Book Review: The Hate U Give

If you haven’t already read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and want to be one of those people who reads the book before seeing the film, you have until October!

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is young adult fiction at its finest – it is real, it is raw, emotional, hilarious at times, and so poignant that when I finished it, I couldn’t pick up another book for the rest of the day (a big deal for me). The book was born from the #blacklivesmatter movement and in this, her debut novel, Angie Thomas expertly expresses every emotion, every heartache, every heinous injustice felt by the people who inspired her, through her main character Starr Carter. 

Reading Starr and her family as characters is like having a conversation with a real person – Thomas has written them so perfectly that I feel like I know them personally. Starr’s parents are some of the most wonderfully written parents I have ever come across. I’m sick of parents in YA novels being portrayed as clueless, hurtful, and uninvolved. Starr’s parents are everything you’d expect the parents of a 16-year-old girl to be; concerned, confused, flawed, and full of love. It is beyond refreshing.

Thomas’ closing remark from her acknowledgements is a good note to leave on, and an indication of how you should expect to feel after putting this book down;

“And to every kid in Georgetown and in all “the Gardens” (Starr’s neighbourhood) of the world: your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be roses in the concrete.”