Book Review: THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas
FACTS ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: THE HATE U GIVE
Author: Angie Thomas
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Price: $17.99 (Hardcover)
Pages: 444
Genre: Police Criminality & Injustice against black people, Black Power
Year: 2017
Amazon Link: click here
BACK OF THE BOOK (Careful! Contains Spoilers that I did not know before reading the book!)
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
This book is about 16-years old Starr who is a black girl that lives in a poor black neighbourhood in which gangs and drugdealers and gunshots are a daily issue. Starr and her brother attend a school in the suburbs and are among the only black kids at their school. Starr feels like she has two different personalities, depending on whether she surrounds herself with her black or her white friends.
SPOILERS: (happens in the first 20 pages of the book)
As Starr and her black best friend Khalil drive home from a party they get controlled by a police officer. When Khalil doesn't obey the police officer's orders immediately but questions them instead, he gets shot dead by the officer.
This causes all kinds of reactions among the neighbourhood, Starr's school and in the media. Starr gets caught in all of it because she is the witness and has to decide whether she will speak up for Khalil and for black people's justice or whether she will protect herself from possible further police violence against black people.
MY OPINION
The beginning
At first, this book was a lot to handle and process for me. The language contained so much slang that pulled me off a lot and made it quite hard not to bother me. Since I adore the English language and study English, it was hard for me to not get annoyed by the constant false use of grammar and syntax. I am interested in how they translated all the slang into German though.
The writing style was quite rough and harsh in general, which sort of offended me a bit at the beginning of the book. Later on I got used to it and just accepted it as a part of the story. I just wasn't used to a protagonist talking in that harsh way and using so many swear words.
I tried to focus on the fact that both the slang and the swearing made the book more realistic and authentic and I can only suggest you to do the same and not let that bother you too much.
The murder
Suddenly, the book became incredibly brutal and shocking, which traumatised me a lot. I just had not expected that to happen and felt completely wrecked by it. It was such a cold-blooded murder and I just couldn't get my head around it and accept this for reality. It made me both sick and sad.
That scene was a real turnover for me. Afterwards, the book felt completely changed and shaped. The fact that these black police murders actually happen like this a lot in reality was a lot to process for me. And everyone has probably already heard about them in the news but reading about it in the form of this book was a completely different and extremely intense experience. The book was always in my mind, even when I wasn't reading it, and it still hasn't left me. It was very eyeopening in a brutal but necessary way, which makes this book so very important.
Starr's family - The light in the dark
You know, I thought that this book would be very important beforehand but I never thought that it would also be an extremely lovely and enjoyable read at times. This was mostly due to Starr's family.
Starr's family consists out of so many beautifully written characters that I just loved to read about.
Starr's father was such a strong and beautiful character and I adored the bond and relationship that he had with his daughter and with his wife. I loved all the scenes in which Starr's dad interacted with Starr or Starr's mum so much and was very happy that there were so many of them in the book.
It was so heartwarming to see Starr's parents' dynamic, which was so balanced, yet flirtatious and loving. It felt like Starr's mum and dad were a real team and knew each other inside out. They acted so perfectly together but also were both portrayed as headstrong individuals who had both their own personalities which sometimes collided with each other. I also liked that Starr always acknowledged the cuteness of her parents.
I loved the family's strong bond and dynamic with each other. It felt so loving and yet so real. Starr's family always made incredibly clear that they have Starr's back. That protection felt so strong and important and I also always felt sort of secure because of them.
Starr as the protagonist
Starr was in general a nice protagonist to get the story told from. And although I actually try not to read too many novels with teenage protagonists anymore - just because they often have a very different mindset than I have now -, Starr was a great main character and felt quite understandable and real. The way that her emotions bursted out every once and then felt understandable concerning the situation she was in. I was always on her side and enjoyed reading this story through her eyes.
Harry Potter references
If a book keeps on mentioning Harry Potter it is automatically an amazing book for me and gets at least one star more in its rating. :D
I just loved that there were so many Harry Potter references throughout the whole book! They kept on showing up and always made me incredibly happy.
It was so nice that Harry Potter got treated as an important part of Starr's life since it also is a very important part of mine. :)
The writing style
As I mentioned earlier, at first I had some problems with the writing but I quickly got used to it and started enjoying it. The book was very easy and quickly to read through. The writing made it really easy to quickly feel connected to Starr and her family and created a beautiful family atmosphere which was such a contrast to the brutal murder, gangs and drugdealers which got described in all their violence.
The books had both incredibly sad and happy scenes and since both were described so vividly, I felt extremely upset and extremely happy during them.
Police Violence against Black People
I was outraged by the way that Khalil's death got treated. That was really a brutal eyeopener for how black lives actually get treated in real life by the police. It's horrifying and insanely brutal but it's so important to make more people aware of that cruel injustice. It's so important to talk about it, to not deny or excuse it and to raise one's voice.
And as a white person that wants to support the Black Lives Matter movement, I think it is very important to educate one's self as good and as much as possible on the issue. This is why it is important to stress that this book was written by a black person and is therefore an #OwnVoices book, which means that the author is from the same minority as the main character and therefore knows their stuff.
Black Power
This book puts the blackness of its characters vividly and loudly in the foreground and stresses the skin colour of every character. Unlike other books, in which the skincolour of the characters don't really matter and mostly only get mentioned once at the beginning of the story, this book doesn't let you forget what skincolour a character has for a second.
This is important for the storyline, which is all about racial injustice.
The whole black neighbourhood in which Starr and her family lived, felt also very realistic and got described in a lot of detail so that I could imagine it vividly. This made it impossible for the reader to deny the horrible truth of black shootings because there was no way of escaping it while reading this book.
CONCLUSION
I really enjoyed reading this book although it had so much brutal, unfair and horrible stuff in it. I grew to quickly adore Starr's family and loved spending time with them and reading about them.
The book also made me appreciate my life and my privilege and my neighbourhood more.
I had tears in my eyes at the end of the book because its message is so strong and hopeful and should be heard by every single person on this planet.
The book has definitely shaped my awareness of police violence against black people because it gave such an insight into it and into the way that this effects actual people's lives.
It's cruel that this actually happened and still happens so often in real life but it is so important to not be silent but be vocal about it.
This book is also a great empowerement for activism in general because the book empowers everyone to use their voice and to make oneself heard and to fight back against injustices.
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