The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

2017, 444 pages, available on print, eBook, and audiobook

Ages 13+

Overall rating- 4.8/5

The Hate U Give, written by Angie Thomas, is a young adult novel that has a lot to tell about racial equality and police brutality. It received critical acclaim and was a commercial success. It sold over 1.5 million copies since its debut in 2017 and remained on the NYT’s young adult bestsellers for 50 weeks.

The novel is set in the current time, in a fictional neighborhood of Garden Heights, a mostly black, poor neighborhood. Gang violence is the norm, and it is in many ways a separate area from the rest of the city.

Starr Carter is a 16 year old Black girl who is the main character. She goes to a mostly-white school in a different part of the city. One day, she goes to a party, but it is interrupted by a shooting. She leaves with her childhood friend, Khalil. Unfortunately, they are pulled over by a white police officer, and Khalil is shot and killed. This triggers a series of events that make up the structure of the story. You are going to have to read the full book to find out the true meaning of Starr’s future, and see how she finds her voice and grows as a person.

Now, we move onto the review. A very strong positive is that you see everything that happens in the book, and every moment is captured very well and effectively. You are also introduced to the settings, and a lot of people Starr knows. Definitely a very immersive experience. I also praise the very powerful story, and the way it portrays Starr standing up for Khalil, and Starr still standing up for her beliefs despite all odds and the system being against her.

One of the book’s biggest weaknesses is interestingly, one of its biggest strengths. The extremely immersive experience is sometimes taken too far, and it can feel like, “man, why does this need to even be in the book in the first place?”, and the story can take quite a while to progress. If you have patience, this may not even be an issue.

Overall, this book is amazing in so many ways, I cannot list them all. I would especially recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction novels. Sure, it has some flaws, but this book overcomes them in so many ways, I felt that putting in the weaknesses wasn’t even necessary.

The only people I would not recommend this book to are those who are uneasy with depictions of murder and graphic language. Otherwise, I say that you should give it a go.

• Anonymous