The Hate U Give: A Story About Police Violence, Racism, and Finding Your Voice

I know I’m a little late to the program with this one as I’ve been hearing people gush about this book for quite a while already — and rightly so! I just finished it and what an amazing story! Though The Hate U Give is marketed as a Young Adult book, I feel that this inspiring book that should be on everyone’s TBR list — regardless of age, gender or race. --The Setting -- The story revolves around and is told from the point of view of Star Carter, a 16 year old black girl who is trying to live in two different worlds: one being Garden Heights, the all black crime-ridden neighborhood where she lives and grew up in — and the other being Williamson Prep, the predominately white upper middle-class high school to which her parents send her and her two brothers. While at school, she carefully measures her behavior, limits her slang and generally portrays an easy-going attitude as she tries to fit in with her rich white schoolmates. She even has a white boyfriend, Chris, whose existence she’s not yet told her father about because she’s worried he’ll judge her for dating a boy who isn’t black. Though it can be challenging at times, Staar is always careful to keep her two worlds separate. --Her Family -- Staar has a great relationship with her family and it’s evident that she loves them. Her mother works at the hospital and is an excellent role model of a strong, no-nonsense woman. Her father, a former gang member, is now a respected member of the community having left his gang life behind and now works hard to provide for his children and be a positive role model for them. He owns the neighborhood grocery store at which Staar helps out from time to time. But things aren’t easy for Staar and her family. She lives in a neighborhood where drive-by shootings, drug lords, gang leaders, and turf wars are a part of everyday life. --The Incident -- But one night her world is shattered when she and her childhood best friend Khalil are pulled over by a policeman for a routine traffic stop. The officer pulls Khalil out of the car and, even though Khalil was unarmed and made no threatening moves toward the officer, the policeman shoots him in the back three times, killing him. So Staar ends up being the only witness to what actually happened — and her life and the life of those around her entirely change as a result. Though traumatized and enraged, Staar is faced with a choice: stay silent or accept who she truly is in order to obtain justice for Khalil. Now I will say that the scene of Khalil’s murder is horrifying and gut-wrenching, and regretfully, not uncommon, as many of us have seen on the news far too often in recent times. Still, that didn’t make it this part of the book any easier — or less heartbreaking — to read. The young man’s funeral was equally heart-hurting, as we saw firsthand how destroyed his family and friends were. Instead of reading a byline in a newspaper or hearing a brief clip on the television, we are fully immersed in the situation in this story and are placed in the shoes of those who are directly involved. In this way, the story was so raw and so real that at times, I forgot that I was reading fiction. The author did an excellent job of bringing this story to life, allowing us to empathize with everyone involved. We read about the challenging issues facing the black community in the news, but this novel brought them to life for the reader, allowing us to see the lives behind the new bylines. In this way, we can’t help but realize that things are often a lot more complicated and multilayered than portrayed by the media. --The Aftermath -- Still grieving Khalil’s death, Staar is put in an extremely tough position given that she’s the only witness to the incident. Though it may seem clear to an outsider of what the best course of action is for her to take, things are not always as easy and clear-cut as they may seem — and it’s uncertain how we would react or not react if we found ourselves in a similar situation. Following the aftermath of the shooting, I felt the author did an excellent job of portraying the fear, confusion, rage, and mistrust that Staar experiences as she processes her friend’s brutal murder and through it all, tries to find herself and her voice in the middle of the fallout. But not only that, we see firsthand how such a violent, tragic and senseless loss can shake a community to its core. --The Police -- Though the officer clearly was at fault here, I felt that the author didn’t demonize the police or place all of the blame on them. Yes, there are definitely some bad police officers out there, but there are also good ones. In fact, Staar’s uncle was a police officer who, on more than one occasion, let her know that not all of the officers at his precinct are trigger-happy racists and that many of his fellow officers vehemently disagreed with the action of their corrupt colleague and those like him. --My Verdict -- The Hate U Give is phenomenal. This is the brutally honest kind of book that will stay with you for a long time after having read it and perhaps may cause you to look at life differently after having read it. At the very least, it may cause us to question that which we’ve come to accept as “normal”. This was a gripping story that not only packed an emotional punch but was also an excellent fictional treatment of real-life racial issues facing America today. Though Ms. Thomas openly treats the issue of police brutality, she also demonstrates in a very real way the day to day violence plaguing inner-city neighborhoods. This is a timely book whose importance cannot be overstated. Though the book deals with heavy issues and is not always comfortable to read, there are plenty of light and fun parts as well — especially the often amusing scenes in which Staar interacts with her friends and family. While the book will make you cry, it will, in places, make you laugh with joy as well. Throughout the book, the author weaves in themes of police brutality, racial profiling, hard choices, injustice, white privilege how young black men get pressured into dealing drugs, the challenges of living in gang-ridden neighborhoods, the everyday violence and danger that people living inner-city neighborhoods face — and does it with expert storytelling. This is an honest and compelling book that I hope will be around and in people’s minds for many years to come. Definitely a 5-star read for me. Recommended!!! This review was originally posted on my blog at rogerhyttinen.com.

