The Hate U Give

Article written by Ugo Juliet

Former Lecturer. Author of multiple books. Degree from University Of Nigeria, Nsukka.

After witnessing her friend’s death at the hands of a police officer, she tried to learn what happened the night her friend was killed but discovered that the police and a local drug lord were trying to intimidate her.

Key Facts about The Hate U Give

• Title: The Hate U Give 
• Author: Angie Thomas
• Where written: Mississippi, New York
• Published: February 28, 2017
• Genre: Young adult / Fiction
• Climax: Starr testifies before the grand jury
• Original Language: English
• Protagonist: Starr Carter
• Antagonist: Hailey Grant
• Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
• Pages: 444

Angie Thomas and The Hate U Give

This young adult book is about how a traffic stop procedure turns tragic for two African American teens, leaving one dead and the other irrevocably changed by the shooting and the after-effects of legal battles, survivor’s guilt, and race riots. This is a powerful fictional story of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement by Angie Thomas. The protagonist of the book, 16-year-old Starr Carter, had an emotional fight within her because she could not decide whether to tell the truth about the shooting or remain silent. This is because doing so can put her own life in danger.

Her life shows the intricacies of the 16-year-old lead character, who sounds both youthful and mature for her age. She relies on code-switching to navigate two different social settings- her mostly white school and the black neighborhood where she lives until midway through the novel, she starts breaking all the rules she had previously used to segment her life. The main character of the novel, 16-year-old Starr has learned to adapt her personality to fit two worlds. In her town in Garden Heights, Starr helps her ex-gangbanger father in his neighborhood grocery store. While in her school town, Williamson Starr has a white boyfriend and is one of the few black students at a tony prep school in an exclusive area in her city.

When there were gunshots at a Garden Heights party, Starr and her friend Khalil leave. Later, Khalil makes an innocent and unanticipated move at a traffic stop, and it leads to his death. Starr witnesses a white officer shoot him and her world changes from then. In the ensuing weeks and months, Starr deals with different reactions: her own, her family’s, and those of her inner-city neighbors and upscale private school friends. Starr’s narration in the first person creates an intimacy that draws readers into the anger and grief she’s feeling while also acknowledging that Khalil may have been involved with drugs. Debut author Thomas populates her story with true-to-life characters-flaws and all. Starr’s family members are particularly well-drawn. The author perfectly captures dialect, cadence, and slang, providing each individual with nuanced tones. Many times in the novel, Starr’s voice is gentle, kind, and thoughtful. But at other times, we find her being aggressive and abusive, even using some curse words in anger and frustration. This book is a thought-provoking, high-current, and worthy addition that will enhance most high school collections.

Starr Carter is at home in a neighborhood rife with gang strife. She is the 16-year-old grocer’s daughter and also an outsider because she attends a private school many miles away. Then at Williamson Prep, her school, she can’t be herself among other black students: no slang, no anger, no attitude. She created a version of herself there – Williamson Starr, and she doesn’t give anyone a reason to call her ghetto. She wrestled with what Du Bois called “double consciousness” when she accepted a ride home from Khalil, a childhood friend, who was then pulled over and shot dead by a white cop.

From page one of the book, we can see that Starr’s voice commands attention and gives a conflicted but clear-eyed lens through which the author showcases casual racism at Williamson, Khalil’s killing, and Starr’s strained relationship with her white boyfriend. Though this story is heartbreaking, its greatest strength lies in the fact that it is an original depiction of a teenage girl’s life, her loving family, and her attempts to reconcile what she knows to be true about their lives with the way those lives are undervalued and portrayed by the larger society.

Books Related to The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give is a YA book written by Angie Thomas. There are so many other books that appeal to youth and address youth issues like this. Here are some of them.

• Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles.
• The Broken Bridge by Philip Pullman.
• This Old Man by Lois Ruby.
• Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed.
• When the Legends Die by Hal Borland.
• Dear Martin by Nic Stone.
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L.
• The Poet X.

The Lasting Impact of The Hate U Give