A review by jwinchell
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

5.0

5 stars, easy. Thomas’ voice for Bri is so fresh, I was jumping up and down because this book will resonate with so many young readers. Bri’s dream is to be a rapper and she sees it as her ticket out of the Gardens. She’s dealing with the trauma of losing her dad, also a rapper, to gun violence, her mom’s history of addiction and absence, the heat being off and needing to get in line for food, her aunt Pooh’s running with the GD’s and inability to rise up and be her manager, and feeling invisible at school. She’s feisty, what some might not erroneously call an angry black girl, and she doesn’t hesitate yo call it what it is. When the security guards at school find her behavior and backpack suspicious, she’s on the ground in plastic cuffs and suspended for 3 days. This coincides with her first rap battle in The Ring and the start of a beautiful mess with her dad’s former manager, Supreme.

I went to see Angie Thomas a few days after this book came out and she said Bri is both soft and introspective and earnest like Tupac and loud and aggressive and angry like Biggie. She knows there are stereotypes about her and she gradually works to undo them. Hip hop lovers will adore the musical references and Bri’s bars. Google Angie Thomas rapping and you won’t be able to get “On the Come Up” out of your head. The touch of romance will go far. Each character is so vividly wrought. There is not a wasted word- her writing is so tight. Outstanding.