The Hate U Give

PLOT

Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl, navigating her life. Starr is from a poor neighbourhood, who attends a predominately white affluent school on the other side of the city. We are thrown into hustle and bustle of a teenager party, from the outset, Starr is a self-aware, smart, understanding young woman who knows how to code-switch and fit in where needed. The fashion, attitudes, flirting and dancing that should be taking place ends with tears of outrage and pain. When Starr’s childhood best friend gets killed from the police. We follow Starr trying to find her way through the realities of the black American experience. Angie Thomas tells the honest story of a black vs white America. An expansion of the 2009 shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by a San Francisco transit officer.

MY THOUGHTS

The Hate U Give is the first book I have listened to narrated by Bahni Turpin and a great voice to hear her do her thing. Like any book, I quickly start to attach myself to the characters and their feelings. This book was no different, in fact, I felt more emotionally connected.

I have a deep love for America owed to the people I met and experiences made while working in Michigan, USA. The fear that is drilled into you as a person of colour to be careful around the police and “red necks” is well, scary. Although, I am not a residence of the United States, I have witnessed and seen the impacts on black and brown people because of police brutality and racism. This book took me back to the first #BlackLivesMatter protest that I saw in Portland in 2016. The storyline that develops in this book is quite frankly vividly real and heart-rending. The Black Lives Matter movement in this book shows the tensions between black and white people and police vs public.

Starr is a character that anyone can relate to or learn from with the topics and themes that are explored within this book. Starr code-switches daily due to living in a black area and going to a white school. Starr does this from a young age, changing her appearance, behaviour and speech to blend in which-ever part of town she is in. The realities are this comes down to cultural differences and the lack of education of different communities. Secondly, Starr is judged from her black friends and her white friends which in turn makes it harder for Starr (or anyone who code-switches) to feel they can be themselves which can be a combination of both communities.

I finished reading this book a week before the murder of George Floyd. I could have never imagined that the world would globally united, start to tackle, converse and protest about systematic racism and police brutality. In short, I loved this book and will definitely re-listen to it again.

RATING

10/10

WOULD I RECOMMEND?

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn and self-educate themselves so that they can help and input on the changes that need to be made. It’s an emotional read but I guarantee, it will change the way you see, feel and think.