Back To The Book

This book is kinda slow right now.

However, this book seems to be dragging along for the past couple of chapters. So, we learned that Val has been in the hospital because the audience has been in this really long flashback. After she was shot, the ambulance brought her to the hospital where she has been treated for her injuries. Brown goes onto say how Val's mom has been a mess for the past couple of days. Always crying whether it was about Val being shot by that "monster" or about how Val is the monster herself because nobody knows if she is innocent yet. Regardless, the past week or so has been very challenging on Val's entire family. Her parents have even started to question their marriage as well.

But, a new man shows up in the hospital one day to visit Val. A simple man in a plain brown suit, Val thought nothing of it until the mysterious man pulled up a chair and began to drill her with questions. He later introduces himself as Detective Panzella. He has been given this case so the town may draw a conclusion as to whether Val his guilty or innocent. He interrogates Val pretty harshly, too. Being the emotional wreck that she is, she breaks down and sometimes cannot answer all of his questions because they can be too deep and she has to take a moment to collect herself. It kind of bothers me how they put her feelings to the side. I mean for crying out loud, the girl just lost her boyfriend AND she got shot in the leg.

After a couple of weeks in the standard hospital, she is begrudgingly moved to the psych ward just a floor above her comfy room. It's a night mere situation when she walks in and sees several different patients with a large variety of problems. Multiple Personality to Bi polar to Schizophrenic patients. Even through she is very alarmed and maybe even scared, she puts on a fake smile and gives them the answers they want to hear so she can get out of the crazy house.

Shorty after she is realeased for the psych ward and starts to see her trusty psychologist, Dr. Hieler. He is a very pleasent but real individual. Val opens up to him about everything, not just Nick but what happened before and the thoughts that have been running through her brain. When she begins her first day, back at Garvin she phones Dr. Hieler for advice. Not only can he guide her along the best path, but he alwya tells her the truth. Even when Val might not want to hear it. I think that this will help her and maybe help her reach her goal of attending college after this year.

Great New App

I'm taking some time to share a new reading app.

It has been so addictive over the past couple of weeks. It is on the best sellers list of apps in the app store. However, it isn't really that popular among my age group. So many times today you will hear about teenagers and how they hate to read. I'm not like a hater of reading but it's definitely not what I would choose to spend time doing. I am on my phone a lot these days and since it's an app I use it when I am on my phone. I find that I use it on the bus in the mornings the most. Especially when it is quiet.

It's called Wattpad and was created in Canada, this year. You can read short and unpublished stories. Almost like an editor, you can highlight text and send comments to the writer. In most cases, if the story gets enough views the writers will actually try to publish. The great thing that I like is that 1. it goes with you everywhere and 2. the app gives you suggestions after you read. Just this morning, I found a spelling error and sent a comment to the writer. They can ever reply back. When you select a genre it will give you different suggestions. I have never heard of fan-fiction until this app. It is a genre that takes well known celebrities and puts them into everyday life.

I am currently reading "After" which is a fan-fiction that involves one direction and puts them into college at Washington State University. Some of the boys don't know or like each other. I don't know much about one direction or the way they are in reality. I think this helps with how I read the story because their personalities in reality don't confuse me.

I think that every age group could not only enjoy but also benefit from this great app. It is or for you if you really enjoy reading or even moderately like it.

