Stand Up



The Hate U Give
By Angie Thomas
Review by Ashley Karish

Standing up for what you believe in is important to all people in this community, including one specific person, Starr.

In this book, a girl named Starr switches between two different worlds. She lives in Garden Heights a poor mostly black neighborhood while she goes to school at Williamson Prep, in a wealthy, mostly white area. This is because the school in Garden Heights can be very dangerous, so Starr’s mom sends her and her two brothers Seven and Sekani to Williamson. Big Maverick is their father. No one messes with him or his kids. Seven is Starr’s half-brother; Maverick is Seven’s father and a lady named Iesha is his mother. Iesha’s boyfriend is the abusive King and he likes to make trouble in Garden Heights. When Starr was ten years old she witnessed her best friend get shot and killed. At the beginning of the book Starr experiences something like this again when she and her other childhood best friend, Khalil is driving home from a party. They are not doing anything wrong when they suddenly get pulled over by a white police officer. Khalil argues with the police officer saying they have done nothing wrong but Starr knows better and tells Khalil not to argue with the police. Starr tells him to put his hands on the dash but he sort of jokes around and the police officer tells Khalil to step out of the car. While the police officer is putting information down, Starr tells him again to keep his hands where the officer can see them. Khalil does not listen to Starr and opens the car door. The officer thinks he is getting a gun and he shoots Khalil 3 times. Starr runs out of the car and says “I scream loud enough for the both of us. No, no, no is all I can say.” (24)There is nothing that she can do so Starr just sits there watching Khalil bleed out, while the officer points the same gun at her. After this happens Starr goes to the station and tells everyone what happened. They stick up for the officer and say that Khalil did this to himself. Over the next few days, Starr becomes very angry and upset because no one at Williamson understands what she is going through, especially her friends Hayley and Maya and her boyfriend Chris. She is scared to tell people that she was the one who witnessed Khalil dying. She then gets in a fight with her friend Hayley because Hayley is on the officer’s side saying it was not his fault. Their other friend, Maya is on Starr’s side and believes Khalil is not to blame for this. I didn’t get to read the whole book but I sure want to next term.

By far this has been one of my favorite books that I have read because it tells an inspiring story about a young girl who sticks up for her community. So many emotions went through my head while reading this book; anger, sadness, and fear. When Khalil died it was devastating to see how Starr reacted to another one of her childhood best friends dying. I could never imagine the amount of emotion that Starr has had to overcome in her life. Knowing that this isn’t just fiction breaks my heart. Starr can really relate to so many people because she has been through so much in her life already. This book really does not sugar coat racism and shows really how bad it can get in some parts of the world.“When I was twelve, my parents had two talks with me. One was the usual birds and bees...The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me.”(20) Starr had the talk very early in her life to make sure she knew what to do which shows how dangerous Garden Heights can really be. I am sure so many people deal with this struggle on a daily basis. Whether we want to believe it or not, white police officers shooting innocent black men and women is more common than you think. I really want to continue reading this book because of how amazing this story truly was.

I recommend this book to anyone who has watched The Hate U Give as a movie and loved it. The plot is mostly the same but has a few parts that are different. Even though this book is very long you will enjoy all of it. “That’s not Khalil, I tell myself. Like it wasn’t Natasha.” (125) Starr has lost her two childhood best friends now and it just shows how strong she really is and that’s another reason I love this book. I also recommend this book to anyone who loves a good cry because the book will put you on an emotional roller coaster. One second is a happy romance, the next it’s a depressing scene.







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