There are books that are important, and books that are good, and occasionally books that are both at the same time with such force that you finish them and have to sit quietly for a few minutes before you can do anything else. The Hate U Give is the third kind.

Starr Carter is sixteen, Black, and code-switches daily between her predominantly white prep school and the Garden Heights neighbourhood she comes from. She is in the car when her childhood friend Khalil is shot by a police officer during a traffic stop. Khalil dies. Starr is the only witness. What happens next — to her family, her friendships, her sense of herself, and her relationship to a community that wants her to speak and an institution that wants her silent — is the book.

Starr

Angie Thomas writes Starr with extraordinary precision. She is funny, loyal, occasionally petty, in love with her boyfriend who goes to her school and isn’t sure how to hold all the parts of her life simultaneously. She is a teenage girl in the specific ways that teenage girls are, and the horror that enters her story arrives in a world that was already completely real before it happened.

This specificity is what makes The Hate U Give more than a message novel. The message is present and it is correct. But Starr is a character first, and her interiority is rendered with such care that the political content arrives through person rather than through thesis. Thomas trusts the story. The story does the work.

The Family

The Carter family is one of the best fictional families in recent YA. Maverick and Lisa Carter, Starr’s parents, are fully drawn adults who have their own histories and their own complicated relationships to the community they’re raising their children in. The scenes between Starr and her father — a former gang member who has made himself something else — are the book’s most quietly devastating.

Uncle Carlos, a police officer, represents the most complex space in the novel: someone who loves Starr and also belongs to the institution that killed her friend. Thomas does not resolve that complexity because it does not resolve.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

Every reader should read this book. But for young readers — for the readers this book is specifically for — The Hate U Give offers something that most YA doesn’t: a story that takes seriously the specific fears and specific angers and specific exhaustions of young Black Americans and treats them as entirely legitimate rather than as a perspective to be introduced to readers who might not share it.

For all readers: Starr’s journey from witness to voice is one of the great coming-of-age arcs in contemporary YA. The courage she finds is not the absence of fear. It is the decision to speak in the presence of it.

Published: February 2017 · Genre: YA contemporary · Standalone

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Hate U Give about? Starr Carter is sixteen, Black, and code-switches daily between her predominantly white prep school and the Garden Heights neighbourhood she comes from. She is in the car when her childhood friend Khalil is shot by a police officer during a traffic stop. What follows — ’to her family, her friendships, her sense of herself, and her relationship to a community that wants her to speak and an institution that wants her silent’ — is described as ’the third kind of book: both important and good at the same time with such force that you finish and have to sit quietly.'

What makes Starr Carter a distinctive protagonist? The review credits Thomas with writing Starr ‘with extraordinary precision — she is funny, loyal, occasionally petty, in love with her boyfriend, and doesn’t know how to hold all the parts of her life simultaneously.’ The specificity is what distinguishes The Hate U Give: ‘Starr is a character first, and her interiority is rendered with such care that the political content arrives through person rather than through thesis. Thomas trusts the story. The story does the work.’

What makes the Carter family exceptional as a fictional family? The review calls the Carter family ‘one of the best fictional families in recent YA — Maverick and Lisa Carter are fully drawn adults who have their own histories and their own complicated relationships to the community they’re raising their children in.’ The scenes between Starr and her father — ‘a former gang member who has made himself something else — are the book’s most quietly devastating.’ Uncle Carlos as a police officer represents ’the most complex space: someone who loves Starr and also belongs to the institution that killed her friend — Thomas does not resolve that complexity because it does not resolve.’

How does The Hate U Give handle its political content? The review explicitly addresses the ‘message novel’ concern: ’the message is present and it is correct, but this is more than a message novel — Starr is a character first.’ Thomas ’trusts the story’ rather than using character as a vessel for thesis. The political content is embedded in specific, lived experience rather than announced. The book is described as offering young Black readers specifically ‘a story that takes seriously the specific fears and specific angers and specific exhaustions of young Black Americans and treats them as entirely legitimate.’

Why is The Hate U Give considered essential reading for YA readers? The review calls it ‘a coming-of-age arc that is among the great in contemporary YA — Starr’s journey from witness to voice, where the courage she finds is not the absence of fear but the decision to speak in the presence of it.’ It is one of a small number of books the review describes without qualification: ’every reader should read this book.’ The combination of technical excellence and moral seriousness is positioned as genuinely rare.

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • The Hate U Give — Wikipedia’s The Hate U Give article provides publication details and the cultural context of the novel’s reception and impact, helping readers understand its significance within YA literature.
  • Angie Thomas — Wikipedia’s Angie Thomas article provides biographical and bibliographical context for the author, helping readers understand The Hate U Give within her broader writing career and her approach to socially engaged contemporary YA.