Hate List

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009

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Part 3, Chapters 36-37Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3

Part 3, Chapter 36 Summary

The next day, Valerie decides she is finally ready to visit Nick’s grave. When she arrives, she reminisces about times with Nick before she realizes Duce is sitting on a bench behind her. At first, they blame each other; she accuses him of not recognizing the warning signs, and he accuses her of goading Nick with her hate list. Duce also accuses her of not connecting with her old friends after they also lost Nick, and of selfishly keeping his memory to herself. Duce wants to know what took her so long to find her way to Nick’s grave. She believes Nick, in her memories and in her heart, was too alive to be buried in a cemetery until now. Before Duce leaves, they sit together, sharing their mutual love for Nick.

Part 3, Chapter 37 Summary

Before Valerie visits the grave, she fails to tell anyone where she is going, so, when she returns, her mom calls Dr. Hieler and the police. Valerie’s father is also there. When she walks through the door, instead of expressing concern for her safe return, his first words are, “‘You’ve got to stop letting her make us all miserable” (354).He reemphasizes his desire to put Valerie back into in-patient care. Equally upset about missing soccer tryouts due to the misunderstanding, Frankie blurts out, “Dad’s right—all she does is cause trouble” (354). Her mother bursts into tears when she finds out Valerie saw Duce, a boy she considers a bad seed, like Nick. Throughout their outbursts, Valerie maintains she did nothing wrong. With her brother and mother now upset about Valerie ruining the prospect of any good day for their family, she feels shut out and like she’s living in a hostile house.

Part 3, Chapters 36-37 Analysis

When Valerie visits Nick’s grave, she thinks about fatal flaws: a subject Nick mentioned when he and Valerie hung out together the first time. Just as Nick had said Hamlet’s fatal flaw was his failure to act, Valerie claims her fatal flaw is that she loved Nick too much: she blinded herself to his faults and failed to see his fatal flaw—his anger. As she gets up to leave, Valerie utters, “Bye Romeo,” referring to their fated romance, before she notices the inscription on Nick’s tomb, dedicated to a son: “The words in the granite said nothing about me at all” (351). Valerie is no more tied to Nick’s actions as she is to her own past: Nick’s fate is the one written in stone, while hers is subject to change.