The Hate You Give, by Angie Thomas, is a fiction novel about a sixteen-year-old Starr and how she becomes the only witness to the fatal shooting of her friend Khalil by the hands of the police. Throughout the story, Starr is looking for ways she can bring justice to Khalil but she does not want the public to know that she was the witness. Starr talks to the police, district attorney, and grand jury anonymously hoping that will be enough to bring justice to Khalil. At the end of the book, you can see Starr gain the courage to raise awareness of the murder of her friend Khalil without the fear of how the public will perceive her when they find out she was the witness.
I liked this book because it gives the reader insight into the war on drugs and how it affects neighborhoods like the one in the book, Garden Heights. It was inspiring to read about the former gang members and to see how they changed their lives for the better and left that life behind them. While it illustrated the horrible effects that come from joining a gang, it also showed the systematic racism that causes these young black men and women to join gangs to make money. This put a new light on gangs and bad neighborhoods for me and now I think about those things in a different way than I did before. This book inspired me to want to stick up for what I believe in with no regard for what people will think about me. I recommend this book to any young adult that is looking to educate themselves and look at things in a different way than you used to.