Thursday, October 9, 2025

The Other Side of Hate

The Hate U Give paints a scary, yet hopeful, portrait of inner city life that is written in such close first person POV that it’s impossible to keep ignoring the harsh realities of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

The injustices Starr faces in this timely YA novel are almost unbearable because we’ve all seen the news. We know her experience on the page isn’t “just” fiction. It’s fictionalized reporting on a harsh reality in a voice that the author has made us sympathize with. No reader can ignore that black people are being unjustly brutalized by law enforcement when it’s Starr giving them her firsthand account of that trauma. 

It’s a harrowing yet common tale, and experiencing it in the close first person voice of an authentic black teen makes the reality hit hard for all of us. Especially, readers who do not exist in this type of harsh reality are forced to feel and develop empathy for a type of situation  they’d rather ignore. But this novel makes it impossible to ignore the reality of what so many inner city teens can’t avoid. 

In particular, Starr’s constant struggle with codeshifting and her insecurity about who she’s “supposed” to be in any given situation is heartbreaking. She’s from two worlds but doesn’t feel she truly belongs in either. This is a reality that probably a lot of white readers had never been aware of, but it’s a commonality in American black culture. Starr’s codeshifting shows readers what it’s like to live as a black person navigating the fine line between authenticity and what society deems acceptable.  

What this novel does so well is educating readers without it feeling too telling or preachy. Starr is letting us into her worlds, her thoughts, fears, and hopes. So we’re learning about Starr while simultaneously learning about the nuanced layers of inner city community. Approaching a polarizing topic like racially-charged police brutality that way makes it accessible to everyone.

There’s also a strong theme that’s reinforced throughout the story: Sometimes you can do everything right and things can still go wrong. Everyone from every type of background can identify with that theme. So with that the story then becomes universally relatable. The author offers readers common ground to stand on in that theme. 

When this book debuted in 2017, the BLM movement had only been around for a few years and people were (and, sadly, still are) very angry on both sides. The timing and authentic voice is what made this novel a blockbuster, but the true triumph is how the author, Angie Thomas,  broke down the ways in which the system works against low income, primarily black communities through the eyes and heart of a single girl. Starr’s story forces readers to not just acknowledge but really see systemic racism working against people/characters we care about. 

We all have things in our lives that are worth fighting for. That fight is never easy, but it’s very important that we keep fighting. That's a blockbuster message.

xo
B

3 comments:

  1. I love how Angie Thomas builds tension within Starr. She goes through every "correct" outlet to vouch for Khalil, yet they fail her. These constant push-and-pull scenes make Starr a wonderful protagonist because, in a way, she's answering the questions many readers have when faced with a strong character. There's an answer as to why she joins the protests toward the end of the book. There's even further exposition when it comes to Starr dumping Hailey as a friend. It's not just the racist comments, but Hailey's need to be above others since they were children.

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  2. It's so heartbreaking to think you can do everything right and things still go wrong. When Starr's mother said this, it felt so tragic, but she managed to lace it with hope.

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    1. That's the great thing about YA. There's always hope in a YA book.

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