The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

This book has been on a lot of lists for YA reads over the past year. I added it to my school library and recently brought it home to read it.

This is the story of Starr, a 16-year old girl living in a predominantly black area of an unnamed US city. In her neighbourhood of Garden Heights gangs are everywhere, drugs are easily available and she watched one of her two best friends get killed in a drive-by shooting when they were ten years old. When she is 16, she leaves a party (because shooting has broken out) with her other best friend, Khalil.

Starr felt out of place at the party because she doesn't go to school in Garden Heights. Her parents send her to a private school in the city to give her and her brothers a shot at a better education. She feels she has to be one Starr in Garden Heights and a completely different Starr at school. At school she can't be too "black", or invite friends back to her home in the "ghetto".

On the way home from the party with Khalil, they are stopped by the police because Khalil has a taillight missing. As Khalil reaches into the car to see if Starr is OK, the officer begins shooting and Khalil is shot three times and he dies there, with Starr again watching one of her bests friends dying.

This is a powerful look at race relations in a country where things seem to be getting worse, not better. Although not based on an actual case, we've all followed similar stories in the news. I felt the book to be very well-written and I read it very quickly.

I can't imagine living in many of the situations faced in the book, they are things I've never had to face as a white, Canadian woman. It's definitely eye-opening and shocking. I recommend it.