April 2019 Standalone BOTM - The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

[Felicia]

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

[Claire]

I have read this novel which I had forever on my shelf. For some reason I kept postponing my reading this book. It felt like everyone was so enthousiastic about it that I could only be disappointed.

[Claire]

At the beginning the reading took me a bit of time to get into the novel. I felt it was relatively slow, or maybe that was just my impression? Anyway, reading on, I felt myself drawn into the story. I thought it had a good pace in telling and kept your attention going without ever becoming unclear.

[Claire]

The characters: I really thought they were almost all likable, even if sometimes they did stupid things. On the other side some of the characters fell a bit flat. I think for instance Starr’s boyfriend was a really slow character. I know a lot of nice guys, but this one felt like he was too nice/went with every flow. And the one instance he should have understood her, he acted all hurt? The fact that he was white, felt to me an unnecessary something. The book is about racism ok, but getting an obligate white character didn’t add a lot.

[Claire]

How doI feel now: my SIL is from Nigeria, so I have two beautiful coloured nieces too. While they don’t experience a lot of problems, I know there sadly is a lot of racism in the world. Whenever I hear a racist comments, I get very nasty at people.

This book is a very important book and I think it should be read at school. ( or a comparable book)
Maybe it would help people to see that in the end we all are just human.