Hate Is A Strong Word

     Val certainly uses hate for multiple situations, she hates Nick and the fact that he made a ignorant mistake. She hates that people look at her now and actually pretend like they care at all. She says how it irritates her the most when people around her "look with false caring." I would say that is her largest problem with returning back to school.
     In her third bell the second week back Brown paints a picture so vivid that it sent chills sprinting down my vertebrate. Val walks into her third and a girl who got shot in the leg was stitting and talking to one of her friends. This girl hadn't been back since the shooting for her injuries. Once she saw Val walk in and take a seat in the back row, a tsunami of shrieks and arguements flooded into the classroom. "WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?!" Val looks up and sees a number of fingers pointed at her. The girl who was shot in the leg crutches out of the classroom with tears spilling out of her eyes. Her friends chase after her and comfort her. The rest of the classroom uproars into arguement. Brown describes kids crying and yelling.
     I would almost compare it to the Sandy Hook Shooting. The tramatic experience will haunt the people forever. The students at Val's school are trying to deal with the situation as best as teenagers know how to do. Vocally. Even though it may make Val uncomfortable, they should still be able to talk about their feelings. Perhaps not in front of the entire class but confidently in their guidance counselors. The high school had hired more counselors to help kids cope. However, they were just interested in voicing their opinions out loud.

     I just hope that Val can cope and work through this issue. I also am wondering if Brown will give us more background about what led up to the shooting. I feel like she didn't elaborate enough for the reader. 

The first step is admitting you have a problem

     As you all know from my last post. I am reading, "The Hate List" by Jennifer Brown. I started around a week ago and im nearly through the entire novel which has almost 500 pages. I am attached to this book. I have even started reading on the bus. Not only is it entetaining in the beginning, but what I also really like is that he keeps the story fast pase and it doesn't get boring. I find many times that each author I read has, at some time the story gets long and super slow.
     The story also takes breaks and goes back into flashbacks and elaborates more on the background of the story. The most recent one has taken place right after Valerie got back from her first day back at her highschool. Her mother was the first one in the front of the pick-up line. Brown says how Valerie was so concerned about how getting out of the school that she ran past her locker and left all of her homework inside. Brown adds that Valerie and her mother had shared a laughing moment and for the first time since the shotting Val's cheeks actually hurt from laughing so hard.

Then the flashback came.

     It was of her and she was back in the hospital with her family and a couple of police officers. There was live coverage of the shooting on the small tv that the officers were watching. Valerie came to and was so confused about what had happened. Her mother was taken out of the room because she was crying herself. It was just Val and her little brother, Frankie left in the hospital room. Frankie had to tell Val that her boyfriend had not only shot (and killed) many people, but also shot Val. She had trouble dealing with all of the news and only a couple days after started seeing Dr. Hieler, her trusty counselor.

     Will she be able to make it through her first trimester?

New one

I have taken a leap.

Last tri, one of my friends was reading this novel and raved about it.... Because I am still waiting for the sequel to my book to come out I thought "what the heck."

Hate List by: Jennifer Brown 

It opens with a flashback from a school shooting. There are ambulances heard in the distance and kids panicking everywhere. The gruesome image is painted with the words from the journal log. It's a newscast from a popular local station. Multiple kids shot and dozens wounded. Then, it takes a different route and brings us to present day. The killer's girlfriend, Valerie Leftman was shot as well but the police and people did not decide whether she is a killer or a hero. Nick, the killer pulled the gun on himself after killing and seriously wounding multiple students and teachers.

The whole plot is surrounded by this list that Nick ad Valerie made. It was of all the people that they hated. (mostly bullies) When the police found the list in Valerie's possession they questioned her role in the killing, but she denied it all and said she didn't know he was going to kill anybody. Later, we learn how seriously disturbed Nick was. In her thoughts, Valerie thinks back to how Nick was always trying to talk to Valerie about committing suicide and running away. Valerie never told anybody about Nick saying this to her.

When she returned back to school, the kids in most of her classes couldn't handle he being there. In her first bell, a girl who was shot in the leg and who was on the list ran out of class crying. The class then breaks into a very heated discussion about having Valerie back in class. Valerie sits through that bell with her head down not talking to anybody. She calls her life source- her counselor and tells him how hard it is to be back in school. He gives her a way out and says that if at the end of their trimester she is still miserable then she can home school.

I think that Valerie will toughen it out and start to make more friends. I can only keep reading to find out what happens next in, "Hate List" by Jennifer Brown