Critical Review of 'The Hate U Give' - Voice for the Voiceless Youth

This book review delves into Angie Thomas's 'The Hate U Give,' a YA novel addressing racial discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement. The story follows Starr, a 16-year-old girl navigating two different worlds: her gang-ridden, predominantly Black neighborhood and her white-dominated school. Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend, Khalil, by a white police officer, leading to personal grief and social upheaval. The review highlights the novel's exploration of grief, aggression, and the complexities of racism, as Starr confronts the aftermath of Khalil's death and the dangerous influence of local gangs. Ultimately, the review emphasizes Starr's decision to speak out against injustice, marking a powerful conclusion to the narrative. Desklib provides access to similar book reviews and study resources for students.

Book Review on ‘The Hate U Give’
Angie Thomas’s book The Hate U Give depicts how the police behaves in a savagely violent
way in America on one of today’s most fierce revolutions which is the Black Lives Matter
movement. The book is known as a Young Adult (YA) novel, which addresses to one of the
most tenacious evils of today’s human civilization which is the racial discrimination and
characterized behavior to one particular community (Thomas 2017). This novel mainly
speaks about a 16-year-old girl whose name is Starr who belong to a gang devastated area
which was mostly a black influenced area but she was going to a school which was resident
of the white dominated area. But she was an extraordinary girl as because she used to balance
both the areas very cleverly, that the racial discrimination issues had blurred out of her life.
But as life goes on it becomes very hard for Starr to be in the environment after she witnesses
a deadly shooting of one of her very close childhood friend Khalil, by a white police officer.
Later on when Starr was listening to the national new which was showing her friend’s murder
case, she found out that he was labeled in the news timeline as a dealer in drug, gangster and
a gangbuster. Khalil’s death was majorly justified by his friends and Starr and she was in
tremendous grief to find out that her best friend was one of the member of the dangerous drug
dealers in the region. The book The Hate U Give depicts the grief as well as the aggression
which is making the work of a young little girl very complex, besides the racism factor and
the black and white discrimination due to the adequacy of the police department (Walker
2017).
The tragedy of the death of Khalil brought tears to a neighborhood which was already
exploded by drugs and violence from the deeply established gangs. Starr’s father was also
one of the gang member who has also spend his life inn jails. King who was a gangster used
to run the neighborhood was putting Starr’s family in danger about the death of Khalil. The
tension, grief and prolonged quarrel running through the novel comes to an end with the

decision which was made by the jury of the court to arrest the white officer who was
responsible for the murder of Khalil by shooting him (Ickes & Ken worthy 2013). By the
time when the jury had failed to formally accuse or charge the white policeman for the crime
huge riots and protests which took over in Garden Heights. King who used to take care of the
drug abused neighborhood took the advantage of the chaos and set Starr’s house on fire
where she along with her family got trapped inside the house. Somehow they had managed to
get out of the trap and escaped. After that the neighborhood turns back to King so that he
could get arrested for the torturing. De Vante who was Starr’s uncle agreed to serve as a
witness to King’s drug dealings, and to remove him from the neighborhood and ending his
abusive work. Thus the novel comes to an end where Starr makes a promise in memory of
Khalil’s death that she will not remain silent and she will continue her fight against the
injustice (Port 2017).

References
Cheng, W., Ickes, W., & Kenworthy, J. B. (2013). The phenomenon of hate crimes in the
United States. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(4), 761-794.
Port, M. (2017). Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for
Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even If You Hate Marketing and Selling.
John Wiley & Sons.
Thomas, A. (2017). The hate u give. cbt Verlag.
Walker, M. (2017). The Hate U Give. Author Angie Thomas on# BlackLivesMatter, Her
Debut Novel and ‘Harry Potter’. Teen Vogue.