Book Of The Week: The Hate U Give

Book Title: The Hate You Give

Author: Angie Thomas

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Release Date: February 28, 2017

Book Length: 444 pages

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Review: 4.5/5

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

Main points of the book:

1- Racism does exist in today’s world

2- No one should have to debate or justify whether or not they should have basic human rights.

3-No one should have to defend their humanity at every single step, repeatedly and constantly.

4- Privilege is invisible to those who have it

Introduction:

This book is written by Angie Thomas, an American young adult author. The hate u give by Angie Thomas calls out issues such as police brutality, and racism. It is Angie Thomas’s debut novel. This novel is inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement. This emotional novel, inspired by volatile race relations in America today, explores the importance of family relations, friendship, identity, and the courage to seek justice.
It was published in early 2017, and was among the bestseller book in the USA and stayed there for a year. This book also won the 2018 Waterstones children’s book prize. The book was recognized in 2018 by the American Library Association with the William C. Morris Award for best debut book for teens, the Coretta Scott King Award for the best novel by an African-American author for children, and was an honor book for the Michael L. Printz Award for best novel for teens. It has now sold more than 2 million copies globally. Last year, a film adaptation was released, based on this novel, which has been a critical and commercial success.

Summary:

It is a story of sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, a black girl and an expert at navigating the two worlds, one where she lives in at the Garden Heights, her black neighborhood, and the other at Williamson Prep, her suburban, mostly white high school, where she is one of the two black people in her grade. This is a powerful novel about one girl’s struggle for justice. The story starts with Starr going to a party in her neighborhood with her half brother, Seven’s sister Kenya. Starr feels lonely at the party and ends up reconnecting with her old childhood best friend Khalil. Khalil drives Starr home, that’s when Khalil and Starr are pulled over by a white police officer with the badge number One-Fifteen. One-Fifteen orders Khalil to come out of the car and starts searching for him. White police officer commands Khalil not to move and returns to his car. Khalil opens the door to check on Starr, where the police officer fires three shots at Khalil. Khalil was unarmed. Khalil’s death became national news, where he was being called a thug, possible drug dealer and gangbanger. His death becomes justified in the eyes of many people, including one of Starr’s best friends at school. People talk about how Khalil seems to be a drug dealer or how he was talking back to the police officer or how he would have been a bigger threat. But it was all baseless and did not matter as the police officer barely knew his name, and no drugs were found on him or in the car.

There are other characters too in the novel like Starr’s father Maverick, who runs a grocery store. Her mother, who is caring but also a tough mother. Other characters mentioned in the book are Starr’s uncle, her half older brother Seven, and her younger brother Sekani.

After this incident, the book follows the growth of Starr from being an introverted girl who was afraid to speak up against racism and stereotypes starts embracing things for how they are, and becomes someone who stands up against evil and wrong and is not afraid to stand up for what’s right. It tries to highlight that the words or comments that we make unintentionally or are not said in a racist sense can affect someone entirely negatively.

Conclusion:

“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”

A thoughtful, honest, and powerful book about Racism and Justice. This book was truly phenomenal. It is educational in knowing what is happening in today’s world. It is excellent in writing, and storytelling focusing majorly on Black Lives Matter. Highly recommended reading this book, readers won’t be disappointed.