The hate U give by Angie Thomas
This debut novel is a real gem - made into a movie 2018 but I really recommend the book!
Starr Carter is the star of this novel. A teenage girl who grows up in the hood, but with hard working parents who want to create a better future for their kids.
Her father is a widely respected ex-gang member who has done time for the gang leader and because of that is allowed to step out of the gang. He now runs a corner store which is essential to the neighborhood. This is the only place to buy food for many of the people who live here.
The store owners look out for eachother, as people do when they need eachother to survive.
Starr's mama is a nurse and her uncle is a cop who movd into the suburbs and is juggling his profession with his background and the solidairty with his family.
Starr Carter is the star of this novel. A teenage girl who grows up in the hood, but with hard working parents who want to create a better future for their kids.
Her father is a widely respected ex-gang member who has done time for the gang leader and because of that is allowed to step out of the gang. He now runs a corner store which is essential to the neighborhood. This is the only place to buy food for many of the people who live here.
The store owners look out for eachother, as people do when they need eachother to survive.
Starr's mama is a nurse and her uncle is a cop who movd into the suburbs and is juggling his profession with his background and the solidairty with his family.
Starr's mom and dad have put her and her brothers into a private school miles away from where they live and in a whole different reality. Here, she has her two best friends in the basketball team; she gets a certain coolness just because of her complexion, and she is dating a kindhearted and very rich white boy.
Early in the book something happens that sets things in motion that Starr cannot control.
It becomes more and more difficult for her to handle the huge divide between her two worlds.
The neighborhood is boiling with racial tension and people are fed up with yet another young black man getting shot by a white police man and no justice is to be seen.
The dialogue is fast, convincing and the characters are easy to get to know and like.
I really like that the perspective is Starr's all the way through. It is heartachingly real and very very good. Read it!