I was very much reminded of the Columbine High School massacre when reading this book and I don't think that was a bad thing. I felt bad for our protagonist here because even though she did have a "hate list", it was very much born out of the suffering she had to endure. Despite the fact that she saved someone's life during the killings, she is very much still regarded as a suspicious character and there's a lot of hatred towards her. I think Valerie really composed herself very nicely here and I think her inner strength was what really kept the novel going. 
 The ending, I felt, was something very real. It didn't feel like a cop-out, or something like, "hey, look, everything's magically okay now". Overall, this book was an eye-opener and one can't help but wonder that if Valerie and her boyfriend, Nick, were treated differently, maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way they did.