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haynoelle96 's review for:
On the Come Up
by Angie Thomas
No matter what my opinion of this book is, this was well crafted, well written, and a book that will go down as an amazing book for anyone to read.
Angie Thomas has this way of creating characters that are completely different from each other and yet still seem similar in my mind. Starr and Bri are both completely different characters and people, but they seem similar in a way. I really enjoyed how On the Come Up really transported me back to Garden Heights with Angie's writing. It seemed authentic and kept me completely hooked the whole time. We also got to see the life of a completely new character. Bri's problems are similar to Starr's, in that she faces discrimination and wants to bring attention to it, and yet different as her mother and older brother struggle to support their family off of only two paychecks. I truly felt her problems were brought to life in a way that could make anyone understand and maybe see a new perspective that they hadn't thought of before.
That brings me to another thing I really enjoyed about this book. It brought to life how different black teenage girls are treated differently in school because of their skin color. And I don't mean other kids being racist, I mean teachers and faculty treating children differently because of age-old stereotypes and ingrained racism. Bri is sent to the principal's office and sent to detention for what other students are given a warning for. Bri rolls her eyes and is considered a threat. A white girl does the same thing and she gets no punishment. Bri is tackled to the ground by security officers, and people want to frame her as a drug dealer in order to make what those security officers did seem more justified. Any teenager would benefit from reading this, especially in a school setting with discussions, but obviously for fun as well.
One thing I definitely liked was the family dynamic. You can truly tell she loves her family and will do anything to make sure they're protected and have a good life, and you get the same feeling from her family. You start to root for them to succeed from the beginning and it doesn't stop until the book is over. They're all such great nuanced characters and so great to read about. The friendships were also some of my favorite parts.
A couple of things I didn't like? All the pop culture references. A few? Fine. But I swear to god it seemed like they were saying 'Wakanda Forever' every chapter! I'm as much of a fan of Black Panther as the next person, but geez. Once it's overdone, it starts to get annoying. And then I started noticing every other pop culture reference and then it seemed like I was rolling my eyes a lot. So I'm not saying that references to contemporary popular things aren't great, but don't use the same ones over and over. It gets old fast.
This is probably just a 'me' thing, but I felt like I couldn't connect with Bri as I connected with Starr. I totally got what her character meant and knew who she was, but I couldn't connect with her on a personal level as I've done with so many other characters. This is why my rating isn't a full 5/5 stars. Little annoyances that are probably strictly on me as a person and not as me as a critic.
Overall, this book is very well-written, with a diverse cast of characters that had their own stories and their own endings within the book. I really liked this companion novel to The Hate U Give and if you loved that story, you'll definitely like this one! Happy Reading!!
P.S. If you haven't already bought the physical copy, I really recommend the audiobook. The narrator was PHENOMENAL and really special. As this book deals with rap, the narrator actually raps the song that Bri writes and it's so GOOD!!! Audiobook gets a 5/5 * from me.
Angie Thomas has this way of creating characters that are completely different from each other and yet still seem similar in my mind. Starr and Bri are both completely different characters and people, but they seem similar in a way. I really enjoyed how On the Come Up really transported me back to Garden Heights with Angie's writing. It seemed authentic and kept me completely hooked the whole time. We also got to see the life of a completely new character. Bri's problems are similar to Starr's, in that she faces discrimination and wants to bring attention to it, and yet different as her mother and older brother struggle to support their family off of only two paychecks. I truly felt her problems were brought to life in a way that could make anyone understand and maybe see a new perspective that they hadn't thought of before.
That brings me to another thing I really enjoyed about this book. It brought to life how different black teenage girls are treated differently in school because of their skin color. And I don't mean other kids being racist, I mean teachers and faculty treating children differently because of age-old stereotypes and ingrained racism. Bri is sent to the principal's office and sent to detention for what other students are given a warning for. Bri rolls her eyes and is considered a threat. A white girl does the same thing and she gets no punishment. Bri is tackled to the ground by security officers, and people want to frame her as a drug dealer in order to make what those security officers did seem more justified. Any teenager would benefit from reading this, especially in a school setting with discussions, but obviously for fun as well.
One thing I definitely liked was the family dynamic. You can truly tell she loves her family and will do anything to make sure they're protected and have a good life, and you get the same feeling from her family. You start to root for them to succeed from the beginning and it doesn't stop until the book is over. They're all such great nuanced characters and so great to read about. The friendships were also some of my favorite parts.
A couple of things I didn't like? All the pop culture references. A few? Fine. But I swear to god it seemed like they were saying 'Wakanda Forever' every chapter! I'm as much of a fan of Black Panther as the next person, but geez. Once it's overdone, it starts to get annoying. And then I started noticing every other pop culture reference and then it seemed like I was rolling my eyes a lot. So I'm not saying that references to contemporary popular things aren't great, but don't use the same ones over and over. It gets old fast.
This is probably just a 'me' thing, but I felt like I couldn't connect with Bri as I connected with Starr. I totally got what her character meant and knew who she was, but I couldn't connect with her on a personal level as I've done with so many other characters. This is why my rating isn't a full 5/5 stars. Little annoyances that are probably strictly on me as a person and not as me as a critic.
Overall, this book is very well-written, with a diverse cast of characters that had their own stories and their own endings within the book. I really liked this companion novel to The Hate U Give and if you loved that story, you'll definitely like this one! Happy Reading!!
P.S. If you haven't already bought the physical copy, I really recommend the audiobook. The narrator was PHENOMENAL and really special. As this book deals with rap, the narrator actually raps the song that Bri writes and it's so GOOD!!! Audiobook gets a 5/5 * from me.