The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
This is a book that has been on the English Department shelves since I started at Nayland, and is often recommended to me as a good book. It is also one that I have used as an option for students to study at Level 1, having gathered themes and resources from other teachers to help support students choosing it. However, it is not a book I have read, until now.
It is also a book that has been banned in some states in America, and so - looking for a "banned book" to finish off my reading challenge for the year - it finally seemed time to pick it up and give it a go.
It is a very well-written book. It does have a lot of language in it, and it does talk a lot about violence - particularly police brutality - and because of those aspects I can understand why some groups might not enjoy it as much, BUT it is quite insightful and has a lot to say about racism (including subtle racism), standing up for your beliefs, and even the balance between protecting those you love or making a stand.
Starr Carter lives a dual life, living in Garden Heights (a "ghetto"-style black neighbourhood) and going to school at Williamson Prep (a mostly-white school). As a first-person narrator, Starr explains how she adapts her personality to fit in to each of her worlds, and tries on the whole to keep both lives separate. Her Williamson friends (including her white boyfriend, Chris) never visit her home in Garden Heights, and her Garden Heights friends (including Kenya, who shares a brother with Starr due to a family scandal) are never invited to parties in her Williamson world.
However, very early in the book, one of Starr's close childhood Garden Heights friends is pulled over and killed by a policeman while Starr is in the vehicle, and she must begin to face up to the fact that her testimony might be the difference between the policeman being convicted or going free.
The book does a good job of fleshing out the characters, and allows even the more 'stock' characters to have hidden depth - with one or two exceptions that exist for particular reasons. A young drug dealer who is sleazily checking Starr out in one scene might become a sympathetic character later in the book, and a clueless 'Williamson' friend might still begin to understand Starr's world as time goes by. Starr herself also feels 'real' - she is suffering from the trauma of having her friend killed, she is worried about what people think, she is working through insecurities and relationship struggles and a desire to just be 'normal'...
It also - which surprised me - has a lot of undertones to do with faith, hope and forgiveness. Sure, the family pray to 'Black Jesus', but the undertones are a lot stronger than that. By the end of the book, I was surprised by just how hopeful a book about gang violence, police brutality and snitches who end up with stitches had become...
...yeah, this is a good book.
Well worth checking out.
Completed 10 October 2025.
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(2025 Reading Challenge - "Banned Book")
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