Ethan Noles

The Hate you Give was published February 17th 2018, written by Angie Thomas. Winning a total of 5 awards, and a 4.5 out of 5 by Goodreads and a 5/5 on Common Sense Media. The book follows Starr Carter, a Young African American woman struggling with the very real situation of police brutality. This is one of those stores that really stuck with you, because most of the time you hear these stories and all you do is just be glad it’s not you. But this story takes a very interesting approach to these police brutality incidents. The story begins with Starr Carter attending the usual spring break party when her on and off friend Khalil comes and talks to her. A gun fight breaks out at the party and Khalil brings her home. As they are driving down the road listening to Tupac they get pulled over. As Khalil is ripped out of the car by 115 ( the police officer's badge number). Starr can just watch as her friend gets shot multiple times in the back. The act of death is not new to Starr as when she was 10, she was at the pool with her friend Natasha when she was a victim of a drive by shooting. Eventually she is brought into questioning the story seems to change at least toward the police officer. You see, even though Starr shares exactly what happened that night, even when the gun was pointed at her. At khalil's funeral King and a couple of his followers arrive, Ling is the leader of the local gang the King Lords. They got up to Khalil's casket and placed a grey bandanna signifying that Khalil was part of the gang. It at least helped them in some way. The police officer doesn’t end up going to jail, it’s said on the news that Khalil was a drug dealer. This speaks volumes to everyone in Garden Heights, sparking a peaceful march. It is shown that a peaceful protest doesn’t always work, especially in a place like Garden Heights. Bad turns to worse when Maverick ( Starr’s father ) is aggressively searched by police after a peaceful argument with the barber. Starr finally speaks openly about what happened to Khalil, protest after protest it proved useless as 115 wasn’t taken into custody. A riot more or less breaks out and a Molotov is thrown through the window or Mavericks corner store. It turns out King threw it and was arrested. Starr begins fighting for Khalil and all other African Americans that were killed by the hands of police. Coming from someone that doesn’t read a lot of books, this book was really good and an interesting aspect of a side for I or anybody really that reads it. It just shows a side that I never see. I had such a fun time reading this story. It’s not hard to follow but also deals with an adult situation that you can easily get caught up in. The characters were very well developed and the descriptions of the setting were very well thought out and are very easy to imagine. This book has the ability to relate to any teenager with pretty much any banter Starr and his friends get into, but also introduces them to the scary reality of the real world. I would 100% recommend this book. It's a really easy read but that doesn’t mean it’s not good.