“The Hate U Give” is Angie Thomas’ powerful premier novel. The book follows our main character, Starr.

Through Starr, Thomas masterfully portrays the struggle of being black in America right now. Starr experiences conflicting identities, as she navigates life in her majority white school to not really fitting in in the “ghetto."

The balance that she creates between these two worlds shatters when she witnesses her best friend’s life taken at the hands of police brutality. Not only does Starr begin to realize the racism she ignored in the past, but she must also try to speak out for her friend without breaking the perfect balance she had created for herself.

I believe this is a novel that every young black person should read.

Angie Thomas was able to fit into 444 pages what I have been experiencing my whole life. I relate so much to the main character, Starr. Though I did not grow up in the ghetto, I did always feel like I had to put on a certain personality for my (white) friends.

Even as a person of color, Angie Thomas made me aware of things I did or heard in my own life that I did not realize were very racist or insensitive.

As well, Angie Thomas can bring up the topic of police brutality in a way that I believe would make anyone, of any color, understand what it is like to be black in the 21^st century with emphasis on the negative portrayal of black people in the media. My favorite part overall is the fact that the illustration of Starr on the cover looks like me.

It feels good to feel represented in popular young adult literature, a genre that usually is not very diverse.