Overall Rating: ★★★★★

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a YA novel that documents the story of sixteen year old Starr Carter. Starr lives in a working class, mainly black, neighborhood but attends an expensive, primarily white prep school. These two drastically different environments in Starr’s life lead to Starr feeling like she doesn’t fit in in either place. Those feelings escalate when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend, Khalil. Khalil, a black teenage boy, was driving Starr and was pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. The cops notice that the driver is a black male and treat him especially harshly, even asking if he has drugs on him. Khalil reaches for a hairbrush, and the cops immediately shoot him in the chest because they assume it is a gun. Starr must now navigate defending Khalil’s name, recovering from witnessing his death, and trying to fit in at school, which has become especially hard after the incident.

I really enjoyed this book, and one of my favorite things was that it was written in first person. The incident severely impacted Starr’s outlook on her place in the world as a young black woman, and it was easier to understand because of its point of view. I also liked how the book emphasizes the struggles of balancing prep school and a neighborhood with violence. It represented how each environment in Starr’s life came with different issues and expectations. This book was able to showcase the lasting effects Khalil’s death has not only on Starr, but her communities. Despite being fictional, The Hate U Give was truly an eye opening novel on police brutality and racism, specifically focusing on how it impacts teens and their communities.