This book takes you inside Starr's head and helps you not only see what she sees but feel what she feels. She is a high school girl at a party where she doesn’t feel comfortable. She comes across an old friend, Khalil. They are just chatting and catching up when a fight breaks out and a gun is fired. They don’t stop to find out what is going on, they run with everyone else. “I don’t try to see who got shot or who did it. You can’t snitch if you don’t know anything.” They escape, and are headed home, listening to some music, when they get pulled over by the police. Khalil is annoyed and Starr is scared. He tries to reassure her that it’s going to be alright, but when he opens the car door to check on her, the cop shoots him. Her parents come and get her. She is sick and numb. Starr had watched another friend die. Natasha was killed in a drive by shooting by a gang member as the two of them played in the water from a fire hydrant on a hot day. The three of them had been friends. “Tighter than the inside of Voldemort’s nose.” “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.” I love the way we get to know all different types of people in the book who are multi-dimensional. There’s Starr’s older brother, Seven, and her younger brother Sekani. Her father, Big Mav, and her mother, Lisa. There’s a list of characters too big to name in a little book review, it’s a whole neighborhood and then some, but it never gets unmanageable. Sometimes it gets confusing when authors introduce too many people, but not here. Thomas introduces them one by one into the action with situations and characteristics that make them stand on their own like real people. There are so many facets to the story, I couldn’t possibly cover them all here, but she tackles it all beautifully. Starr’s uncle, Carlos, is a cop himself. Starr is dating a white boy from her school named Chris, and they care very much about each other. Music is a major strand, the dating life of teens, social interactions, being one of the few black kids in a mostly white school her mother enrolled her in, and PTSD. The fear that Starr lived with that something bad could happen when they were stopped by a cop. The guilt Starr feels for living and for not speaking up right away. Thomas clearly depicts how Starr gets to the point where she wants to riot, but also sees the damage that the rioting does to her neighbors and neighborhood. The gang activity in the community is a large part of the story, as the head of one gang is married to Seven’s mother. The story is never simple, and yet it is clearly told and easy to follow. We see the good and the bad in the neighborhood. How belonging to gangs can provide for people even as it contributes to the decay. The way the gangs are part of the community, like it or not. Starr’s father is the former head of a gang and went to jail for three years to get out of the gang. Thomas touches on the system of drugs, addiction, selling, jails, and poverty. It is a very rich story that brings these characters beautifully to life. You half expect you could start driving and eventually pull up in front of their house. I don’t think I have a single negative to give about this book. It is wonderful – insightful, accessible, and expressive. I want everyone to read it. If I could give it more than five stars I would. It is another solid example of why I believe that some of the best authors out there are writing young adult literature and everyone should read some.

