The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas – #20booksofsummer

Thug Life – The Hate U Give Little Infants F*cks Everyone

Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

My Thoughts
This book isn’t just a story, we can’t read it, put it down and forget. Yea the names might not be real but the events are real. Black lives are taken by white police because of the colour of their skin!
This book is a necessary read for everyone, this is an important story that everyne needs to hear and if you aren’t outraged and angry and upset then you need to take a good hard look at yourself.

Starr is incredible, I like to think that I would be as brave as her, but if I was in that same situation I don’t know if I could be that brave. Her best friend died and she called out the policeman who did it!

This book is an incredible reflection of life as it is now. The killings and the riots and the injustices. Angie Thomas made me ugly cry multiple times throughout this book and that’s a good thing. She made me think about myself and how my actions affect people of colour.

This is a hard book to read because you know what’s going to happen but you wish and wish that it’s not going to happen but there is nothing you can do to stop it.
The characters are really well thoughtout and they all have depth, I came away from this book feeling as if I know each of them.

I watched the film just after I read the book and the film was pretty good, I’m glad that they kept some of the lines the same and the main story the same, but I am upset that DeVante wasn’t in it and they left out Maya’s storyline. Amandla Stenberg is absolutely incredible!

Black lives matter isn’t just a hashtag. Breonna Taylor isn’t just a name, George Floyd isn’t just a name. These are people’s lives. As a white person I need to hear their voices, I need to know their stories, I need to educate myself and change. I need to help, I need to read black authors I need to hear their voices as well.