a_rov 's review for:

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

4.25

funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Another interesting book down my list and another one out of my usual range of books, was “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas good or not? Let’s find out!

Important disclaimer: I rate this book specifically as a YA book, cause this is one of those books I feel like needs to be read mostly by a target audience, thus it’s rating of 4/5 stars for YA would be a 2 or 3 for other audiences, more about this in the review, enjoy!

I don’t know why I started this review as a YouTube video, maybe foreshadowing, who knows. So, the book overall left a pleasant feeling. If you are interested in a coming-of-age story, code-switching, African-American stories, police brutality, injustice, activism and social movement this book will look good on your shelf. 

The main plot revolves around a young black girl Starr, who grew up in a ghetto “Garden Heights” and studies is a fancy private school thus leaving in two worlds completely opposite to each other. There are two (yes number two again) main plotlines here first being a more niche one of police brutality, ghetto, injustice, racism and a broader one of a coming-of-age story of Starr. My version of the book had an interview section conducted by Mrs. Thomas herself with a director and lead actress of the movie based on the book, where Amandla Stenberg answering the question of what drew her to the story said:

“It felt really special to find a character who experienced code-switching and navigating different worlds as I did. We don’t see many nuanced experiences of blackness represented in books and movies”.

This quote illustrates perfectly why many readers might find this story so appealing, and even tho we are talking about police brutality in America geared towards African-Americans, we might as well see various analogies in different countries in which a minority is being severely and unjustly punished due to bigotry. The book briefly touches on racism towards people of Asian descent in Maya’s arc, but it’s not developed properly and is really “just there”. Actually, what this book does well and bad simultaneously is develop the environment and handicap characters. Hear me out. You can see the love, knowledge and experience the author put in the language, scenery, various descriptions and fluidity of the text, it is an easy and fun read and probably a part of book I enjoyed very much. But, on the other side, the book is quite big around 450 pages, and while we get the environment we sacrifice some of the characters who I would much rather see more of. Seven’s girlfriend, Uncle Carlos, Maya, the girl who sat on the table at school and put a shoulder on Starr whatever her name is. 

The main point of the book is to provide a good and deeply personal experience of coming to terms with yourself, playing a vital role in the community, believing in change and others. Those are all noble goals, especially considering the circumstances in which Starr, Seven like so many other people grow up in can easily lead you to a life of crime and cruelty. We get constant references to Black Panthers, Tupac, MLK and Malcolm X here, showing the movement and activism ought to be present and be developed and carried out by the next generations. 

I would enjoy more details about the movements and historical references here, but they were cut to develop a more personal story, which is ok for me, but I feel some nuances in regards to movement formation, history and examples were missing or touched on briefly (a.i. descriptions of Black Panther or rules of Malcom X).

Finishing up, this book is still a valuable read for an African-American teenager, less so for a teenager of color, less for a teenager from a foreign country and least so for people who outgrew YA books, which doesn’t make a book “bad” per say, it’s just one of those books who need to be read in a certain time by a certain age group.

I give it 4/5 Starrs for target audience and a 2,5/5 for any other reader, I do encourage to read more of A. Thomas’s books tho, she is a genuinely an awesome person and one who is deeply involved in enlightenment of young kids, my sincerest regards!