Sophia Allen
Lantern Staff
Anybody would feel a lot of emotions if they were the sole witness to a friend’s death. “The Hate U Give” revolves around 16-year-old Starr in the aftermath of her childhood friend Khalil shot and killed by a police officer. Between the two worlds she inhabits, the mostly white suburban prep school she attends and the neighborhood in which she lives, Starr must deal with everybody around her assuming what happened on the night Khalil died and the pressure of being the only person able to give the answer. Over the course of several weeks following Khalil’s death, Starr struggles with finding the voice to tell what exactly happened and dealing with the backlash that speaking out can have.
“I want to make you think at times; I want to make you laugh at times; I want to make you cry at times,” Angie Thomas said in an interview with Lourdes Garcia-Navarro on NPR. That is something that she does very well. The book is amazingly written, and the author includes a level of detail that makes one feel as if they are there in the story.
This book comes in the midst of several others dealing with similar topics. Many books dealing with racial inequality and police violence have been published, and another, “Tyler Johnson Was Here” by Jay Coles, will be available in March 2018.
Thomas started writing it as a short story in response to the shooting of Oscar Grant in 2009, but it continued to grow as more and more shootings occurred. At first, she was worried that no one would publish a young adult novel on the subject, but she was met with an auction between 13 publishing companies and offers for the film rights.
This book is amazing, start to finish. Not only is it very well written and compelling, but it shows a reader a different experience to what they may be used to in life, educating people in the process. While it is meant mostly for a younger audience, “The Hate U Give” is a good read for anybody.