Starr Turner, the teenage heroine of Angie Thomas' debut novel The Hate U Give, has a pretty neutral perspective on cops when the book begins: her beloved uncle Carlos is a police officer, and she's been taught by him and her parents to behave in a threat-neutralizing way if she interacts with them: be polite, follow orders, don't make sudden movements. And she's never had any trouble. But then one night, when she's getting a ride home from a party from her long-time friend Khalil, they're pulled over on a pretext by a white cop, and he's shot to death, right there in front of Starr. It changes everything about her life and how she sees the world. Starr's already living a fairly unusual life...she lives with her family in the inner city, but goes to a private, overwhelmingly white high school in the suburbs, where she has mostly white friends and dates a white classmate. She's always found herself living half in each world, but what happens that night really blows up her burgeoning racial consciousness. Her relationships with her friends and family shift and change as she tries to navigate the legal system and get justice for Khalil, and she discovers more and more who she is and who she wants to be. This book had been hyped for months before I got to it...glowing reviews all over the internet, movie rights sold before it was even published. I always try to temper my expectations with any kind of media that's been all the rage, but sometimes it doesn't work. And honestly, I think it contributed towards the way I felt about this book: it's very good, and I probably would have thought it was amazing if it hadn't been sold as life-changing and mind-blowing, but it didn't quite measure up to those enormous accolades for me. There's a compelling story, solid writing with both emotion and humor, and great characterization. But as a reader, there just was never that moment where it really went into hyperdrive and became more than the sum of its parts. Like I said, though, it does everything it's trying to do very well: Starr practically jumps off the page and feels very real, and her family is also beautifully, warmly drawn. Even though Khalil is barely alive during the novel, the way that Starr thinks about him as she processes what happened to him is touchingly rendered and makes the reader really feel his loss. Thomas also does an excellent job of balancing the heavy topic at the center of her book with lightness...there were parts that literally made me laugh out loud, but she never either undercuts the seriousness of police violence or gets too ponderous. But the characters of Starr's school friends, and especially her boyfriend, seem underdeveloped for the significance that the narrative places on them. And a decision Starr makes near the end of the book seems out of place, in a way that was jarring. At the end of the day, I'd recommend it to just about everyone, honestly. It's written as YA (and as a primarily non-YA reader, I'd say it doesn't read as typical for the genre but does have some markings of it), so it's appropriate for younger readers, but it didn't feel dumbed-down to me, someone who loves a gigantic tome of literary fiction. Obviously the focus on police violence will be difficult for some, but it's a well-crafted, enjoyable book that will likely inspire you to examine your own pre-existing opinions. I highly recommend it!

I'm going to start with this--I just finished this book a little less than an hour ago, and I can already say that it has changed my life. Angie Thomas's book about 16-year-old Starr Carter left me speechless and crying for so many reasons, and I'm not sure I can even explain why adequately. Starr herself is written perfectly. She's a high school junior who loves basketball, used to have a massive crush on a Jonas brother, and collects sneakers. She also loves her family, even when they embarrass or frustrate her, is a good student at the private school she attends with almost exclusively rich, white kids (one of whom is her boyfriend), and helps at her dad's community grocery store when she can. However, her life is very different from the ones her friends at school live. Starr is the only black girl in her junior class, lives in a poor black neighborhood that sees more than its fair share of gang violence, is the daughter of an ex-gang member who served time in prison, and saw one of her two best friends killed in a drive-by when she was ten years old. And on the night she is with her other childhood best friend, Khalil, when he is shot in the back by a police officer, despite being unarmed and not doing anything to provoke the officer in any way, she finds herself in the middle of all the fallout from the shooting while still grieving Khalil's death. I'm more than a little ashamed to admit that I'm a privileged white woman in a tiny, primarily white community who has never really even given a ton of thought to the Black Lives Matter movement. I have heard the news, and I felt a piece of the injustice of it all, but prior to reading The Hate U Give, I had never really tried to imagine what the black community really felt. I'm still a privileged white woman in a tiny, primarily white community, which means that I will never really be able to understand what the black community feels, but I'm trying, and I'm trying so much harder than I ever did before. As far as a review, I'm not sure what to say. This is young adult fiction, so I knew it wouldn't be the level of writing to which I'm accustomed. However, Angie Thomas still did an excellent job of creating living, breathing characters and thought-provoking text that made me grab my highlighter many times as I read. The teenagers spoke exactly as teenagers do without coming across as cliché at all, and I usually find that adult young adult writers either try TOO hard to make teenage characters sound like teenagers OR they make them sound entirely too grown up (I'm looking at you in The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. Yeah. I said it.). Thomas, however, nailed it. Meanwhile, The Hate U Give is filled with the kind of profound statements that I never expected from young adult fiction, but they still felt completely natural and appropriate--statements that made me, as an adult, stop and question my own behaviors and