Book Review | The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas // Spoiler-Free

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.

The Hate U Give is powerful. This book can talk on its own. I’ve never felt so much emotions towards a certain book, but THUG made me feel happy, excited, sad, and most importantly, mad. I am so mad with the injustice this world has to offer, this book is intrepidly honest for discussing sensitive issues.

The Hate U Give focuses on our main character, Starr Carter, and the whole black neighborhood, Garden Heights. Starr Carter lives in two worlds, her neighborhood, and the school she attends to. She tends to differentiate her characteristics as well, The Garden Heights Starr and the Williamson Prepp Starr.

This book focused on the police brutality and inequality towards the black community, it is inspired by the movement “Black Lives Matter”

At certain parts of the book, I got so mad at some of the events that I had to stop reading and reflect and realize that it is actually happening in real life. This book is so REALISTIC that I came to the point of questioning how the higher officials should be respected when they are the one doing the wrong thing.

One thing I like about this book is it barely focused on romance, it focuses on the actual point of book itself, which is racism, and it is family oriented, and there are just a lot of cutesy moments with her whole family.

The Writing Style: The tone of this book is very close their accent on real life, so that’s a plus point! Angie Thomas did a really great job in writing and narrating this story. She made a powerful voice for Starr. The pacing of the story is not slow and also not fast, just in the right amount!

The Characters: My favorite part of the book are the characters! This book has a lot of characters and they will all make you fall in love with them. There’s just so many good things about all of them. Well, I just hate the antagonists of course. 😉

Also, The Hate U Give will be turned to a movie that comes out on 2018, so I have another reason to be excited for 2018!

This was the last book I’ve read for the year 2017. I think it’s definitely one of the best choices I made. This book is one of my top ten favorite reads of 2017!

The Hate U Give taught me to be brave, to speak up, to fight for what is right using our voices because our voices are our greatest weapons.