‘The Hate U Give’ — A book review
“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.
If you are an avid book reader then I am pretty sure you have heard about The hate u give by Angie Thomas and how it calls out issues such as police brutality and racism. There was so much praise surrounding this book and I was super excited to read it.
The story’s lead is Starr Carter, a 16 year old black girl who switches back and forth between her two worlds; her school Williamson Prep, where she is one of the two black people in her grade and Garden Heights, her suburban black neighborhood where she grew up.
The story starts with Starr going to a party in her neighborhood with her half brother, Seven’s sister Kenya. Starr feels isolated at the party and ends up reconnecting with her childhood best friend Khalil. Khalil offers to drive Starr home and that’s when the tables turn, Khalil and Starr are pulled over by a white police officer with the badge number One-Fifteen. Khalil questions the motivation for the stop, and One-Fifteen orders him out of the car and searches him. One-Fifteen commands Khalil not to move, and returns to his car. Khalil opens the door to check on Starr. And that’s it, One-Fifteen fires three shots at Khalil. Starr watches him die not able to do anything for him.
The book follows the growth of Starr from being an introverted girl who was afraid to speak up against racism and accepting things for how they are, to someone who stands up and is not afraid to stand up for what’s right.
What I really appreciated about the book was that the story not only focuses on the broader issue of being discriminated on the basis of color but also on bits of casual racism. It tries to highlight how even words that meant no harm or weren’t said in a racist sense can affect someone in an entirely negative way. Starr’s friend Hailey constantly makes racist comments about her as well as Maya, who comes from an Asian American heritage. Hailey when confronted about this doesn’t sympathize or tries to understand what it means to be treated a certain way simply because of your culture, color or heritage.
I also loved the way family dynamics is portrayed in the book. Starr’s family consists of so many complicated characters. Her dad Maverick runs a grocery store. Maverick was a gang member and went to prison for three years when Starr was a child. Her uncle, Carlos who is like a second father to Starr. Her mom, Linda who’s a tough yet caring mother. Her half older brother Seven and her younger brother Sekani. We see so many conflicts between Maverick and Carlos and how Seven always cares about his other sisters more than Starr, but whenever things went down they were ready to fight together as one!
The most asked question in the book is did Khalil deserve to die?
People talk about how he was a drug dealer or how he was talking back to the police officer or how he would have been a bigger threat. But how does any of it matter when the police officer barely knew his name, Khalil was unarmed at the moment and there were no drugs found on him or in the car.
This book is real, honest, and it’s going to be uncomfortable at times. But being uncomfortable is important because a lot of us don’t know how it feels to be assumed as a threat because of we look or who we are, and that doesn’t mean that such a mentality doesn’t exist. The book sends out an important message and it is surely worth a read.
What did not work for me:
Yes, the book is supposed to be about racism but most characters feel like a walking stereotype. The book has no gray areas. Everything is just black and white (pun intended!) . All the black characters shown to be into rap music, Jordans, do drugs, deal drugs, part of a gang, gang leader and curse. There are dialogues in the book where the black community prejudices the things white people do as well. If the book is supposed to be against racism, the message should be clear, prejudice against white people is just as bad as prejudice against black people.
