I haven't actually cried while reading a novel in quite some time. There are some things I will never truly understand because I have never and will never experience them. All I can do is try to understand and empathize. While non-fiction articles and stories are necessary to understanding society's current climate, a well-written novel like this can really bring it home for people (myself included). The story was so engaging and the characters all felt so real: both flawed and relatable.Obviously, the main storyline was powerful as h**l but I liked some of the other dynamics in the story as well. For one, I think this novel did a much better job at illustrating family dynamics in modern America than any other novel I've ever read. The awkwardness of having half-siblings was there and relevant without being overly explained either. Their family is no less real or "normal" because it doesn't fit into the perfect cookie-cutter suburban picture.Secondly, I love the portrayal of healthy relationships throughout the novel (and unhealthy ones as a contrast). Starr's parents are adorable despite the fact that their relationship isn't without its lows. (view spoiler).This book did so much right and it didn't even feel like it was 400+ pages. I think every young adult should read this book, especially right now when it's so relevant. Hopefully, when my (currently non-existent) children are old enough for me to encourage them to read books like this, it will be more historical than relevant.

The author is from my city. She a native, me a transplant from another part of the state. We have friends in the same writer circles thought we haven't officially met each other. I say this not to to boast but to bring home that this story felt REAL to me because of that.But beyond geography, Thomas gets that black experience where you have to straddle multiple worlds. Not black enough and not enough of a model minority. Interracial dating. Racist white friends who insist they aren't racist. Having to cut those people loose. Dishonest and abusive law enforcement. How it feels to grow up in a less than safe area. Just regular culture in America. This town could be anywhere.Starr is a very authentic character with an authentic voice. The situation she is in can and has happened everywhere in the United States and in other countries. This story was hard for me to read at first because it was real. It isn't a fantasy. The ending is hopeful but not clean. It makes you think.While the book is about a serious and prevalent topic, it also has funny moments. I laughed hard at some parts. The Harry Potter gang theory, the catfish scene, just random dialogue.I'm glad I read this book. We need more black voices and other voices outside of the white lens. Stories written for us by us.Great job, Angie and I hope the movie captures this story well. Maybe one day the narrative in this unfair and unjust racist world will change.

Rating: 3.5/5.0First, let me say that when a book is highly rated and very much hyped I tend to pass it under my own microscope! This might sound unfair because I don't do the same with other books that are averagely rated, but again I don't do that with them because I get into them with no expectations. The Hate U Give is one of those books that became so popular and so much talked about and very highly rated. So have I jumped on the hype train as well?Hmm, I have to say the book is good, it discusses some very important issues that might not have been tackled before in the YA genre (This is what I think caused the hype) but this definitely not the only book that talks about such issues if you look into the adult books too.What I liked about this book is the format. Where there is more dialogue going on between the different characters. The only person we get to know more about is the protagonist Starr as the whole story is told from her perspective so we get to know what goes on inside her head and what actions she is going to take. The book addresses several problems we have in different societies like racism, brutality by police, dealing with drugs and also gang wars. Not all of these were much elaborated though. Some dialogues I really liked too and think they were well written but I would not say all of it!Things I did not like: I feel there were many big opportunities that were missed here and there. The book does not have much tension as I expected a serious subject like that needed. Yes, there is some tension in certain scenes but where I expected the book to shine it failed. For example, the questions and answers in the police station that ended very fast, then the TV interview was such a big disappointment it was about two pages only from the whole book. Starr being questioned in front of the Grand Jury was almost non-existent, that was just a page and half! In These three situations, the author could've made the best parts of the book but she decided to completely ignore them and give bigger scenes to situations that were not important. I feel the priorities for the author was to cater the book more to the young audiences by making the subject somehow lighter than what it is.Another thing I did not like was certain aspects of the main character. I rolled my eyes and cringed when she kept making references to Taylor Swift or Beyonce. I also feel the main character was over critical about certain things. Although she was dealing with racism issue she has fallen into the same trap herself when she rejected to be honest with her white boyfriend and when she was asked about it she said: "because you are white, white, white"!! But is it not a racist thing to label a whole race with something just because one person did that?As I said the book is good and tackles important issues but I don't feel it is an extraordinary one as many reviews and ratings made me feel. I don't feel this book has gone deep enough in dealing with these subjects as I expected it would. I would have to go with a good 3.5 stars out of 5 stars here.

