Starr lives in the ghetto. She knows it and she’s proud of it. The problem is, she can’t be proud of it at Williamson. Her white school. To help with that, Starr has created two versions of herself – Williamson Starr and ghetto Starr. Every day she has to hide who she truly is at school until it becomes too confusing and Starr isn’t sure who she is. Then something happens that forces Starr to find out who she truly is and how brave she is, deep inside. One night, as she’s driving home from a party, she and her friend Khalil get pulled over. Starr goes home hysterical over Khalil who had just been killed by Officer 115.
As Starr starts to come to her senses, she realizes how wrong what happened was. Khalil had been doing nothing wrong. She finally concludes that the only thing he had done was to be black. Starr is outraged and is soon approached by a local lawyer who wants to help Starr as the incident is being investigated. With everything falling apart both at Williamson and at home, Starr hopes for the best with the cop. However, when the grand jury doesn’t indict Officer 115, Starr discovers how much strength it takes to speak up and fight for everything she believes in.
The Hate U Give is a thought-provoking novel about the cruelty and racism still in the world today. This book will open your eyes to things you’ve never even seen before and make you think about the differences that separate us today – after all, are we all that different? Reading this book will make you fall in love with Starr and her inner strength. Angie Thomas has written a truly inspirational book that will have everyone fighting back.