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A review by seraphiina
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
5.0
There are not enough words in the dictionary for just how much I loved this book.
As a young adult, coming-of-age story, it is magnificent. The biggest strength of this book is how real it feels. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was a biography instead!
Starr is a protagonist that actually feels like a teenager (which is no small accomplishment). She is strong, she is authentic, yet she has her insecurities. Her flaws. Her internal struggles. Her family is truly one of the best I've seen in the genre- one of those fictional families where you regret that you don't know them in person, because you just find yourself loving them so much. I find many YA books struggle with writing parents, either making them unrealistically cruel or so supportive that it almost seems too much. But "The Hate U Give" manages to find the perfect balance in between. The family members are not perfect, they have their petty arguments with each other, but they grow, they learn and they forgive.
Yet this is not just your run-off-the-mill young adult novel. It is also a piece of social commentary and political criticism and I believe it does so extremely well. It teaches a rough lesson, one that may be painful to take in, particularly as a white person who have not experienced racism first-hand. Yet it does so without being preachy. It handles matters of prejudice, police brutality, internalized racism and systematic injustice so incredibly well.
I definitely recommend this book to everyone, but especially for teens who are looking to educate themselves in the aforementioned topics.
As a young adult, coming-of-age story, it is magnificent. The biggest strength of this book is how real it feels. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was a biography instead!
Starr is a protagonist that actually feels like a teenager (which is no small accomplishment). She is strong, she is authentic, yet she has her insecurities. Her flaws. Her internal struggles. Her family is truly one of the best I've seen in the genre- one of those fictional families where you regret that you don't know them in person, because you just find yourself loving them so much. I find many YA books struggle with writing parents, either making them unrealistically cruel or so supportive that it almost seems too much. But "The Hate U Give" manages to find the perfect balance in between. The family members are not perfect, they have their petty arguments with each other, but they grow, they learn and they forgive.
Yet this is not just your run-off-the-mill young adult novel. It is also a piece of social commentary and political criticism and I believe it does so extremely well. It teaches a rough lesson, one that may be painful to take in, particularly as a white person who have not experienced racism first-hand. Yet it does so without being preachy. It handles matters of prejudice, police brutality, internalized racism and systematic injustice so incredibly well.
I definitely recommend this book to everyone, but especially for teens who are looking to educate themselves in the aforementioned topics.