The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, is a story about an African-American 16-year-old girl named Starr Carter. Starr is stuck balancing living in a poor run-down neighborhood and attending an upper-class prep school in the suburbs. But everything goes even more downhill when she witnesses her best friend Khalil getting murdered by a police officer. Khalil was unarmed and hadn’t done anything that would cause him to get killed. Soon the news of Khalil’s death was everywhere, there wasn’t one person who didn’t know about the incident that occurred. People started calling Khalil a gangster, a drug dealer, and many other names. Starr knew these assumptions couldn’t be true, but she hesitated to testify for Khalil because she worried his justice wouldn’t be served. Starr thought that if she testified then her and her family’s life would be at risk. A lawyer and activist named April Ofrah confirmed Starr’s worries that the court wouldn’t enforce legal actions on the police officer. Starr then witnesses another racist incident, her father is searched by a police officer for no reason. This then motivates Starr to not stay silent, and she decides to testify for Khalil. After almost two months, the verdict was out. The court decided not to indict the officer. Starr’s fear had come true. She continues to protest and promises to continue fighting for Khalil’s justice and justice for all the black people who were killed at the hands of a police officer.
I would give this book four stars because I thought it had an incredibly powerful story. Racism is something that has become very common in today’s age and this book really helped tell the other side of it. It really showed how much people suffered from racism. This was an amazing read with a captivating message. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to read a book that they just won’t be able to put down.