thoughts. Statements like the following: "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 truth casts a shadow over the kitchen--people like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice." "That's the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What's the point in having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?" When I finished this book a little while ago, I sobbed like I haven't at the end of a book in a LONG time. I sobbed for Khalil and his community, but more so for the list of real names at the end (that's not a spoiler...promise). There were plenty of moments in the book that made me chuckle a little that helped break up the heaviness of the book (especially when DeVante, Seven, and Starr start making fun of white people, because, let's be honest, everything they said was true), but the weight of the truth this book made me see hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm white. I never have to worry about one of my sons being killed by the police simply for their skin color. And I will never understand that particular reality. Instead, I have been living inside my safe little bubble where I believed that ALL police officers are good and ALL police officers are just trying to do their jobs and racism is really not THAT bad in our country. I never allowed myself to see that SOME police officers are downright racist, and SOME police officers are scared of young, black men simply because they are young, black men, and people of color ARE treated differently, and ANY racism IS that bad. The Hate U Give started changing all that. It enabled me to step into the shoes of a 16-year-old black girl who saw her childhood best friend shot simply because he was young, black, and in a neighborhood with a bad reputation. It also enabled me to see that the lives behind the news headlines are so much more complicated than I am often led to believe, but Angie Thomas never did any of that in a way that placed all the blame on the police. The blame was definitely there, but Starr also acknowledges that there are still a lot of good police officers who don't agree with the actions of their colleagues, and although she helped me to understand the sentiment behind rioting, she also acknowledges that the damage done by rioting is usually to her own community only. And underneath it all, Angie Thomas makes it clear that Starr's community had its own problems from within that were not the fault of the police at all. Instead of placing blame on ANYONE, Angie Thomas is making readers see that there are definitely two sides to every story, and for most of us, we have only REALLY heard one of them.

Sixteen year old Starr lives two lives. One is her home life. First is her home life, where she lives in a poor neighborhood and is regularly witness to gang activity and violence, but second is her life at school, where she’s one of the only black students. Here, she watches that she says and does to ensure she’s not labeled as the “angry black girl” or any of the other stereotypes she could accidentally end up being labeled if she doesn’t keep her cool. Starr’s two world collide in a horrific turn of events, when she witnesses her childhood friend Khalil shot by a white cop during a routine traffic stop. As the only witness, Starr is torn between protecting herself and her anonymity as Khalil’s death begins to attract media attention, and speaking out about an unjust killing of a black teen. I heard SO much about this book prior to it coming out, and I have to say that the hype did not disappoint. The Hate U Give is a contemporary like no other. It’s timely, relevant, eye opening, heartbreaking, and most of all: powerful. This is by far the most relevant novel I’ve read in a long time, especially given the fact that this book was inspired by true shootings of unarmed black men by white cops during routine stops. In addition to the shooting, the book also discussed how the media portrays these type of events, the resulting aftermath for the family and community, and how a young teen can get into trouble by trying to help their family. Starr absolutely made this book for me. She really struggled with finding herself, and wasn’t sure when she should speak out and when she should stay quiet. We saw her inner turmoil a lot throughout the book, and my heart broke for her every time she felt like she couldn’t be herself around people who were supposed to be her friends. Starr also has a very close relationship with her family, which I adored. Her dad is a respected member of the community, who has left his gang life behind to try and provide a better future for his children. Her mother works at a hospital and tries her best to set a good example of a strong woman, her older brother wants nothing more than to protect his family, and her younger brother is a pain in her butt, like all younger brothers are 😉 I am very close to my own family, and I really liked how involved in the story her family was. Often in contemporary YA novels, the parents aren’t around at all, and I’m left wondering if they have any idea what their children are up to. Starr has a white boyfriend, who she hasn’t told her dad about, because she’s worried he’ll judge her for not dating someone within her race. I enjoyed this part of the storyline as well, especially watching her boyfriend Chris trying to find his place in Starr’s life. I didn’t love him at first, however he stepped up in a big way by the end of the book and he grew on me. Lastly, I loved that although Starr was the main character in the book, and the only POV in the book, all of the supporting characters felt like they had their own storylines. They felt like the star of their own stories, and not just as filler characters, which is a tricky line to pull off. Overall, I felt that all of the characters were well developed, and that I saw growth in each of them throughout the book. Although there is a lot more that I can say about the book, I’ll leave it at that. What I will say is that you should pick this one up and move it to the top of your TBR. I think this is a book everyone should read, especially given the state of the political environment (particularly in the US). Like I said earlier, it’s timely and relevant, and made me both cry and laugh. You won’t want to miss this one.

