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A review by espiri_reads
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
5.0
Admittedly, I am not a big fan of YA literature. But I love that this is a young adult novel because it makes this very important topic easily accessible to a wider audience. I can imagine teaching this to a class of middle schoolers and being able to facilitate an engaging discussion about the use of excessive force in law enforcement, media bias, double consciousness, why it's not divisive to say black lives matter, riots v uprisings, criminalizing an entire group of people, critiquing law enforcement as a system, and so many other relevant topics that surface when an unarmed black man gets killed by law enforcement. Overall, I think it's an important book.
Here is what I loved:
• Starr, the main character is so easy to like. She seems like a very genuine person. I feel like she is very relatable to people from all walks of life because she allows pieces from all the different worlds she belongs to to form part of what makes her Starr. I love that she is a Harry Potter fangirl and a sneakerhead, too. But I love even more that she struggles with reconciling these sides of herself because it is a very human experience to struggle when your worlds collide.
• I really like how the Carter family was able to create a functional family out of a dysfunctional situation. People were flawed but their love for each other wasn't.
• The author tackled complex topics in a simple, yet intelligent way.
•The struggle with balancing between commitment to community and commitment to family/self is one I personally relate to. Sometimes you have to say to yourself this is bigger than me, and commit yourself to acting upon an issue to improve the collective well-being of your own community. And other times you have to do the opposite and understand that a commitment to everyone else might force you to deprioritize the love, time, and labor of the people you love the most, including yourself, which is hurtful to your personal well-being. The Carters go back and forth between these two ideas.
What I didn't love:
The "I am Spartacus" ending was a little bit too Hollywood. It wasn't bad but endings like this always make me wonder if the author was writing with the forethought that this would become a movie.
Here is what I loved:
• Starr, the main character is so easy to like. She seems like a very genuine person. I feel like she is very relatable to people from all walks of life because she allows pieces from all the different worlds she belongs to to form part of what makes her Starr. I love that she is a Harry Potter fangirl and a sneakerhead, too. But I love even more that she struggles with reconciling these sides of herself because it is a very human experience to struggle when your worlds collide.
• I really like how the Carter family was able to create a functional family out of a dysfunctional situation. People were flawed but their love for each other wasn't.
• The author tackled complex topics in a simple, yet intelligent way.
•The struggle with balancing between commitment to community and commitment to family/self is one I personally relate to. Sometimes you have to say to yourself this is bigger than me, and commit yourself to acting upon an issue to improve the collective well-being of your own community. And other times you have to do the opposite and understand that a commitment to everyone else might force you to deprioritize the love, time, and labor of the people you love the most, including yourself, which is hurtful to your personal well-being. The Carters go back and forth between these two ideas.
What I didn't love:
The "I am Spartacus" ending was a little bit too Hollywood. It wasn't bad but endings like this always make me wonder if the author was writing with the forethought that this would become a movie.