Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Such an impactful book. I read this one for Life’s Library Readathon. I’d highly recommend this book to everyone.
I listened to it as an audiobook, narrated by Bahni Turpin, who was an excellent narrator, she told the story with great passion, voice clarity, and character distinction, I’d highly recommend this version.
The story was one of struggle and triumph, coming of age during adolescence, a portrayal of racial, social, and economic disparities both real and perceived by the main character who tells her story, one of personal experience as she navigated her way through life, tragedy, and complex situations.
She questioned her own cultural origins, adaptations, and exchanges, vacillating between two roles she felt she had to play in order to maintain her sense of self and personal value, reflecting upon others, and multicultural influences that shaped her identity in who she was and voice to action events she would be called upon to represent.
The writing was phenomenal in such a way that I was taken right into the story. It was very casual in conversation, very thought-like which was fitting for the telling of such a personal story. Some parts lingered on in detail a bit but at the same time felt deliberate, building reader-character relationship, adding effect by sharing even the mundane of the main character’s daily scenario and how an adolescent of her age would likely react and notice her surroundings and personal interests consistent with the time and setting.
The societal issues brought up in this book are ones of great need for recognition and further discussion. It would make an excellent book club and school summer reading recommendation.
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