Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

Review:

I have heard so many amazing things about this book so when the opportunity came up to read it, I had to take my chance. This book has a strong political message that needed to be heard and it is rare to find a book that makes a statement that is also enjoyable and The Hate U Give is one of those.

Growing up in Australia, there isn’t talk of Police brutality, they don’t shoot unarmed humans and there is never any discrimination on race. I know we are one lucky country but then again we don’t have the second amendment, the right to bare arms. I have been to America multiple times and I have seen how easily it is to buy firearms over there, which is extremely easy by the way. So speaking from a police officer’s situation, you have that split second to react and guess if they are reaching for a gun or not, and in that situation it comes down the fact, would you rather live or die? From a suspects point of view it would be terrifying having a gun pointed at you, completely terrifying . I am not taking sides against police or suspects, but when you watch some of the videos on the internet or news about police shooting you can either see where the police went wrong and the suspect was complying but they fired anyway or you see the video when they suspect reaches for something and the police fire. I saw one the other day and this Hispanic woman was armed, with the gun pointed at the ground and the police told her three times to drop the weapon and unfortunately she didn’t comply and it came at a cost, her life. I’ll say it again this comes down to their American right to get guns and protect themselves but unfortunately not every Tom, Dick and Harry is in the right mind to own a gun or that little child that reaches into their mum’s handbag and pulls out the gun and fires, believing it was nothing more than a toy. America, you need to phase the guns out, your laws need to be strict when it comes to a piece of metal that can take a humans life. Anyway I could rave forever about this and the school shootings but I won’t, I just need to set my opinion up for the book as it eye opening and extremely political.

I am also not the type of person to judge someone based on their skin tone, eye colour, favourite sport or anything else for that matter. Even if they said they hated books, I wouldn’t hate them, I would only be sad that they don’t experience the wonders that we book lovers do. Yes I know, I slide talking of books into a book review, shows that I have an addiction to the pages right? Anyway back to the review, which is inspired by the ‘Black Lives Matter Movement’ which is understandable and after reading this book I had to jump on the net and research the “Black Lives Matter Movement’ and statistics on how many coloured people were killed compared to white. I just had to. THUG inspired me to find out more and to honest I didn’t get very far. Just the sheer numbers of how many people, black, white and other that were killed in 2017 was astounding. Literally astounding. It also turns out that society killed each other more than police did. Reading all this made me so glad I live in Australia. Trust me this point is valid later on in the review.

Now that I got the two big issue covered let’s start talking about the book which is based around Starr who grows up in the hood and has a completely different understanding of how to react when the police are around than what I have grown up with. Instead of knowing the police as those that serve and protect and will ensure you remain safe and unharmed, Starr knows how to react around police so you don’t get shot. While on a drive home from a party with a friend Khalil, getting pulled over by the police ended with Kahlil getting shot and killed by police.  How’s that for an opening chapter? Now back to the previous paragraph, an officer of the law gave instructions to Kahlil and he didn’t listen. He disobeyed and was leaning into the car window, was he reaching for a gun? It’s night time, it’s dark, there are all these aspects to think of. You don’t know. Remember your life of theirs, who would you protect? The cop, this poor sucker was just born with white skin… It would have been an more interesting aspect if Kahlil obeyed the office and didn’t ‘reach for anything’ and get shot, now that would have more of an interesting story. See fence sitter! I see both sides of how this could have gone wrong!

Star who is now a witness to her friend being shot is facing the emotion struggle on how to process what she witnessed, what she will go through watching the trial and how to continue to survive in the hood. The writer has captured a young girls fear that the justice system will let her down because of the colour of Kahlil’s skin. We also see how the media portrays the white cop as a member of society and Kahlil as guilty, poor and from the wrong side of town.  I say it all the time but never believe what you see on the news, it’s all propaganda anyway.

With a loving family, Starr struggles with the colour of her white boyfriends skin, her friends skin compared to her own, which after what she saw is completely understandable. I loved Starr, she was brilliantly written, with strong emotions of fear, sadness and anger that made her so authentic. The family in this book reminded me of my very own, funny, teasing and would do anything for each other. I have never read any book that has such a great family connection like this before, I love it. This books shows the determination of a character, the importance of friends and family and to never forget to live each day like it was your last.

Let’s get back to the main aspect of the book which is obviously political. Even if you are not politically minded at all this is the kind of book you read and get drawn into the story that you seem to forget that it has strong meanings behind the words and focus on the love for the characters.

This is the part where I tell you that there were aspects of the book I didn’t like but the one that sat close with me was the fact, Starr yells at her boyfriend because of the colour of his skin. I’m sorry but isn’t the point of the book waking up ‘white’ people to the ‘blacks’ that are getting killed by police because of race? If it is a characters goal or wish to try and put a stop to the mistreatment of a race, why would it be okay to yell at someone cause they are white? Or is that fine because he is white and she’s black? If Starr hates racism because it killed her friend then why is she treating her boyfriend like that?

“You can’t even tell me what’s going on!”
“You’re white, okay?” I yell. “You’re white!”
Silence.
“I’m white?” he says, like he’s just hearing that for the first time. “What the f***’s that got to do with anything?”

To be honest I expected better. You don’t stand up for equal female rights but then expect men to get less pay than you do, because you are female. Don’t stand up against bullies when you treat a few friends in your group poorly. Yes I hate double standards, it doesn’t sit well for me at all. Once I reached this moment in the book, I didn’t want race to be the main aspect of the book but it was.

I may have jumped on the political bandwagon with this book, but I personally feel that race and police brutality could have been executed better. There were double standards to the book I didn’t like and like I said in the opening paragraph, I can see from the police and suspects POV, I am impartial. I’ll stick to sitting on the fence and judge case by case so to say.

I know people have the freedom of speech and it is really wonderful, but do me a favour? Look at this book on GoodReads look at the low star reviews and read their comments and the backlash they have received for not liking the book. Look at what other book lovers have called someone who doesn’t like the book. It’s not pretty. I don’t think that’s what Angie Thomas had in mind when she wrote this book. Remember to be kind to one another and I hope my political book review gets you thinking about the future, because I am. This book makes you want the world to change.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rating: 4/5

Publisher: Walker Books

ISBN: 9781406372151