Hey guys! It's Trina and today I'm going to be talking about The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
This is a 2017 debut novel which came out in March and I loved this book to pieces.
I gave it a 5 star rating and so far this year it is the best book that I have read.
In this video I'm going to tell you guys what the book is about in case you haven't heard
about it yet, and then I'm going to give you a few reasons why I think you should read
it, and then at the end I'll give a brief review of this book's quality as a debut novel.
The Hate U Give is a story about our main character named Starr who is a black teenager
living in a poor neighborhood but she actually commutes to go to a private school where most
of the students are white and she's one of the very few black students that attends.
Starr is coming home from a party one night, she is riding in the car with one of her childhood
best friends, Khalil, and Khalil is pulled over because his car has a busted taillight.
The situation escalates and the police officer that pulls them over, who was a white man,
ends up shooting and killing Khalil.
This police officer's side of the story says that he felt his life was being threatened
and he thought that they were going to pull a gun on him but Starr was in the car and
she knows that there was no gun, and they were not threatening the officer, and they
were trying to cooperate with him but Starr has to decide if she wants to speak up and
use her voice to talk about what really happened because the media has already started painting
Khalil as just like a basic thug.
As you can probably tell, this book was inspired by the #BlackLivesMatter movement and there's
so much more going on in this book than that but that is really the thing that sets off
this book and the whole rest of the story.
This is an #ownvoices book, which means that the main character and the author are both
black women, so the representation of race in this book comes from a place of experience with the author.
And I do want to encourage you guys, please look up some #ownvoices reviewers for this
book that can talk to you guys more about the representation of it.
There are a couple of BookTubers that I follow that I know have done an individual video
review for The Hate U Give.
I know India from BooksAndBigHair has done one, and so has Kashawn from TheBookArcher.
I'll put links to their reviews down in the description of mine and I highly encourage
you to check out their reviews.
Now I want to give you guys 6 reasons why you should read it.
If you like books that explore these themes, or these ideas, this is probably one that you would enjoy.
So, the first reason I think you should pick this book up is because it is super relevant.
Like I said, it was inspired by the #BlackLivesMatter movement and I think that if you are on social
media in any aspect, or even if you watch the news and you see these stories of minorities
who are being shot and killed by police for something really basic like a traffic stop,
whether or not you are familiar with these news stories and with the #BlackLivesMatter
movement, I think that this book is really information, and relevant, and relateable.
If you already know what these movements are all about, I think you will really relate
to this story, but if you aren't familiar with why all these hashtags exist and why
this keeps happening, and you don't know why there's a controversy between #BlackLivesMatter
and #AllLivesMatter I also think this book is really informative at explaining why the
#BlackLivesMatter movement is very important.
I really think everyone will get something out of this book and that it really speaks to current events.
The second reason I think you will like this one is if you like books that are very empowering.
This story is all about finding your voice, and I really loved the emphasis on your voice
is the best weapon that you have.
I loved watching Starr struggle with how she wanted to use her voice because she had some
very real and valid reasons on why she might not want to speak up, and then throughout
the story you see her learning what she wants to do and the stand that she wants to take.
So, it's definitely a very empowering story all about finding your voice.
Reason number three why I think you would like this book is if you enjoy books that
are all about staying true to yourself.
So in the summary like I told you guys, Starr lives in a poor neighborhood and she goes
to a private school full of rich white kids and she leads two different lives.
At home in her neighborhood, in her community, she feels like she is her real self but when
she's at school she feels like she's a different person.
Like, she has these different elements to her own personality that she kind of tries to hide.
She feels like she can't speak out about all of the things that she wants to because then
people would just see her as the "angry black girl."
She even has two totally separate friend groups that she doesn't let overlap very much and
over the course of this story Starr starts to learn how to merge her two lives together
and just be herself fully.
The fourth reason that I think you would enjoy this book is the way that it handles friendships.
Starr has a lot of really supportive friends in her life, but one of the things I loved
most about this book is it actually takes a toxic friendship and it approaches that
in a very healthy way.
