SYNOPSIS: 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. Rating: 5/5
Before I start this review I would like to say that I have no idea what it's like to be racially discriminated against, so these opinions do not come from someone with knowledge on the topic. I loved this book a lot, as you could probably tell from the five star rating. I have been wanting to read some more serious books, and the Black Lives Matter movement is very important to me. I'm not from the US, so the whole situation there seems incredibly strange for me. In my country on average three people die at the hands of the police each year, while according to Wikipedia the US is at 63 deaths so far this year. A lot of those deaths were because of racism. That's not my opinion, that's just a fact. I'd like to say I'm not going to get political on this blog, but this is an important issue and it's worth getting political over. Every single innocent black kid who was shot by the police because they were (or weren't) holding something the police thought might be a weapon, every black person who was shot for no reason other than being black and standing or walking, had every right to be alive. The Hate U Give is currently very popular and I'm glad it is, because this is an issue that deserves more coverage. More people need to recognise that black people are targeted by police just for being black. This books sheds a beautiful light on that, letting us meet the character first and start loving him, and then ripping him away from us. It reminds us of the lives all these other black people lived before being brutally killed by police. We learn about the aftermath for the people who are left behind, in a way that you don't get to see on TV. We get a look into their lives. This book touched me deeply. I loved the characters and their authenticity. I think the author held nothing back and wrote the truth. She didn't try to cover anything up or make anything better just to make others think that black people are all angels. She made us see that they are real people with real lives. I don't just recommend this book to everyone, I sincerely hope everyone does read it. It's a great read and offers insight into an important problem that we could all use some more knowledge on. Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/32075671-the-hate-u-give?from_search=true Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hate-U-Give-Angie-Thomas/dp/1406372153
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AuthorHi! I'm Marcella. As you might have guessed, I quite like YA books.. Archives
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