The Hate U Give
The Hate U Give series, Book 1
Angie Thomas
Balzer + Bray
Fiction, YA General Fiction
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Teenager Starr Carter has never been much of anyone. Around Garden Heights, the sometimes-rough neighborhood where she lives, she's just known as her father's daughter, who sometimes helps at his store. At the private school she attends, she's just one of the very few nonwhite students. Between the two worlds, she doesn't seem to actually belong anywhere. She didn't even feel she belonged at the neighborhood party she was drug to, until she bumped into Khalil. The two were raised together. He was her first crush as a kid. But now, they haven't talked in months. They may live in the same part of town, but they've fallen into different worlds.
He was giving her a ride home from the party, two friends catching up, when the cop pulled them over.
Minutes later, Khalil is dead, shot in the back - and Starr is the only witness.
The killing sends shock waves through Garden Heights and the whole city, and soon becomes a national story. The media tries to paint Khalil as a gang-banger, the sort of person who would probably end up dead anyway. Only Starr can set the record straight... but is she brave enough to use her voice when it's needed most?
REVIEW: This award-winning story hits straight at the heart of headlines that are far too common, showing the turmoil police shootings cause in communities and individual lives and the tragedy of every lost life. The characters are, with few exceptions, well rounded and complex, dealing with lives that are often messy but are also full of hope and love and potential - potential all too often quashed by a society that still refuses to acknowledge its biases and the untenable positions it drives many people into only to punish them for failing at games rigged from the start. It's almost inevitable that people get pulled into the maelstrom of gangs and drugs and other problems plaguing Garden Heights, but broad-brush judgments make poor excuses for cold-blooded murder. Everyone has to grapple with what race and racism mean, how far they're willing to go to be heard and attempt to change things, each taking different paths and different role models. Along the way, Starr learns that there are many forms of bravery. Her family provides support and a solid foundation of love, even when they squabble among themselves, but ultimately she has to stand on her own and make her own choices. It narrowly lost a half-star due to some slow spots, particularly when Thomas meandered through the Carter family dynamics (which were well written, but didn't particularly advance the plot), but overall it's a very good examination of some thorny issues that have no easy answers, using some great characters that feel real.
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