The Hate U Give

Literary fiction

First published: 2017
Print length: 480 pagesBalzer + Bray, 2022

Description

Starr Carter is a Black sixteen-year-old who moves each day between Garden Heights, her poor home neighborhood, and an affluent, predominantly white private school. That uneasy balance breaks when she witnesses a white police officer kill Khalil, her childhood friend, during a traffic stop. Starr is the crucial witness, but keeping her identity secret strains her and deepens the divide between her two social worlds. Meanwhile, news coverage casts suspicion on Khalil while treating the officer more sympathetically, turning a personal loss into a public battle over whose story will be believed. As pressure builds for Starr to speak, the novel connects grief and fear with police violence, code-switching, protest, and the difficult work of finding a public voice.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Dark · Earnest · Intimate · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Plot · Relationships

Emotional intensity

5 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

BelongingGriefIdentityJusticePowerRace and racism

About Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas writes young adult and middle grade fiction that places Black young people at the center of stories about voice, family, ambition, and public pressure. Her prose is direct, conversational, and driven by dialogue, while her plots build through relationships and consequential decisions. She often gives a large public conflict a sharply personal point of entry. In The Hate U Give, police violence, racism, protest, and hostile news coverage are filtered through Starr Carter, a teenage witness moving between her neighborhood and a predominantly white private school. Garden Heights also anchors On the Come Up and Concrete Rose. The former follows Bri’s pursuit of a rap career as sudden attention complicates her freedom to speak, while the latter turns to Maverick Carter’s effort to balance fatherhood, school, and gang expectations. Thomas has widened her range through the interlinked romances of Blackout and the middle grade Nic Blake novels.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Language: English
ISBN: 9780062498540

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