Book Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

‘The Hate U Give’ by Angie Thomas was released in 2017. It was later adapted into a film, which came out in 2018. It was her debut novel, and thrust her into acclaim, her work becoming a staple among popular authors in the mid-to-late 2010s.

This story follows Starr, a sixteen-year-old black girl from a deprived area. She attends a swanky private school 45 minutes away, which has a primarily white population. She struggles with juggling two personas, her authentic self, the version of her she is among her family and friends in Garden Heights, and the version of herself that fits in the white gaze of her school, her peers and her boyfriend, Chris.

Its the end of Spring Break and Starr and her friend Kenya are attending a house party with other kids in the neighbourhood. She encounters a childhood friend she doesn’t see as often, Khalil, whose family are struggling, his mother’s an addict, his grandma has cancer and he needs to help provide for his family, including his nine-year-old brother. but when someone gets attacked and shot, the partygoers disperse and make their own way home. Khalil offers to take her home, and the pair are pulled over, and the exchange with the officer results in Khalil being murdered. Starr is traumatised, and is adamant that Officer One-Fifteen has to face justice for Khalil’s murder.

This book was gut-wrenching and tells a tragic story of institutionalised racism, the ever-present need for advocacy and justice for the hundreds of unarmed black people who are killed by police in America, and beyond. It also shows the contrast in how the police and how members of a community react to tragedy that doesn’t impact them, which is brilliantly demonstrated through Starr’s friendship with Hailey, who slowly eases away from her socially after seeing Starr post on her Tumblr blog about victims police brutality and sharing content about black power. But, this book also tells a story of family, and the importance of loving each other, and doing the best for your community, banding together in times of tragedy, and standing up for what’s right.

Thomas has an incredible sense of character voice and explores so many nuanced elements of society and the family unit while also including upbeat, witty, and character-driven narrative voice and dialogue. I loved that Chris considered Starr his Fresh Princess, because they both loved The Fresh Prince Of Bell Air. It was sweet!

But there’s also a lot hard-hitting topics throughout, like the friction within a family from multiple directions. Starr’s father, Maverick was in a gang and went to jail for three years when Starr was a child. Her primary male role model was Uncle Carlos, and it was incredibly sad that Starr’s half brother, Seven’s half sisters Kenya and Lyric have a violent abusive man as a father, King. I really felt for Kenya.

Thomas, through Starr, offers a glimpse into the reality of being a black woman in America, especially when interacting with the police. While she wasn’t necessarily afraid of police officers before Khalil was murdered, because her maternal uncle, Carlos is a police officer. But watching a friend be gunned down by your uncles colleagues, and have the gun then pointed on you as your friend lay dying on the side of the road, certainly makes you question a lot.

I found this book incredibly gripping, and all throughout, you as the reader, want to hope that Starr’s testimony will make a difference, and inspire change and reform in the police, but the reader is being kept in a cycle of dramatic irony with the characters, wanting, but knowing. It was heartbreaking.

I think everyone should read this, it was an incredibly moving debut, and I can’t believe it took me so long to read it, despite buying it when it came out.