A Book A Week

I'm very late to the game with this book. At this point, it almost feels redundant to review it. Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give is a novel that has captured readers from the moment it was published by shining a light on the people affected by gun violence and police brutality. I've been hesitant to read this book. With so much unnecessary violence, racism, and injustice present in the real world, reading about those same topics in fiction just wasn't something I was emotionally prepared for. But then the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial came in. While his conviction isn't the end of systemic racism in policing, it was a hopeful sign of progress in the long battle ahead. Inspired by the moment and determined to continue reading stories of those with different perspectives from my own, I decided to finally read The Hate U Give. 

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter is a girl who lives two lives. The first is that of her life at school, a prominent prep school filled with affluent, mostly white students. She's had no trouble making friends, but she has learned to adapt and compartmentalize her school life with the other side of her. This place and these people just aren't ready to see the "real" Starr. When she leaves school, she heads home to a place that her school friends would probably consider another world. Starr doesn't live in the wealthy neighborhoods of her friends. She lives on the poor side of town. To her, this is home. It is the place her father owns a business, the place her childhood friends have grown up, and a place where she feels the greatest sense of community. 

Starr's worlds begin to collide when she and a friend are pulled over while leaving a party. The officer panics and fatally shoots her friend. In almost an instant, the victim-blaming begins. Claims of the victim being a drug dealer, gangbanger, and thug begin to circulate in the media. It is as if they are saying that he deserved to be killed. Besides the officer, Starr is the only witness to the shooting, the only one who has the voice that can speak the truth to this murder. But putting herself out there to the world will come with a cost. Everyone in her life at the prep school will know she was involved in the shooting. Everyone at home will know too. Determined to not let her friend become another statistic in the long history of police brutality, Starr risks everything to make sure the world knows what really happened. 

It is hard to describe the impact a book like The Hate U Give has on the reader. Angie Thomas begins her story like any other young adult novel. Her main character is someone who is coming to terms with who she is and who she wants to be. All the pressures of being a normal teenager are present. With an opening that seems so familiar, I was a bit disarmed by the sudden onslaught of police brutality. At one moment, life was normal. In the next, everything changed. This is the harsh reality that far too many people of color have to face. Thomas does an excellent job of building her characters and the community they inhabit. These people are familiar, the kinds of people whom we encounter on a daily basis. Her ability to get the reader to invest so heavily in her characters only adds to the outrage we feel as they face injustice. The Hate U Give is a story for our times, the kind of novel that demands to be read. It forces us to face the harsh reality of our world while encouraging us to learn more about the lives of our neighbors. I can't recommend it highly enough. 

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2021, 17)