The author of Hate You, Graham McNamee, grew up in Toronto and was always a “book person” who had worked in bookstores, libraries, and even a bookbinding factory. McNamee was honored when Hate You was chosen as the Honor Book in the Fifteenth Annual Delacorte Press Contest for a First Young Adult Novel.

In the book, the main character, Alice Silvers, writes songs she can never sing because she has a broken “Frankenstein” voice. Her father abused her years before, when she got in his way, while he was fighting/abusing her mother. Now that she’s 17, all she has her songs, her words, her mother, her boyfriend, and her life. Even with everything that she has, the only thing that she doesn’t have is her voice. Alice over the years has grown with this tremendous hate for what happened to her that night, and the circumstance it left her in.

Graham Mcnamee wrote “Hate You” with intensity while capturing an honest perspective of what teenagers today go through when they do not know how to express what they want to say. As a reader, and a teen, I was able to relate to this book because similarly to the main character Alice, i too I express my emotions through poetry.  She wrote her pain and hatred for her father in her music. This book gives teens an outlook and a new perspective on what they might be going through. It might help teens in who are experiencing difficult situations and work through them. I recommend this book to pre-teens and teens who want to understand how they can adequately cope with their emotions.

I give this book a five-star rating, and if you are interested in reading it, you can find it at the Taft High Library. Hope you enjoy!

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