The Hate U Give *Spoiler-Free* REVIEW

Author: Angie Thomas

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult

Format: Paperback, UK

Page Count: 438

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

You know how hyped up books usually make me wary of reading them, in fear that they won’t be as good as everyone makes them out to be? I wasn’t scared of this book because I had not seen less than a 4 star rating for this book.

And that is an amazing thing.

Books come and go and every once in a while there’s a book that makes such a large impact – with such amazing representation and messages within it that there is no way it can be ignored.

THUG is that book.

“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”

Our protagonist Starr would have to be one of my favorite characters of all-time. She is strong, she sticks to her values, and she protects the ones she loves even if it means that she might get hurt in the process. We need more protagonists like her in the young adult genre.

Starr isn’t the only character I fell in love with. Starr’s family is just as amazing as she is. They’re close as peas in a pod and they look out for each other like a family should, despite the entire world being pit against them. They prevail and make it through the hard times as a family, like it should be.

Now let’s talk about the issues this book deals with. As you might already know by now, THUG deals with racism and is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. As a white privileged teenager this book was certainly an eye-opening read for me. It taught me a lot about black culture and how truly horrid white people treat those of color. I already knew that black people weren’t treated equal and that police brutality was a thing, but this book was raw and real and it was such an important read for me.

I’m going to purchase and read every book Angie Thomas comes out with in the future because the way she crafted this book was extraordinary, I swear I never would’ve guessed this was her debut novel.

She’s gonna have to up her game in her next novel to keep it on par with this one, cause this one is a hard one to beat! But I’m so excited to see what she writes next because I think she’s the next great young adult author to look out for.

There is literally not one bad thing I can say about this book. It was a longer one, but it never bored me or dragged on. Every character had something to add to the story and every character felt like a real person with their own struggles and triumphs. I felt for every single one of them.

I’m just waiting for a sequel now because honestly this can’t be everything. I want more of Starr and her family!

My Rating: 5 Stars

Overall, this book was a powerful, moving book about how discrimination is still happening in this day and age and how it impacts those who are directly thrown hate at or the ones who are more privileged than them.