The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give

Author: Angie Thomas

Rating: 4/5

Recommend: This is the first book I have read in the black-protest-racism genre. It deserves a place on every teacher’s classroom bookshelf, right beside the John Green’s and Rainbow Rowell’s. The Hate U Give portrays messages which need to be heard by the upcoming generations: I strongly recommend it for youth.

 By the age of sixteen Starr Carter had already seen two of her best friends die. She was with them when it happened, held them as they gave out their last breaths.

And why did they die you ask?

Because, these two defenseless, unarmed, innocent children just happened to be black. And it’s okay to kill people for their color, right? WRONG. The Hate U Give revolves around this very thing – how it is wrong to kill someone just because you assumed things for their skin color, that it doesn’t make it any different or in any way right if the person you hurt has done nothing wrong.

Starr Carter was ten when she saw her friend Natasha killed; it left unspeakable scars on her for life. When the same thing happens just six years later, to yet another friend of hers, Khalil, Starr has seen enough. Protests spark, tempers surge, and we are whisked into a story of how a sixteen year old girl becomes the face of a nation-wide revolution.

Khalil in the movie of The Hate U Give

I was standing in a huge bank line, waiting for my turn when I started reading the book. Despite the clamor of people around me, as soon as I reached the part where the police officer (ID 115) stopped Khalil’s car, I could feel my heartbeat speed up. This is the part which struck as the most shocking in the whole novel; which is probably the exact effect that Angie Thomas intended. I read and re-read the passage, to convince myself that they did no wrong. All my life I have grown up trusting in the police – this is honestly the first time I read something so utterly believable and in which the enforcer of the law was completely, devastatingly wrong.

The most important lesson I learnt from this novel, is the way that people try to rationalize a death. Just because the murderer was a police officer, it was first instinct for everyone to try to justify it. I mean, so what if the boy he killed sold drugs, drank alcohol, did a whole ton of stuff in his past – the cop did not know any of that. All he saw were two kids who were driving home, were unarmed, unresisting and possessed nothing to indicate drugs. No matter who are you are, be it the president himself of that matter, you cannot do this. And if you do it, the system cannot be bent in your favor, just because of who you are.

Amandla Stenberg as Starr Carter in the movie of The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give also looks at racism from the people around us. If a friend of yours says something which strikes you as racist and wrong, then if they are truly your friend, they will apologize. No matter the intention behind it, if a comment comes out sounding hurtful and racist then it counts as racism. Moreover, I admire the fact that Angie didn’t just push cops and non-black people into the villain role. Starr’s detective uncle, Carlos and her tough boyfriend Chris, prove that not everyone possesses a racist mindset. Maya’s character was cool too; minorities really do have to stick up for each other.

It took me a few chapters to get used to the slang and dialect: but, once I reached the thick of the story, I realized the dialect is what makes the book stand out. The ending didn’t come as much of a surprise; it was the revolution that stemmed from it which set the book part. 

We need more novels like this. Feisty novels, which show the world as it is and aren’t afraid to address sensitive topics. More novels, which highlight black culture, their way of speaking and their way of life. The Hate U Give carries so many different morals and harsh truths all set in the context of a high school background, that the book is a revolution in itself. I'll never forget: T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E. 

"The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everything"