4.5 stars!“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”The Hate U Give is about a sixteen year old girl named Starr who lives in a bad neighborhood and commutes to a fancy private school. One evening, Starr and her childhood friend Khalil leave a party and are pulled over by a cop on the way home. The cop shoots and kills Khalil, even though he was unarmed.Khalil becomes a national headline, and Starr is thrown into turmoil. The neighborhood she grew up in wants justice, as does Starr. But being the sole witness to Khalil’s murder comes with danger, from drug lords where she lives, and the police everywhere else. Starr had already felt pulled between two worlds before Khalil’s death, and now she doesn’t know what choices to make.“What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?”This is a book that I really hope becomes a worldwide phenomenon. We’ve seen similar stories on the news many times, throughout the years, but I feel the youth of the world have not been given this story in a relatable way. There should be more books like this out there.Starr is what made this book come alive. Her voice, the way she tells her story is extraordinary. Every single moment of this book I felt for this girl: I wanted to stand beside her, I wanted to cheer her on, I wanted to hold her. She was faced with circumstances and choices no one her age should ever have to face. Confronting these events were hard for her, and while she didn’t always do what everyone told her to, she stayed true to herself and handled it the best she could.I felt so many things while reading this book, it really does pull on several different emotions. Being Angie Thomas’ debut novel I am floored by her talent, many writers work their entire life to bring this kind of voice to their characters. I can only see better things to come in the future from Thomas. My only criticism of the book was it felt a little bit too long for me, but otherwise I loved it and will be recommending this novel a lot and for a long time.“Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared.”

I'm going to start with this--I just finished this book a little less than an hour ago, and I can already say that it has changed my life.Angie Thomas's book about 16-year-old Starr Carter left me speechless and crying for so many reasons, and I'm not sure I can even explain why adequately. Starr herself is written perfectly. She's a high school junior who loves basketball, used to have a massive crush on a Jonas brother, and collects sneakers. She also loves her family, even when they embarrass or frustrate her, is a good student at the private school she attends with almost exclusively rich, white kids (one of whom is her boyfriend), and helps at her dad's community grocery store when she can.However, her life is very different from the ones her friends at school live. Starr is the only black girl in her junior class, lives in a poor black neighborhood that sees more than its fair share of gang violence, is the daughter of an ex-gang member who served time in prison, and saw one of her two best friends killed in a drive-by when she was ten years old.And on the night she is with her other childhood best friend, Khalil, when he is shot in the back by a police officer, despite being unarmed and not doing anything to provoke the officer in any way, she finds herself in the middle of all the fallout from the shooting while still grieving Khalil's death.I'm more than a little ashamed to admit that I'm a privileged white woman in a tiny, primarily white community who has never really even given a ton of thought to the Black Lives Matter movement. I have heard the news, and I felt a piece of the injustice of it all, but prior to reading The Hate U Give, I had never really tried to imagine what the black community really felt. I'm still a privileged white woman in a tiny, primarily white community, which means that I will never really be able to understand what the black community feels, but I'm trying, and I'm trying so much harder than I ever did before.As far as a review, I'm not sure what to say. This is young adult fiction, so I knew it wouldn't be the level of writing to which I'm accustomed. However, Angie Thomas still did an excellent job of creating living, breathing characters and thought-provoking text that made me grab my highlighter many times as I read. The teenagers spoke exactly as teenagers do without coming across as cliché at all, and I usually find that adult young adult writers either try TOO hard to make teenage characters sound like teenagers OR they make them sound entirely too grown up (I'm looking at you in The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. Yeah. I said it.). Thomas, however, nailed it.Meanwhile, The Hate U Give is filled with the kind of profound statements that I never expected from young adult fiction, but they still felt completely natural and appropriate--statements that made me, as an adult, stop and question my own behaviors and thoughts. Statements like the following:"I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I'm too afraid to speak.""The truth casts a shadow over the kitchen--people like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice.""That's the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What's the point in having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?"When I finished this book a little while ago, I sobbed like I haven't at the end of a book in a LONG time. I sobbed for Khalil and his community, but more so for the list of real names at the end (that's not a spoiler...promise). There were plenty of moments in the book that made me chuckle a little that helped break up the heaviness of the book (especially when DeVante, Seven, and Starr start making fun of white people, because, let's be honest, everything they said was true), but the weight of the truth this book made me see hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm white. I never have to worry about one of my sons being killed by the police simply for their skin color. And I will never understand that particular reality. Instead, I have been living inside my safe little bubble where I believed that ALL police officers are good and ALL police officers are just trying to do their jobs and racism is really not THAT bad in our country. I never allowed myself to see that SOME police officers are downright racist, and SOME police officers are scared of young, black men simply because they are young, black men, and people of color ARE treated differently, and ANY racism IS that bad.The Hate U Give started changing all that. It enabled me to step into the shoes of a 16-year-old black girl who saw her childhood best friend shot simply because he was young, black, and in a neighborhood with a bad reputation. It also enabled me to see that the lives behind the news headlines are so much more complicated than I am often led to believe, but Angie Thomas never did any of that in a way that placed all the blame on the police. The blame was definitely there, but Starr also acknowledges that there are still a lot of good police officers who don't agree with the actions of their colleagues, and although she helped me to understand the sentiment behind rioting, she also acknowledges that the damage done by rioting is usually to her own community only. And underneath it all, Angie Thomas makes it clear that Starr's community had its own problems from within that were not the fault of the police at all. Instead of placing blame on ANYONE, Angie Thomas is making readers see that there are definitely two sides to every story, and for most of us, we have only REALLY heard one of them.