THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas. Balzer + Bray/Harper Collins Imprint, 2017. Read and reviewed by Jane Mack June 2022.
THE HATE U GIVE is set in Garden Heights, a black neighborhood where Starr Carter lives. It’s also where rival gangs King Lords and Garden Disciples continue their turf wars with guns and drugs, local shop owners struggle to help each other, and teenagers face all the normal challenges of unrelenting hormones and peer pressure in a hot pot that includes absent parents and extreme poverty.
Williamson Prep is a forty-five-minute drive away at Riverton Hills. Starr and her half-brother Seven attend this nearly-all-white prep school. Starr’s Uncle Carlos, a police officer, who is like a second father to Starr, lives in one of the gated communities.
The narrator, Starr Carter, is 16 years old, navigating life.
THE OPENING
Starr goes to a party in Garden Heights with Kenya. Kenya is Seven’s sister, by their mother; while Starr is Seven’s sister by their father. Kenya is the daughter of the King Lords leader, King himself. At the party, Kenya gives the stink eye to another girl because she’s dancing with Devante, whom Kenya likes. Starr is stressed by the situation. We learn that Starr is known as “Big Mav’s daughter who works at the store.” Starr doesn’t remember most of the teenagers in her community because her parents transferred her from the local public school to the white prep school in the suburbs when Starr was ten. She’d witnessed her friend Natasha killed in a gang shooting. Now she’s at a party that her parents don’t know about, feeling confused about her black identity.
Suddenly there’s shooting, and Starr is being pulled out of the chaos by an old friend, Khalil. He gets Starr into his car and they leave. They chat, about rap, about life. Khalil comes back to one of his favorite refrains from Tupac.
“…Tupac was the truth.”
“Yeah, twenty years ago.”
“Nah, even now….” He points at me, which means he’s about to go into one of his Khalil philosophical moments. “’Pac said Thug Life stood for ‘The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.’”
…
“…Meaning what society gives us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out. Get it?”
“Damn. Yeah.”
“See? Told you he was relevant.”
As Khalil continues on the drive back to her house, Starr ponders. She wonders what Khalil is doing to get money to have a car and hopes the rumors that he’s dealing drugs aren’t true. She knows his mother is a crack addict, and he always hated drugs.
THE INCITING INCIDENT
It’s not much later when Officer 115 stops them—a routine traffic stop, supposedly. Khalil gets out of the car, answers questions. Leans in to ask if Starr is okay. Officer 115 shoots and kills Khalil in front of Starr. His excuse-he thinks the hair brush in the side pocket of the car door is a gun. She watches him drop, the same way she saw her friend Natasha. She screams and jumps from the car. Officer 115 points the gun at her.
THE REACTIONS
Starr is traumatized. Her family is protective. Her mother immediately wants to move from Garden Heights. Uncle Carlos wants Starr to talk with the police, his brethren at the force. The same police department where One-Fifteen works. Big Mav, Starr’s daddy, wants to be strong, stay in Garden Heights, be the change for the better. He also wants to protect his family. The number one reaction of all of them is to keep Starr’s name out of the news, out of the gossip, to not identify her as the witness.
We see Khalil’s family up close, and feel the devastation of his death. His grandmother is battling cancer, and now won’t have his help, financially or with his younger siblings. His crackhead mother wants to come clean again, but grief denies her family support. Starr’s mother, Lisa, works at a clinic. She’s willing to arrange things.
We feel the destructive forces in the Carter family as the pressures mount. Lisa applies for a better-paying job and ramps up the pressure to leave Garden Heights. Mav, a former King Lord himself who spent time in prison, doesn’t trust Uncle Carlos and resents his attachment with his children. More determined than ever to stay, he works at his store, bringing Starr along. Seven decides not to go away to college, which upsets his father Big Mav. Seven thinks he has to stay and save his mother Iesha and his sisters Kenya and Lyric from King. Sekani, the youngest Carter boy, takes in the drama as normal.
Meanwhile, Garden Heights is alive with protest and anger, fueled by another cop killing a local teenager without justification. At Khalil’s funeral, the King Lords show up in their gang colors and place their colors on the casket. Starr is more upset than ever and confused about her friend Khalil. But she is equally sure he did not deserve to die.
The community agrees. Protests erupt. Organizers appear to try to unite and sustain the movement toward justice.
LIFE GOES ON
Starr and Seven still attend Williamson Prep, and put on their “white” personas. Starr refuses to join a ‘student protest’ set up as a pretext for getting out of classes. Her white friend Hailey gives her grief, tired of Starr’s concerns for racial justice. Her Asian friend Maya admits about some of the hurtful comments she’s been fielding from Hailey; she vows to close the gap and stand together. And Starr’s white boyfriend, Chris, tries to navigate the differences in cultures and continue his relationship with Starr without knowing the truth, that she was the witness.