In a lot of books, I feel like whenever there is a toxic friendship it's not really presented
as toxic, it's just kind of presented as well they're just mean girls, that's just how things are.
Or it's like exploring the loss of a friendship after that's happened.
But The Hate U Give is actually showing us the process of a friendship that used to be
very close starting to deteriorate throughout the course of the story and how Starr wants to handle that.
Starr and her mom have a really great heart to heart about friendships that I really enjoyed
and just seeing Starr weigh this friendship and what her friend's actions are doing, I
just really appreciated how this book looked at a toxic friendship and I think that is something
that I want to see more of in YA books because friendships do end and sometimes they are toxic.
The fifth reason why I think you should read this book is if you love books with a very
very strong family dynamic.
Both of Starr's parents play a very large role in her life and in the story.
She has siblings, a grandmother, an aunt and uncle who helped raise her, cousins, and even
her entire community who's basically treated like family.
I really loved the family and the community aspect and the dynamic between all of them in this book.
I thought it was so strong and it made everything just feel so so real.
If you love books that explore a character and who they are because of where they come
from and because of their family and the influence that they had in their life, this is definitely
a book I think you would enjoy.
And reason number six why I think you would like this book is if you like books that give you all the feels.
And I'm not kidding. I mean ALL of the feels.
It'll make you laugh out loud, it will make you cry.
It will make you so angry and then so happy.
This book does it all.
I really feel like that is a mark of great writing, so if you love books that are a full
emotional journey, this is definitely one I think you will love.
So those are six things that I think that if you look for those topics in books or you
like books that explore those, I definitely think you will enjoy The Hate U Give.
Now I want to talk more about it as a 2017 debut. I've come up with a list of questions
that I ask myself about the debuts that I'm reading, so I'm just going to go through those really quickly.
The first question that I am asking myself about the debuts I read this year is
why did I pick it up and did it deliver what it said it would?
I picked this book up simply because of the hype.
Hype is something that will make me interested in a book and this one was getting a lot of
hype and a lot of press, it got a ton of starred reviews very very early on, so I had known
about this book for a really long time and I definitely wanted to read it and see if
it was worth all of that hype.
And the answer of did it deliver?
It definitely did.
I thought it stood up to all of that hype.
I was not disappointed.
The second debut question I have is did this book feel like the author's first work?
And the simple answer to that is no way.
The writing, the world building in terms of like bringing this community, this neighborhood,
and this school to life, and the characterization, even the side characters - Angie Thomas has
built such a highly developed world and characters and story, and she does not feel like a debut author!
She feels like a seasoned pro.
Her writing is phenomenal and she has written so many different types of scenes
and different vibes in this book.
She goes from writing a shooting, to a day at school, to a basketball game, to a funeral,
to riots and protests, to a family dinner, to prom and she does all of these things without
even missing a beat.
It really is one of the deepest, most well developed, realest, and more relateable books
that I have ever read. The next question for this debut that I have is
does this book make me want to read more by this author?
And that answer is a resounding yes.
I will absolutely read Angie Thomas's next book.
I don't even need to know what it is about.
I do know that she has a book deal and I think she has said it is set in the same neighborhood
as The Hate U Give but it's not like a direct sequel.
I will be reading that book.
It is going to be an auto-read book for me because I really loved her writing and the
storytelling so much! It was incredible.
I will definitely be reading her next book, and probably the one after that, and the one after that.
And finally I want to end this video by just saying do I recommend this book?
Absolutely. I would recommend this book to anybody.
I think anyone could get something out of it, be it an informative story, or be it a
very relateable story, and I really just loved it.
There was not a SINGLE thing about this book that I did not like.
I definitely, absolutely recommend this book without hesitation.
I loved it.
I hope that this video has let you guys know more about this book and whether or not you want to pick it up.
I really hope that you do, and if you do, or if you already have read it, please come
back and let me know what you thought of it because I would love to discuss it with you further.
If you have any other questions about this book, or the content, the story, the characters,
that I did not cover please ask that in the comments and I will let you know the answer there.
Thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in the comments. Bye!
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