I had originally said I was not going to read this book, I didn't know how well I would like it, and I don't tend to get involved with things that can make life at work harder for me. I literally work with the police, I am a dispatcher, so it is a huge part of my life. I knew going in it was revolved around the BLM movement, and police brutality and I made the decision to read it anyways. I had heard so many good things about it and I just needed to see for myself. First I want to say, it does not at any point in this book bash police officers. It talks about some of the problems in the world and how things happen but it never attacks or sets out to make them out to monsters. I really liked that because most aren't, they just aren't, they are humans. Now, Starr is the main character who is involved in a horrible tragedy that leaves her friend from child hood Khalil dead by an officer involved shooting. It was horrible and it was really sad. I hated reading it, I cried my eyes out, Thomas did such an amazing job of making a horrible action into beautiful fiction that made you feel like you were right there. I was so broken by this part of the story. Then reading later on into Starr's grief was just hard. I don't know any other way to describe it but there will be tears, so very many tears. That isn't it though, you see her as they have to fight the system basically, and you are with them through all those emotions. Going to the funeral and seeing his family, destroyed, his mother broken, knowing this isn't just something that happens in fiction, you cannot help but be moved. Now there was some real good in this book too, like some parts that I laughed until I cried. The scene when her parents are arguing in the middle of a prayer I have read an thousand times since finishing the book because it is the funnies thing I have ever read. Her parents were amazing by the way, her dad was an ex-con but he loved her, he admitted his mistakes but he was there for her. Their relationship was really touching to read because I have always been really close to my own dad. Then there was her mom, and her Uncle Carlos, who was actually a cop and lived in a really good neighborhood too. This was really refreshing to read because so many books, YA especially make parents out to be monsters that don't care, that aren't there for their kids. I mean it is like a troupe or something for these stories and it isn't actually the norm and gets annoying to read, so this book did an amazing job with the parents and family. All around though this story just floored me, it gave me a perspective I have never considered before, offered insights into a world I am not a part of, and I loved every minute of it. I don't know what it is to watch one friend die by violence of any sort, much less two in the time of my life and I am 26, she is a teenager. It is jarring to see that as someones existence when it is not your own. It taught me to open my eyes... I love it... Honestly I just wanted to pick it right back up and read it again.

