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A review by madiganinwonderland
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
5.0
I finished this a week ago and I still can't find the right words to express my feelings about this book, but I'm going to give it a shot.
I wasn't too sure I was going to like this book, purely because it was extremely hyped, and I was worried it fell into the wrongfully hyped book sensation, but it didn't.
This book was heartbreaking, exciting, hilarious, complex, challenging, smart, thought provoking, powerful, impactful, I could sit here and go on forever.
Starr is an amazing character to read as. She's such a great character in general. Her character development in this book made it 100x more enjoyable and powerful to read. She's not perfect, she's not all-knowing, she doesn't even always make the smartest of decisions. And for all these reasons, I love her even more. She's just a teenager and you can actually see that. She's not a 24 year old in a YA novel too mature for everyone. She has real problems and real struggles and she's just incredibly real. I felt like I knew her, like we were best friends.
Maverick, (sp? I listened on audio) Starr's father, has got to be one of my top characters from books, film, anything of all time. He's so wonderful. He's just full of love and is smart and cares so deeply for his family, but is by no means perfect and this book never shies away to tell the reader of the mistakes he's made. It makes him feel so incredibly alive and I can't believe how much he actually reminds me of my father. He's a big teddy bear for me, but if someone dares come near me, he'll end them if need be. I felt like I was actually hearing my father talk to me and it made me feel like this book was like coming home.
About the shooting -- I just....I don't even know what to say about all of this. It's amazing how much I can go on about all the other aspects of the book, despite how deeply they go into details about the shooting all throughout the book (a wonderful sign of how complex and just wonderfully personal and powerful this book is). The after effects of the shooting are just...incredible. There's no other word for it. It's incredibly infuriating, even before you know the ending. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't always stop to consider how much the media might twist stories like this. The public hears "a black drug dealer possibly with a gun," and immediately begins to accept the rationalizations and excuses that begin to form as to why he lost his life. And it leaves people's minds before you know it. It's sickening now to think about. This story was not satisfying. You don't get to walk away from this book feeling comforted or fulfilled, and you shouldn't. These real people, children, don't get satisfaction, justice, peace, and neither should the rest of America until we actually start to do literally anything about this. We don't even bother looking into this, into why these victim's communities end up rioting in the streets over something like this. I doubt many people would find the motivation to riot against the police shooting of their drug dealer. These people were PEOPLE, not faces on TV or Facebook. This part of the book is so infuriating and literally every person needs to read about it and understand it and feel it the way you do with Starr.
It only took me 12 days to read this, but I already miss it. I'll definitely be rereading this in the future. This has easily become one of my favorite books of all time and I can't recommend it to enough people.
If you only take away one thing from me, I say this is completely worthy of all the hype it's getting. It deserved the two awards it got from this very site alone, plus all the other praise it's getting. The cast list for the movie family is perfection and I'm so very excited to see it. Please, if you're hesitant at all about whether to read this, DON'T KEEP WAITING. GO PICK IT UP RIGHT NOW AND DON'T PUT IT DOWN.
I wasn't too sure I was going to like this book, purely because it was extremely hyped, and I was worried it fell into the wrongfully hyped book sensation, but it didn't.
This book was heartbreaking, exciting, hilarious, complex, challenging, smart, thought provoking, powerful, impactful, I could sit here and go on forever.
Starr is an amazing character to read as. She's such a great character in general. Her character development in this book made it 100x more enjoyable and powerful to read. She's not perfect, she's not all-knowing, she doesn't even always make the smartest of decisions. And for all these reasons, I love her even more. She's just a teenager and you can actually see that. She's not a 24 year old in a YA novel too mature for everyone. She has real problems and real struggles and she's just incredibly real. I felt like I knew her, like we were best friends.
Maverick, (sp? I listened on audio) Starr's father, has got to be one of my top characters from books, film, anything of all time. He's so wonderful. He's just full of love and is smart and cares so deeply for his family, but is by no means perfect and this book never shies away to tell the reader of the mistakes he's made. It makes him feel so incredibly alive and I can't believe how much he actually reminds me of my father. He's a big teddy bear for me, but if someone dares come near me, he'll end them if need be. I felt like I was actually hearing my father talk to me and it made me feel like this book was like coming home.
Spoiler
For those like two lines towards the end, where Starr talks of trying to imagine a world without her father when she wasn't sure if he'd been shot, those couple of lines made my heart drop. I was so invested in this book and especially these two characters that this book made my heart sink into my stomach. Coming from someone who hardly ever has cried and is basically stone cold in a book, that's saying a lot.Spoiler
Chris, Starr's boyfriend, was a character I was not expecting to like. I'm very skeptical of boyfriends in YA books now because I feel like too often they end up being the source of trouble later on in the book, and it's not worth liking them only to get more pissed off when they fuck over our main character, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see how good of a first boyfriend he was for Starr. It's refreshing.About the shooting -- I just....I don't even know what to say about all of this. It's amazing how much I can go on about all the other aspects of the book, despite how deeply they go into details about the shooting all throughout the book (a wonderful sign of how complex and just wonderfully personal and powerful this book is).
Spoiler
Khalil was in this book for basically all of ten minutes, and before you know it he's leaving a deep scar on our main character and ourselves. And yet, you feel like you know him just as much as the others the more the book goes on. After knowing about his love for Starr, his mother, the truth behind his being a "drug dealer" and stuff, upon rereading I feel as if I'll have more of a chance of crying now that I know that happens because I know him now. It's incredibly heartbreaking either way, but knowing him just makes it so much harder to read about.It only took me 12 days to read this, but I already miss it. I'll definitely be rereading this in the future. This has easily become one of my favorite books of all time and I can't recommend it to enough people.
If you only take away one thing from me, I say this is completely worthy of all the hype it's getting. It deserved the two awards it got from this very site alone, plus all the other praise it's getting. The cast list for the movie family is perfection and I'm so very excited to see it. Please, if you're hesitant at all about whether to read this, DON'T KEEP WAITING. GO PICK IT UP RIGHT NOW AND DON'T PUT IT DOWN.