Playlist for Hate List by Kailin Kantola

by Kailin Kantola


The first song in my playlist is “How to Save a Life” by The Fray. It fit the part in the book Hate List by Jennifer Brown, when the police officer is going over her and Nicks emails. They talked about death and killing a lot in their emails. Valerie didn’t realize when Nick talked about death and killing so much, he actually meant it. She was always kidding about it but she couldn’t see that he actually had feelings behind everything they talked about. If she had known he was serious about wanted to kill all those people and himself, she loved him enough to get him help. If she would have known, she could have saved many lives.




My second song in the playlist is “If Anyone Cared” by Nickelback. This song was mentioned at the beginning of the book. The author, Jennifer Brown, said that that song inspired her to write this book. She listened to it all the time in the process of writing the book. It reminded me of the part of the book before Nick died when they would lie down in the grass and watch the sky. Then the song lyrics say “Amen I, I’m alive.” Valerie says that when she is in the hospital.




The next song is the song “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. It relates to the part of the book when Nick and Valerie are actually happy together. Valerie tells us about when she first went to Nick’s house. She says he loved Shakespeare and he read all of his plays. When they hung out he would read her Shakespeare and tell her about it. When they started dating, they called each other Romeo and Juliet. In the song, she refers to Romeo and Juliet so that it why I picked this song. Plus it was a time in the book when Valerie was happy being with Nick.





My next song is “Photograph” by Nickelback. The song talks about when looking at a photograph, how it brings back memories and the fun times. It is alike to the part in the book when Valerie is cleaning her room many months after getting out of the crazy unit at the hospital. Valerie just sat around for many months and never even put thought into cleaning. When she finally did, she found an old photograph of her and Nick at the lake they hung out at a lot. She laughed and reminisced on the times her and Nick were happy together.




Next, is the song is “Exit Wounds” by The Script. When Nick began shooting in the commons, Valerie explained the feeling as numb. She felt dizzy, couldn’t see right, she couldn’t hear what he was saying to her and was in so much shock that her boyfriend would do something like that. The exact words in the song say, “My hands are cold, my body's numb. I'm still in shock, what have you done? My head is pounding, my visions blurred your mouth is moving, I don't hear a word.” I thought it was scary that it matched so perfect. It was kind of scary. As if this song was made for this book. Also when she got shot in the leg it was an exit wound.




The sixth song is “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down. I picked this song because right after she wakes up in the hospital after the shooting, life without Nick is becoming a reality. She is very upset that he died. The thing that makes her the saddest is that the only things people remembered about Nick was the bad things. They didn’t remember the nice things nick had done and they didn’t realize that he and his family are victims too. The song talks about being here without you, and thinking about you all the time, which Val does.




The next song is “Broken” by Life House. I chose this song because when she was in the “Crazy” unit in the hospital, she talked about feeling broken. All she did was stare at the walls and watch the television occasionally. Everyone in her family basically disowned her because she was sure no one wanted a “mentally unstable” child. Her mom, nor dad, nor brother ever came to visit her. She said she was broken.




My last song is “Already Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. The song really connects with the story when Valerie visits Nick’s grave to leave everything there. The sadness, the depression, and the lonely nights, she leaves them at his grave. She decides to move on from her past and let everything go. At his grave she chooses to let him go out of her life. She held onto him for so long and it was only dragging her down. Valerie is moving on in her life.