This is the perfect time in our society to read The Hate U Give. The book is based on justice for black people which goes along perfectly with the Black Lives Matter movement and protests that are happening today. The book is written from Starr Carter’s point of view. Starr and her friend Khalil Harris are driving home from a party together when they are, without any reason, pulled over by a police officer. Khalil is shot by the police officer because he was thought to have a gun with him, but that gun was a hairbrush, and the police officer continues to point the gun at Starr while he calls for backup. The truth is that, because Starr and Khalil are black, the police officer automatically assumed they were doing something wrong. But they were only two kids driving home, and Khalil deserved to live. Starr is a sixteen-year-old black high school student whose life is split in two. On one side, she’s a girl who lives in a black neighborhood, Garden Heights, surrounded by her black community. On the other side, she is one of the only few black people at her “rich people”, primarily white, private high school, Williamson Prep. She has two brothers, the oldest being Seven, and the youngest Sekani. Seven is her half-brother. Starr and Seven share the same father but have different mothers. Starr shares her brother Seven with Kesha, Seven’s half-sister, who grew up being friends with Starr. Her father, Maverick (a.k.a. “Big Mav”), owns a grocery store in Garden Heights and her mother, Lisa, is a nurse. Mrs. Carter drives Seven, Starr, and Sekani forty-five minutes to school each day so they can go to a good school. Starr struggles as she feels like she must act differently depending on who she's with- her white boyfriend, Chris, and her white friends that go to Williamson, or her childhood friends and family that live in Garden Heights. After Khalil is murdered, she feels she must speak out, even though it takes her a while to realize, and she could be in danger in the process. I love Angie Thomas’s writing style in The Hate U Give. She is writing from Starr’s point of view, so she writes exactly how everyone in the book would talk. She uses slang, and things that are popular in our culture today which makes this book especially enjoyable for young people to read. She even uses lyrics from songs that were popular in 2018. As a teenager, the way Thomas writes helps me relate to Starr. I think this book is great to read. It’s entertaining, heart-breaking, funny at times, and I feel like I learned many lessons from it. I will never understand what life is like for someone like Starr. It is a sad and broken world we live in, and life is not fair. I personally love reading when I find a good book, but I have friends that don’t like reading and they really enjoyed this book. There is never a dull moment. I was never bored while reading this book. It was powerful, inspiring, and I was intrigued all the way through. In my opinion, this book is a best seller because it discusses cultural conflicts in an informative yet entertaining way that makes you want to never put the book down. So many people can relate to Starr’s story on a personal level. This book is fiction, but everything in it has occurred more times that it should.

I had originally said I was not going to read this book, I didn't know how well I would like it, and I don't tend to get involved with things that can make life at work harder for me. I literally work with the police, I am a dispatcher, so it is a huge part of my life. I knew going in it was revolved around the BLM movement, and police brutality and I made the decision to read it anyways. I had heard so many good things about it and I just needed to see for myself. First I want to say, it does not at any point in this book bash police officers. It talks about some of the problems in the world and how things happen but it never attacks or sets out to make them out to monsters. I really liked that because most aren't, they just aren't, they are humans. Now, Starr is the main character who is involved in a horrible tragedy that leaves her friend from child hood Khalil dead by an officer involved shooting. It was horrible and it was really sad. I hated reading it, I cried my eyes out, Thomas did such an amazing job of making a horrible action into beautiful fiction that made you feel like you were right there. I was so broken by this part of the story. Then reading later on into Starr's grief was just hard. I don't know any other way to describe it but there will be tears, so very many tears. That isn't it though, you see her as they have to fight the system basically, and you are with them through all those emotions. Going to the funeral and seeing his family, destroyed, his mother broken, knowing this isn't just something that happens in fiction, you cannot help but be moved. Now there was some real good in this book too, like some parts that I laughed until I cried. The scene when her parents are arguing in the middle of a prayer I have read an thousand times since finishing the book because it is the funnies thing I have ever read. Her parents were amazing by the way, her dad was an ex-con but he loved her, he admitted his mistakes but he was there for her. Their relationship was really touching to read because I have always been really close to my own dad. Then there was her mom, and her Uncle Carlos, who was actually a cop and lived in a really good neighborhood too. This was really refreshing to read because so many books, YA especially make parents out to be monsters that don't care, that aren't there for their kids. I mean it is like a troupe or something for these stories and it isn't actually the norm and gets annoying to read, so this book did an amazing job with the parents and family. All around though this story just floored me, it gave me a perspective I have never considered before, offered insights into a world I am not a part of, and I loved every minute of it. I don't know what it is to watch one friend die by violence of any sort, much less two in the time of my life and I am 26, she is a teenager. It is jarring to see that as someones existence when it is not your own. It taught me to open my eyes... I love it... Honestly I just wanted to pick it right back up and read it again.