The Hate U Give

I implore everyone to read this book - especially non PoC's. As a British non black PoC this book still was very difficult to read in parts as it hits home as to what has always being going on (but more recently publicised) in the US and sometimes UK. Written incredibly well, Starr's character is modern and cool and someone I see on social media all over the place. The accounts that ring so true to exact situations you have probably heard in the news were harrowing to read over again but integral to the storyline and highlighting police brutality on black people. Would definitely recommend this book and really hoping that the film does it justice

If you read just one book this year, please make it this one; I know I’m not the first to rave about it but believe the hype, it’s all true. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, The Hate U Give follows the story of sixteen-year-old Starr and what happens when she becomes the only witness to the fatal shooting of a friend at the hands of a police officer. As she finds herself at the middle of a media circus, trying to balance her life becomes more and more difficult as she seeks justice for Khalil whilst trying to maintain her own safety, and that of her family. It’s not just the timeliness and poignancy of the story, but the characters which make this book so incredibly readable and wonderful. In the first instance, Starr is just someone you want to be friends with, and there is a real focus on her family, who are all fantastic characters in their own right, as well as being amazing in their supporting roles. Everyone in the book felt fleshed out and important, from her ex-drug-dealer father to her Asian best friend, and they all had their own storylines that ultimately fed into the wider plot. Basically, this is some complex writing that will still have you tearing through it to find out what happens – which is a surprisingly rare thing to find. I teared up on more than one occasion; anyone who has followed #BlackLivesMatter will recognise just how *real* this story is, which makes it all the more heartbreaking, but I also felt like it left room for hope, too.

Boy, this book is front carriage of the hype train! Having spent week after week on the New York Times Bestsellers list and being covered by 99% of the blogosphere, I've seen it EVERYWHERE. It made me desperate to read it, but also nervous that my expectations were being built to such great heights. I always feel that books receiving such hype tend to disappoint most of the time, and I found that a tiny bit here. I wasn't totally blown away as I expected. That being said, this was an amazing read on a topic that really needs far more coverage than it gets and is very fresh in today's political climate. Thomas writes SO well. I felt that I was reading from the perspective of a teenager, and while it was hard to get my head around some of the common slang found in black culture and the common 'tropes' it was an interesting insight into how gang warfare has come about, and the true injustices that PoCs face. The truth about white privilege and ignorance was hard to read of course. But it needs to be in order for change to happen. I loved the feeling of family that this book highlighted, not just in Starr's home, but in the whole community. Te relationship between Starr's mother and father was a joy to read. The idea of two worlds that Starr lives in is really clever too and seeing the personality changes and her awareness of that was both sad and eye-opening. As I said, this book didn't totally bowl me over. Some of the humour was good but some of it a little cheesy, and I feel like Thomas took a lot of racial frustrations out on EVERY white character, including Chris who was pretty much reduced to 'Am I allowed to say this? I can say that too? Please feel free to mock me how you like but do tell me if I'm overstepping any lines.' It was interesting to recognise ignorance within the white characters though and realise that I have seen friends or have done some of those things myself. Books like this will open minds and start discussions and for me this is what I want from a book.

Starr Carter, a black American teenager, leads something of a double life. She lives with her parents, brother Sekani and half-brother Seven in a poor, black neighbourhood, Garden Heights, where gang membership, drug dealing and shootings are rife. But every day, 16-year-old Starr makes a 45-minute journey to a private school in a predominantly white, affluent suburb where she has almost no black friends. The issue is not that she can't fit in there - she has plenty of mostly white friends and a steady relationship with her white boyfriend - but rather that she's acutely aware that she's constantly modifying her behaviour in order to do so. Her wealthy friends don't come to her house in 'the ghetto' for sleepovers. She speaks differently at school. And although she can recite the Black Panthers' Ten-Point Programme off by heart, she's reluctant to be seen as the 'angry black girl'. One evening, Starr gets a lift home from a Garden Heights party from her childhood best friend, Khalil. When their car is pulled over by a white police officer, Starr is instantly fearful - and she's right to be. The officer shoots Khalil dead, and Starr is the only witness. The relative stability of her life is shattered, both at home and at school, and the implications of Khalil's death and Starr's testimony against the police have an alarming ripple effect as tension mounts and danger builds. This is a powerfully honest and important book, seemingly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. It has Starr's strong and distinctive voice - bright, perceptive and funny - at its heart and a vivid cast of characters who feel real and credible from their very first appearances on the page. There are few absolutes here: you'll be hard pushed to find a character who is 100% saint or sinner and motives and circumstances are often complicated. Starr's Uncle Carlos, for example, also happens to be a cop; her father Maverick, who now runs a successful grocery store, is a former gang member. The Hate U Give raises many questions, some of them uncomfortable, and it's rightly uncompromising in its portrayal of racism, whether it's outright victimisation, institutional prejudice or casual assumptions. The Hate U Give is aimed primarily at teenagers (and I'd make it compulsory reading in schools, personally) but it's every bit as thought-provoking and absorbing for adults: it's a remarkably detailed exploration of the black working class experience in the US. This book made me angry and it made me sad (and if you're a white person like me and you feel neither of those things when you read this book, you really ought to take a long hard look at yourself), but it also left me feeling hopeful that the future is in the hands of activists as smart, brave and passionate as Starr.

I had originally said I was not going to read this book, I didn't know how well I would like it, and I don't tend to get involved with things that can make life at work harder for me. I literally work with the police, I am a dispatcher, so it is a huge part of my life. I knew going in it was revolved around the BLM movement, and police brutality and I made the decision to read it anyways. I had heard so many good things about it and I just needed to see for myself. First I want to say, it does not at any point in this book bash police officers. It talks about some of the problems in the world and how things happen but it never attacks or sets out to make them out to monsters. I really liked that because most aren't, they just aren't, they are humans. Now, Starr is the main character who is involved in a horrible tragedy that leaves her friend from child hood Khalil dead by an officer involved shooting. It was horrible and it was really sad. I hated reading it, I cried my eyes out, Thomas did such an amazing job of making a horrible action into beautiful fiction that made you feel like you were right there. I was so broken by this part of the story. Then reading later on into Starr's grief was just hard. I don't know any other way to describe it but there will be tears, so very many tears. That isn't it though, you see her as they have to fight the system basically, and you are with them through all those emotions. Going to the funeral and seeing his family, destroyed, his mother broken, knowing this isn't just something that happens in fiction, you cannot help but be moved. Now there was some real good in this book too, like some parts that I laughed until I cried. The scene when her parents are arguing in the middle of a prayer I have read an thousand times since finishing the book because it is the funnies thing I have ever read. Her parents were amazing by the way, her dad was an ex-con but he loved her, he admitted his mistakes but he was there for her. Their relationship was really touching to read because I have always been really close to my own dad. Then there was her mom, and her Uncle Carlos, who was actually a cop and lived in a really good neighborhood too. This was really refreshing to read because so many books, YA especially make parents out to be monsters that don't care, that aren't there for their kids. I mean it is like a troupe or something for these stories and it isn't actually the norm and gets annoying to read, so this book did an amazing job with the parents and family. All around though this story just floored me, it gave me a perspective I have never considered before, offered insights into a world I am not a part of, and I loved every minute of it. I don't know what it is to watch one friend die by violence of any sort, much less two in the time of my life and I am 26, she is a teenager. It is jarring to see that as some...