Two books this week by Angie Thomas.
The Hate U Give
By Angie Thomas
After all the outcry of police brutality and the killing of many African Americans in the last few weeks, which have led to many protests and marches, I decided to try to read more books about racism and more books by African American authors. The first book I dove into was The Hate U Give, which was made into a movie a while back. It's a young adult novel that isn't young adultish. It seems like YA is so hard hitting now a days with The Hunger Games and the other series about everyone killing each other. Regardless, this book was very engaging and drew me in right away.
The story is of Starr, a sixteen-year-old girl that lives in a rough part of town. She lives with her father who is a former gang member, mother who is a nurse, older half brother who is a computer nerd and product of their father having an ill fated one-night-stand with the main drug dealer/gang leader's girlfriend, and her little brother. When she was about nine or so, she saw her best friend killed by a drive-by shooter. After that, her brothers and her start going to a private school outside of their neighborhood. Starr is essentially torn into two Starrs; the Starr at this insanely nice school and the Starr that lives in her neighborhood, and neither of them seem like 100% her.
After a party one night, her best friend is driving her home, and when he is stopped by a police officer for a traffic violation he is shot and killed by the police officer. When the murder goes public all hell breaks loose, with protests, marches and more violence. Starr doesn't know what to do, does she take the stand or stay quiet? Starr is torn again to be true to herself.
I would definitely recommend the book. My husband and I watched the film adaptation last night and the film isn't bad, they threw in WAY more drama and cut out a lot of my favorite parts of the book, but still worth a watch.
On the Come Up
By Angie Thomas
This book is kinda a sequel to The Hate U Give in the way that this book is based in the same neighborhood, but we don't see the same characters as the first book. This story also follows a strong sixteen old girl.
Bri is an inspiring rapper. Her father, who Bri only barely remembers, was a semi-famous rapper before he was killed. Bri lives with her mother, a former addict and her older brother who dreams of going to grad school, but feels like he needs to take care of his mother and sister. Bri's family struggles with severe poverty. One day at school, the security guards think Bri is selling drugs at school (it's actually candy) and forces her to the ground. The school doesn't do anything to stop it from happening again, which causes protest and uprising at the school. Bri does a song and a few rap battles that people flip over. She has a couple of guy friends and one of them is even gay, which I was glad to read. There was even some budding romance as well for Bri. She is faced with her rap making her sound more street and "hood" then she really is, which one should she go with?
I would recommend the book, I enjoyed it.
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