The Hate U Give

“The Hate U—the letter U—Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. T-H-U-G L-I-F-E.”

I feel like I should have typed up a review for this book the moment I put it down. I feel like I should have torn through this story the moment my pre-order arrived, instead of setting it on a shelf to look pretty. I feel like I should have plugged this book through all of 2017, encouraged everyone I met to read it - Goodreads friends, twitter followers, strangers in the street. But I didn't do any of those things. I let it sit, and I read it slow, and I waited a month to review it, because I was scared of the heartbreak I knew these 464 pages would offer me.

Is this story heartbreaking? Yes. As a white woman living in America, in the south, knowing that my privileges (and even things that I have done and said in my past) hurt innocent people of color every day, this book was one of the most devastating I have ever read. It was one of the most important books I have ever read.

“Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared.”

Starr Carter

aaaaall

“Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black.”

I

“That's the hate they're giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That's Thug Life.”

Maverick Carter

Ever.

“Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug.”

police brutality, racism, & #blacklivesmatter

nine times

“A hairbrush is not a gun.”

SPEAK UP

“To every kid in Georgetown and in all “the Gardens” of the world: your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be roses that grow in the concrete.”

final thoughts

NOTE: This entire review is coming from a white woman's perspective. I can't speak for other readers, and I certainly cannot speak for those whose struggles are nothing I've ever known, but what I can do is try my best to help boost voices of minority readers and reviewers. If you have an own-voice review for this book, feel free to send it my way and I will be more than happy to boost you as much as I can. ❤