Devante, the same teenager that Kenya likes, is a member of the King Lords and wants out. He seeks help from Big Mav, who agrees to help him. Suddenly Starr’s family is host to Devante. He’s moved to Uncle Carlos’ house and becomes part of the mix in Starr’s life, as she moves from home in Garden Heights to time in Riverton Hills and at Williamson Prep.
This is another amp up in the tensions of the Carters with King.
STARR’S DILEMMA
Starr can’t figure out what to do. She talks with the police but feels badgered. They have a narrative that isn’t the truth. She watches Officer One-Fifteen’s father on television talk about his son being a good man who just wanted to come home to his family-wife and children. Starr feels inexpressible anger as Khalil was a good teenager and they were just going home. And now Khalil would never have the chance to have a wife and children.
We experience the preparation for such horrors—instructions about what to do if stopped by the police. We hear the lessons from rap songs-THUG LIFE. And we get schooled in Malcolm X’s ten-point program.
Starr learns more and more about the interactions of those around her, including how and why Khalil got involved in dealing drugs.
Starr has to decide whether she wants to protect her identity and safety by continuing to conceal her role as a witness in Khalil’s death; or if she wants to try to effectuate justice and promote change for the better by speaking up. Neither option is without problems. If she chooses anonymity, she protects herself and family from the immediate impacts of blame, shame, and fame, but feels guilty for letting Khalil’s death go unavenged. If she chooses to speak up, she puts her own safety and that of her family’s in jeopardy.
STARR’S CHOICE
Starr meets with community activist and attorney, April Ofrah. She must appear before the grand jury although she tries to back out at the last minute.
Starr decides to speak, in shadow, on a television news interview arranged by April Ofrah. Her story incites more community action. Her story does not omit the King Lords and, although she doesn’t name King or his gang, it’s very clear who she’s talking about when she says Khalil was not a member but got roped into dealing their drugs to keep his mother from being killed by them. She has broken one of the basic codes of Garden Heights-not to snitch on King.
It also reveals her identity, even though she was not named and kept in shadow. Her boyfriend, Chris, recognized her rear view as she walked away on camera. They have a confrontation during prom—yes, teenage activities like prom still continue! Eventually, Starr’s Garden Heights identity and her Williamson Prep identities start to merge.
Others also figure out who she is and there is no going back.
THE BIG RIOT
While the community waits for the grand jury’s decision, King threatens revenge on the Carter family.
Waiting. They are waiting for the grand jury decision; and for King’s attack. Both take weeks.
Starr’s family moves to a nice, safe neighborhood, but Big Mav keeps the store in Garden Heights. Devante continues living with Uncle Carlos. Star continues seeing Chris.
Then, Devante goes missing. Recognizing King Lord gang punishment and fearing for his death, Seven looks for him. He catches up with Starr and Chris to help. They find Devante beaten to a pulp at King’s house. Seven’s mother Iesha, who is wife to King, discovers them inside the house, while King and the King Lords party in the back yard. Iesha acts tough and throws them all out, telling Devante to get out and stop bleeding on her rug, and for Seven to take his sisters Kenya and Lyric. Iesha goes back to the party and diverts King’s attention while they escape.
Seven finally realizes his mother has her ways of protecting them and he has to accept that she will sacrifice herself to another beating by King for his sake, and he can’t protect her.
As they drive in circles, the radio announcer comes on with the grand jury’s decision.
When it comes down, it exonerates Officer One-Fifteen by deciding that no criminal charges will be filed against him. Garden Heights goes wild with protests. Although Big Mav had appealed to the Garden Disciples and the neighboring gang of Cedar Grove King Lords to talk to their members to not loot and burn, the riots are bad.
RESOLUTION
Seven drives. Starr and Chris ride in the back. A night of riots. Starr goes up to the organizer’s place and accepts the bullhorn from April Ofrah. Starr’s voice. Tear gas. Starr throws the cannister back at the police. Riots and running.
Back in the car, Seven, Starr and Chris head to the store to protect it, but run out of gas. They finally get there. Get locked inside and the store is set on fire. Narrow escape. And then the whole street snitches on King and the King Lords.
It’s not justice for Khalil. It is a change for Garden Heights. And recognition for Starr that she has a voice she can use.
MY REACTIONS
This was one of the most difficult reads I’ve ever experienced. I took weeks to read this book—not because it’s long (it is); not because it’s particularly difficult (it isn’t). It took me a long time—not because the characters or story were bad (they are engaging and compelling!)
The reality that emanated from the pages was overwhelming. In the early parts of the book, I did not want to be a teenager trapped in Garden Heights, and yet that’s where Starr’s story took me. I did not want to face the trauma of seeing good friends killed. That’s where Starr’s story took me. The questions from the police infuriated me. I wanted to scream about the injustice. That’s where Starr’s story took me.
This is a YA novel, but not a fun read. This is not a comfortable book. The light moments, the teenage angst, the ordinary teenage or family fun moments (seeing parents who love each other and feeling embarrassed by it, for example) where woven into the story seamlessly. We get a tapestry of life that isn’t all bad, but the hate and injustice is so powerful that THUG LIFE message resonates. It is inescapable.