chamomile_tea16 's review for:

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

5.0

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[4.5 stars]

While perusing my library for summer reads, The Hate U Give caught my eye. I had previously had to read it for school, and unlike most school-assigned books, I loved it! I wasn't aware that Angie Thomas had written other books up to this point, but I saw On The Come Up next the THUG and immediately grabbed it off the shelf, almost giddy to be able to read more of Thomas' writing. And On The Come Up did not disappoint. I love that all of Thomas' books so far are set in Garden Heights, this book painted an even more vivid picture that I had of it from THUG. I loved reading the parallels between social classes in this neighborhood, with Bri being a lot less well-off than Starr in many regards.

Spoiler

I really enjoyed the references to Khalil's death as well, showing how it could affect someone who wasn't directly involved. Thomas took the idea of mistreatment of BIPOC in white-dominated schools she had planted in THUG and brought it to a larger scale, with the security guards at Bri's school being the instigators instead of someone closer to the MC like with Hailey and Starr. I thought Bri's raps were really well written, and it was obvious Thomas was a rapper herself, which offers a very unique perspective and offers songs that you can almost imagine in your head. I also loved Miles' character, and it was a great inclusion of queer representation with a character who had so much more to him than just being queer. I also like how Bri did not know exactly how she felt about Malik, and it wasn't just happily ever after for them, it felt very accurate to actual high school relationships, especially feelings for someone you've known your whole life. Great book, can't wait to read anything else Thomas puts out!