derision at every turn--from friends, family, teachers--but somehow learns to get up every morning and make it through her senior year after the terrible tragedy of a school shooting perpetrated by a boy she loved.For discussion: If you've read Hate List, did you understand why people doubted Valerie? Was she an easy-to-love character for you? Did you see her as sympathetic? Complicated?
And, in general, what books have you read where a character comes out on the other side of a tragedy and has to deal with the aftermath? Which are your favorites, and why?
5 comments:
I loved this one because I felt like she was walking through the tragedy for the whole book, almost like trying to stride against the ocean. But it didn't feel tiring, it felt strengthening somehow....
I agree, Melissa. I understood definitely why people didn't trust her. Guilty by association, right? But I was sympathetic to her plight and journey. We didn't have to work to overcome her character like we had to (by design) in Before I Fall.
I guess, Out of the Dust comes to mind first for resilience. It's such pure tragedy and as Jennifer said, "resilience with a purpose." A face set to the sun.
Yes, Lorie Ann, Out of the Dust is a great example. Heartbreaking but filled with hope.
And I agree with you both that I completely understood other people's reactions to the main character/their lack of trust, but that made me all the more sympathetic to her situation. I like that the author didn't make it too easy or rote to take sides.
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