The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Genre: YA Fiction
- Number of Pages: 464
- Rating: 3/5 stars
- Review: I finally read this book after all of the hype! I’m sure you’ve heard about it, but I’ll recap just in case. In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter finds herself caught between two different worlds as she lives in Garden Heights, a poor black neighborhood, but attends Williamson Prep, a school overwhelmingly attended by rich white kids. On the way home from a party one night, Starr is the only person witness the death of her childhood best friend Khalil, who was shot by a policeman for no reason. Throughout the novel, Starr learns to find her voice and fight injustice, even through the difficulty and pressure of being the only witness. Overall, I liked The Hate U Give, but I had a somewhat mixed review. What I did like was the authentic voices and personalities of Thomas’s characters; the characters felt very real and likeable and listening to the audiobook version made this read even more fun. I also appreciated Thomas capturing a variety of perspectives regarding the issue of racism. Because Angie Thomas is an African-American author, I thought that she provided an authentic perspective of the complicated emotions that black communities today can experience. I thought she did a nice job of portraying tensions that still exist between black and white people, but she did so in a tactful way that wouldn’t alienate her audience, no matter what race they belong to. I felt that The Hate U Give dealt with these issues in an authentic manner, and personally I thought that I came away from the book feeling more educated and more empathetic. So I liked the overall message of the book, but I didn’t like a few technical things. First, honestly I think the book is way too long; there were a few subplots that I didn’t think were necessary and a few scenes that dragged on too long. Also, the teenage girl voice came off pretty cheesy to me at the very beginning, but I was able to settle into it and it didn’t bug me much as I read on. I’m not sure if I’d read this book again because of those things, but I think it’s a valuable book that everyone should read at least once!
*contains moderate violence, moderate sexuality, and severe language
For me, this book didn’t live up to the hype… definitely agree that it was just WAY too long!! Great post Kenzie!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad I’m not the only one! I wonder if the movie is actually better because they have to cut stuff out XD Thank you so much for reading and commenting! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did end up liking the movie better! It’s worth the watch. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person