The Hate U Give

A powerful young adult book that has never been more relevant. Starr Carter too black for her white school and too white for her black neighborhood. She's constantly in the middle, afraid to let be too this or too that in front of certain people. That all begins to change one day when she and her friend are leaving a party and get pulled over. What happens next will haunt Starr forever, the white cop shoots her friend dead AND GETS AWAY WITH IT. Obviously this kind of injustice is in the media a lot which makes this book more timely then ever. Words can't describe how much I love this book and it's empowering message. Starr starts to find her voice not only to the media, but to her friends, family, white boyfriend, and classmates. This show more should be required reading. It's timely, impossible to put down (I read the book from cover to cover yesterday morning), and gives the disenfranchised youth a voice. Beautiful, haunting, and riveting. show less

Phenomenal. Hard to believe it's Thomas's first novel. The teen voices are authentic. It draws attention to young, unarmed black men being killed by police because the officer claims to have been afraid for his/her life. It's about speaking up when you don't want to. It's about bridging the racial divide and, despite good intentions, how difficult that can be. It's about knowing who your true friends and family are. It's about seeing the world through someone else's eyes. I highly recommend it to teens and adults. Brava, Angie Thomas.

The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.
The name of the book comes from this acronym that originates from Tupac, and serves as a central theme to the book. This book is immensely important and would recommend to almost all teen readers. Some might take offense in the language ('fuck' does appear quite frequently), and Blue-Lives-Matter-supporters might take offense to the portrayal and treatment of police officers throughout the story. However, Thomas' book does what great teen books are supposed to do: reflect an ill in our society that is not being sufficiently addressed, and serve as representation for those that suffer from that ill. These kind of books will of course anger some, but that's what makes them so show more important.
Dialogue in this book is fantastic. There are, of course, times where it doesn't hold up to my lofty true-to-life standards, but compared to most books, especially those as dialogue-heavy as this one, THUG is in a class of its' own.
Loved how the author developed the relationship between the main character, Starr, and her best friend, Hailey. Hailey does not play an overly prominent role in the book, but she does symbolize what could be described as the average American. Starr's change in approach to this "average American" is beautifully composed, especially in the last 15 pages, and Hailey refuses or is unable to see the changes and the relationship between black and white is forever damaged. show less

Starr Carter witnesses a police shooting when her friend, Khalil, is stopped for a tail light that's out and is subsequently shot in front of her. Because she's underage, she's an anonymous witness, and she has to decide whether to keep silent or speak out about injustice.

So many thoughts and emotions are swirling in my mind as I attempt to process my reaction to this book. It is powerful, allowing Starr to narrate and speak to the reader about her family, her school, her friends, her life. It's as coherent an argument I've ever read for changing our society and fighting against racism. And it doesn't treat any of these issues lightly or less complexly than they deserve - her family, for example, struggles with whether they should stay show more in a neighborhood with gang activity to improve it, or move to the suburbs where the schools would be better and the streets safer. It is a hard read, but it also has moments of joy and hope, especially surrounding Starr's family and the people who love her. I cannot recommend this highly enough to teens and adults alike. Want to understand why people are rioting right now? Read this. show less

https://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/the-hate-u-give-angie-thomas/

I wanted to wait until the end of my first year of school before diving into The Hate U Give.

I thought I was perhaps being a little bit dramatic but, upon finishing it, just now, I can assure you that I was right on target. It is definitely a book the requires the reader’s full heart.

The story is built around 16-year-old Starr, a student who drives 45 minutes from her neighborhood to her fancy private school due to her parents’ safety concerns. The dichotomy between the way her identity plays out at home and at school (between code-switching, the company kept, and other defining elements) is not an uncommon one, especially in the south, but it isn’t one show more that is really talked about, openly in popular culture.

Though the book is built around Starr witnessing her friend being shot by a police officer, there is so much more woven into the story. Race, class, education, violence, loyalty, family, and community pull together to create this gem of a novel.

And that’s the point.

It’s never about one incident.

It is never that simple.

One of the things I think we forget when the (white) media grabs hold of a police-involved shooting, is that human element of the victims. We immediately victim blame which throws all empathy out of the window, moving us far away from being able to take the perspective of the very real human being on the other end of that shot. As a social work student, I can promise you there are countless reasons for that habit, but the end result is still the same and it creates a divide between communities in a harmful way.

If you’ve ever watched or heard interviews with Angie Thomas, you’ll have a better understanding exactly what she was working with as a foundation. Even if you haven’t seen the fantastic Thomas in action, the message is pretty clear: empathy changes the game.

That is the magic of the Hate U Give: the readers are given the packaged gift (thank you for that emotional labor, Angie!) of watching the shooting from the side the media tends to vilify.

Thomas does an incredible job breaking down Starr’s feelings around the shooting, as well as her struggle to balance the multiple revolving worlds, spinning and shifting around her so fast, even I felt dizzy.

