On the Come Up in DMPL Book Chat

Mar 23, 2019 Kaci Kennedy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: five-star-books, justice, young-adult-and-childrens-lit, 2019, fiction, diverse-authors

This book was heavier for me than The Hate U Give. I found myself setting it down often to process different scenes. It also gave me a new appreciation for rap and especially the creation of lyrics.

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Jun 15, 2020 Celia Buell (semi hiatus) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age, friendship, owned, poetry, lgbtq, decisions, police-brutality, rights, womens-roles, family

I don't know what it is about chunksters (books over 450 pages) that compel me to read them in a single day when I'll take three days to finish a 200 page novel. Somehow, though, all the ones I've read, or at least all the young adult fiction ones, have kept me completely engaged to the last second.

On the Come Up was no exception. I've been meaning to read this one for about a year, since I received the ebook version as a prize in a challenge group. I loved The Hate U Give and read it at a very I don't know what it is about chunksters (books over 450 pages) that compel me to read them in a single day when I'll take three days to finish a 200 page novel. Somehow, though, all the ones I've read, or at least all the young adult fiction ones, have kept me completely engaged to the last second.

On the Come Up was no exception. I've been meaning to read this one for about a year, since I received the ebook version as a prize in a challenge group. I loved The Hate U Give and read it at a very timely point in history, so when I first tried to read this a few months ago, it didn't feel timely, and I ended up putting it down for a variety of reasons.

Now I am a lot more accustomed to ebooks, and with everything going on in the world right now, it was an absolutely timely read. While The Hate U Give addresses raw police violence, On the Come Up deals with its effects on a whole community. I like that this takes place seemingly about a year after the events of Angie Thomas's first novel, and in the same place, but not the same characters. It really puts things in perspective, especially with the race riots and police violence we are facing now with George Floyd and countless others.

Yes, I said it. I used to refuse to be at all political in my reviews, but the time for that liberty is long past. While I have the security to be able to write reviews without going political, I can no longer ignore the political implications of what I read. Yesterday I went to a black lives matter rally that had me scrambling to finish this novel even faster. Thomas does an amazing job in her two books of addressing this real world issue from every angle, and it was amazing to see the ways she does this in On the Come Up.

I also really loved that this incorporated themes of LGBTQ people in the black community, as well as more of the history of hip hop in the black community, because I feel like these are two very important aspects of life we don't always notice. I am a spoken word poet myself, and I have competed in and viewed Louder than a Bomb, so I've learned a bit about the hip hop scene and influence from that, but this is still lacking in fiction.

Angie Thomas is an essential author to have in classrooms around the country. I picked a perfect time to read this book, because it's educational, poignant, and probably the most relevant novel I've read all year. ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: race-racism-and-antiracism, blm-and-police-brutality, most-popular-ya, art-passion, music

Angie Thomas is just SO good at voice, tone, & setting. She’s especially good at mixing humor with real, hard stuff. I honestly don’t have a ton to say about this one — it’s just great!

Obviously she’s a real rapper, so the freestyles in this were actually great (and them not being good would have made big parts of the book cringeworthy, so it really did help), and her deep knowledge of and love for hip-hop came through (as well as some loving critiques of sexism in the hip-hop world). Bri feels ...more

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