The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Starr Carter lives in Garden Heights, which is known as a rough part of town.  She and her siblings attend an elite high school about forty minutes away from where they live.  As one of the only minorities at her high school, she feels she must act different to fit in.  She also has a white boyfriend, which she keeps secret from her father.

Feeling as she belongs, but doesn’t belong to two different worlds, Starr has a hard time fitting in at home as well as at school.  She goes to a party in her neighborhood with a girl friend, when she runs into a childhood friend that she hasn’t seen in a few months, Khalil.  After a fight breaks out at the party, Khalil offers Starr a ride home.  During this ride, Khalil becomes the victim of a cop shooting even though he is unarmed.

Khalil is the second of her trio of childhood friends to be killed by gun violence.  Starr is left bereft and confused, unable to process the event and determine how to act in either one of her worlds.  Should Starr remain the anonymous witness or should she tell her story to the world?  How will her school friends and her friends in Garden Heights react?  Will the officer that shot Khalil be punished?

I enjoyed this book.  It was a fast paced read with a hot topic and a new perspective to me.  It was a book that made me really ponder about today’s society.  In all, this makes it a good book for discussing at a book club, but it also makes it a troublesome one as race is hard to discuss.  I thought things were kept mostly civil at our book club yesterday, although I’m still troubled by the fact that one member said as an aside to me that it is “fake news” that African Americans are shot and killed by police officers. I don’t know how to respond to people saying things like that with such a statement so far off of reality. She also found no value in the book and didn’t understand why it won awards or why young people should read it.  Luckily most people seemed to like the book and seeing things from a different point of view.  Being an all-white book club, in a predominately white town, it was a point that one member brought up that it would be nice to have a discussion with African American readers as well for a different perspective.

I think a book like The Hate U Give is a good book to get people to think about a hot topic issue from a different point of view or your point of view if we live a life like Starr’s.  It’s a gripping read, and I can see how it would also be good for teenagers to use to talk about current issues.  Police shootings are a very tough topic and I liked that Starr’s Uncle Carlos was a police office. We saw that Starr was conflicted about knowing there are good police officers, but that the one that shot Khalil was in the wrong.

I really liked Starr’s family.   They were a strong family with their own issues, but at the end of the day they supported and loved each other. 

Some people had a hard time with the lingo and did not like that there are swear words.  I didn’t have any trouble reading it.  The book is told from Starr’s first-person narrative.

Favorite Quotes:

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

“I hate that I let myself fall into that mind-set of trying to rationalize his death.  And at the end of the day, you don’t kill someone for opening a car door.  If you do, you shouldn’t be a cop.”

Overall, The Hate U Give is a must-read gripping account of the hot topic of police shootings with great characters.  It’s a good book to discuss.  I’ve never had so many people from book club want to talk to me before book club about a book.

Book Source:  Christmas gift from my best friend Jenn.