It is heavy and real but has its moments of humor and levity and it is a must read if you haven’t read it. show less

The Hate U Give is an incredibly powerful, moving story inspired the Black Lives Matter movement, and I think it was done really, really well. Obviously, Angie Thomas cared about this project and it shows everywhere, showing intersections and the complexities of having to live a double life as a black teenager going to a white school. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of hype I have heard probably worked against it, because it didn't quite meet my expectations.

The writing style itself wasn't too special. Starr had a good voice, but it felt typical for YA. I also felt like it was slow at some parts. But that's more of a personal preference, honestly. The plot and characters itself? Incredible. Starr is so incredibly brave even though she show more kept saying she wasn't, and I admire her so much. I loved Starr and her family; it's not often you see family take front and center in YA, and that was really nice to see. Everyone cared so much about each other. Starr's friends at Williamson was nice to see too, and I liked that there was a "token white" (Chris) in the story, and also showing how fucking stubborn white people can be with Hailey. I liked Maya too.

And then, of course, everything surrounding Khalil. (I'm not black, so tell me if I fuck up this part.) This is the reason why you should read this book. It is politically relevant and shows the BLM movement from a side that a lot of people refuse to see. Non-black people, especially white people, need to read this book, because it's a definite eye-opener. While The Hate U Give is a fictional story, everything behind it is real, and it's acknowledged in the book - names that everyone has heard on the news, like Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, but also Emmett Till - a reminder that this has been going on far, far too long. Unarmed black people, black children in some cases, are killed by white police. Black people are made to look like thugs by white-dominated media, while their murderers are portrayed as the victims. This book is #ownvoices and doesn't hesitate to call out racism.

This book is absolutely something everybody should read. It is relevant and powerful and these voices need to be heard. show less

Sometimes I read a book that I have no idea how to review. A book that’s so remarkable, so moving and affecting, that anything I have to say will feel hollow by comparison. But I’m going to give this a go anyway.

Most of what I review is either science fiction or fantasy, so The Hate U Give is a rarity for me – a contemporary YA novel! I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve read one of these. Anyway, I kept hearing about how amazing it was, as well as how timely – it was inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement – so I decided to get a hold of a copy. And boy, am I glad I did.

Starr Carter attends a fancy, majority white prep school in the suburbs, but she and her family still live in the same poor neighborhood where show more she grew up. Her life is an uneasy balancing act of these two worlds, but everything is shattered when she sees her unarmed childhood best friend, Khalil, shot and killed by a white police officer.

“I’ve seen it happen over and over again: a black person gets killed just for being black, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve Tweeted RIP hashtags, reblogged pictures on Tumblr, and signed every petition out there. I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down.
Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak.”

The Hate U Give is about more than just Starr. It’s about her friends, her family, her home. Her community. Standing up for Khalil and her community could endanger herself and her family, but in her heart, Starr knows she has to do what she thinks is right.

There’s just so much too this book. I know that if I reread it, I’ll get more out of it. It’s a little thing, but I kept thinking about her father’s rose garden. I have the feeling its symbolic, but I think I’d need to reread to say more.

I really hope this book gets taught in schools. I was talking about it with a friend, and she pointed out that all the books about racism typically read in high school are all set in the past. Namely, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is told from a white perspective besides. I don’t think my high school English courses ever addressed present day racism. It was all at a remove.

The Hate U Give is not at a remove. It is heart strikingly close to real life, today. It doesn’t present racism as something that’s “over now,” but instead shows how it manifests in the modern United States. The media and the police keep trying to blame Khalil for his own murder, painting him as a dangerous thug to “justify” his death. As Starr points out, even if he was in a gang, that doesn’t mean his death was acceptable.

The portrayal of Starr’s white classmates was uncomfortably accurate. Largely, they just don’t care about Khalil’s murder, but many of them use it as a pretext to get out of class in “protest.” Plus, there’s the issue of Starr’s friend Hailey. Their friendship has been on the rocks ever since Hailey unfollowed Starr’s tumblr because she didn’t want to see the race related posts Starr was reblogging. Hailey’s constantly enacting microaggressions, and when she gets called out on it, she won’t address her own action – just insists that she’s not a racist and how dare you call her one.

I really loved how The Hate U Give dealt with female friendship. I’m sure everyone’s been in the position of realizing there’s another side to a friend of yours and having to decide whether or not to walk away from the relationship. Sometimes friendships end. And maybe it’s for the best, but it still hurts.

“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”

Thankfully, Starr had other friends besides Hailey. She ends up strengthening her friendships with two other girls, neither of whom are as callusly hurtful or as unreflective of their own biases as Hailey.

The Hate U Give is the book America needs right now. It’s also just a darn good book generally. I hope that it gets taught in schools, but if it does, I know that it will receive challenges and end up on banned book lists. But we need books that address the experiences of black kids, and we need books that force white kids to think about modern day racism, even if it makes them uncomfortable.

This review doesn’t begin to convey how meaningful and moving The Hate U Give is. The ending had me tearing up, which rarely happens to me while I read. Even writing this review, I am still emotional about this book.

Please, go read it. You won’t regret it.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less