Book Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Publisher: ‎ Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: February 28, 2017
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

I’ve been meaning to read The Hate U Give for a while now but other books kept getting in the way. When my son said that he had to read it for school, I decided to read it too. He loved it so much that he finished it in record time and then read it again right away. I can see why – it may be the best young adult book I’ve read.

Starr Carter is a sixteen-year-old who lives in a poor neighborhood. She attends an elite prep school where she is one of two Black kids in her grade. She keeps her two worlds very separate until one day when she is with her neighborhood friend Khalil and he is fatally shot by a police officer. Starr was the only witness but she’s not sure she wants to get involved – it could be too dangerous.

It’s sad and a little eerie that this book was published in 2017 but pretty much mirrors the events of the summer of 2020 after George Floyd was murdered. Some things never change, unfortunately. Thomas does a beautiful job of showing how the frustration of a community over the murder of an unarmed Black man by police could lead to rioting. I would love to gift this book to people who say they can’t understand why the protests aren’t all peaceful.

She also does a fantastic job of showing the effort that it takes for Starr to navigate between her two worlds. Starr has to be ever mindful when she’s at school that she doesn’t come across as an “angry Black girl”. She doesn’t speak about her home life because she doesn’t want people to think she lives in the ghetto. That’s why she is hesitant to speak up about having been with Khalil. It gets harder and harder to keep quiet as she watches the media turn him into a criminal and she hears her classmates calling him a thug.

I don’t know how someone could read this book and not walk away with a deep sense of empathy and understanding for what it’s like to be a Black teenager in today’s world. I think it should be required reading for high school – I’m so glad that my son read it. Incidentally, he watched the movie and said that it was very different from the book and he didn’t like it. I’m probably still going to watch it just to see for myself – I’ll report back after I do. In the meantime, I give the book The Hate U Give my highest recommendation.

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