“Once upon a time, there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug. He lived, but not nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life, I’ll remember how he died. Fairy tale? No. But I’m not giving up on a better ending.” Narrated by sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, The Hate U Give is Angie Thomas’s debut novel. For more than eighty weeks, the book topped The New York Times young adult bestseller list, selling more than 850,000 copies as of June 2018. 

Thomas expanded this book from a short story that she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. In an interview with The Cut, she explained, “In so many cases where unarmed black people lost their lives [to the police], the victims were young...when young people see that, they’re affected by it. I wanted to write this for them. I also knew that YA fiction goes beyond young adults. I wrote this from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl, so I felt like I had a better chance of reaching people who may take issue with the phrase ‘black lives matter.’ ” The Hate U Give is without question, universal because it focuses on an African American teenage girl torn between her two worlds as she witnesses racism and police brutality in modern America.

Throughout the book, Thomas’s intimate writing style and the novel’s first-person perspective taps fully into Starr’s shock, pain, and outrage during the shooting and its aftermath. “Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared,” Thomas writes. The novel allows readers to see the complexity of their lives mirrored in literature which helps generate a deeper understanding. As soon as I read the first few pages I felt like I was part of the book as well. I could sympathize with Starr, and how she gets insulted because of her race and skin color. Thomas does a wonderful job letting the audience see the world from a victim’s perspective. Readers can feel the trauma and confusion that Starr endures in the book.

What I like most about this book was the fact that the author did a fantastic job making the characters realistic. In The Hate U Give, the characters are well developed, and many readers can relate to them. There isn’t a “good guy” or “bad guy” in the novel because they all have good and bad in them. For example, many characters ended up getting involved with gangs and selling drugs. Instead of assuming immediately that they are “bad,” Thomas dives into their backstory, showing readers that the characters don’t really have an easy way out.  It paints a much more complex, nuanced picture of many teens’ lives today and how their decisions can sometimes lead to trouble. 

In addition to the well-developed characters, the dialogue flows really well. When the characters are talking to each other it feels as if you are eavesdropping on their conversation. Throughout the story, Starr code-switches between her Garden Heights self and Williamson self. When Starr is in her own ghetto neighborhood, Garden Heights, she doesn’t need to watch her mouth like she needs to when she is in Williamson, a primarily white private school; It’s hard to maintain her two different personas. Starr mentions, “My voice is changing already. It always happens around “other” people, whether I'm at Williamson or not. I don't talk like me or sound like me. I choose every word carefully and make sure I pronounce them well. I can never, ever let anyone think I'm ghetto.” The conversations between characters are so well thought out by Thomas. The way Starr talks to her family is very different from the way she talks to others,such as her friends and the authorities.

All in all,  The Hate U Give appeals to readers of all ages and races. When you're reading books like The Hate U Give, you're reading someone's decision against silence. “What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?” Thomas writes. While reading The Hate U Give, you will be right beside Starr, grappling with understanding entrenched prejudice, where it comes from, and what role she—and those at home—has in exposing and combating it.