The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (audiobook version)
Rating: 4.5 stars
I decided to give fiction audiobooks another try after hearing so many rave reviews about The Hate U Give. I’m sure I would have eventually read it because it’s being talked about everywhere, but the audio version was definitely worth the time I put into it (over eleven hours).
That being said – this is a hard book to read. It will challenge you, the way you think about everything. It’s about Starr, a 16 year old black girl who lives in a very rough neighborhood with her parents, older half brother, and younger brother. When she’s at home she’s Garden Heights Starr, black girl with black friends and a black family. But she goes to a predominately white prep school an hour away with her white boyfriend and white friends. She constantly feels split between her two worlds. Near the beginning of the book she is the sole witness to the death of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Six years earlier she witnessed the death of her other best friend by a drive by shooter. This horrific event spurs everything that happens for the rest of the book.
Overall, this is a very powerful and poignant book with a very strong voice. As a white woman in an almost entirely white small town, it was pretty eye opening. And heartbreaking. It’s so easy to judge the people that live in these kinds of neighborhoods, surrounded by drugs and thugs and violence. Dismiss them, group them together, push them out of your mind if you’re not in the middle of it. But this book brings everything to the surface, really pushing you to pay attention and want to join the fight for change. I loved learning more about Starr and was so intrigued by her family dynamics. It was hard for me to reconcile her loving father with the man he was before she was born. It really goes to show how powerful love and family can be, no matter what your external circumstances.
I thought this was a fantastic book. But it’s not something I necessarily enjoyed listening to. It was heavy, for sure. I had to take a day break in between huge chunks of listening. But I think it’s important and something that everybody should be required to read.
