Book Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Book Title & Author: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Published by: Balzer + Bray on February 28th, 2017
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 444
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
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Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Review:
I will never be able to explain why it took me so long to read this book and why my own mother read it way before I did. This is a book that will sit with you for a very long time, I know it will sit with me forever. It ripped out my heart from the very beginning and despite me taking over 3 months to finish it, it still hits me. Right in the heart. This is one of those times where I know I took a long time to read this book, but I'm so glad I finished it.

I knew this book was going to be a tough read, but I definitely underestimated how tough it was. From the minute Khalil is shot and I start sobbing, I knew this book was going to hurt, and holy moly did it hurt. 

But then, there was Starr. Oh my god. I just loved her voice. She was grieving not only the fact that her friend was dead, but also that a white cop had seen him as a threat and had killed him because he felt afraid. No other reason. Just "he was afraid" It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why he was afraid. It was the simple reason that Khalil (and Starr) were black. No other reason. That just about shattered me. I know racism is still alive and well in this country, but I had never read a book that outlined it so clearly. Massive kudos to Thomas for how clearly she wrote it.

Starr is backed by her family, who I really liked. From her mom and dad to her brothers Seven & Sekani. Starr's strong family unit was really one of my favorite things about this book. Her parents were around & present in her life and in the lives of her brothers. I read too much YA where the family is completely uninvolved. Not only do we get a strong nuclear family in this book, but we also get an aunt & uncle who are also very involved in the lives of their niece & nephews. Starr having her uncle Carlos around reminded me of how I've always had my uncle around.

Starr also had Hailey & Maya around at school. One of them bugged me more than the other one did and the one who bugged me the least actually ended up redeeming herself by the end of the book. They were pretty irritating about the whole thing at first though. Treating a protest day as just a "free day off from school" They didn't seem to care one little bit about why they had that protest and instead thought only of themselves.

Chris was another one I wasn't sure of at first, but he quickly grew on me and by the end I really loved him. Loved how he treated Starr, dealt with her family and generally stayed in her corner 100% He was one of those good guys who understood the reasons for the outrage & the protests and Starr's grief. 

There's so much more I could say about this book. From Iesha to DeVante to Kenya to the King Lords and everything else in between. There's a lot to talk about in regards to this book and it just gets more and more relevant to our world now.

Final thoughts: Read this book.

Book Review: White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig
Published by: Feiwel & Friends on April 24th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to "talk." Things couldn’t get much worse, right?

But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying.

Review:
I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I was expecting to really enjoy it, just like I did Roehrig's debut. I was expecting a crazy-pants storyline that offered lots of "what the hell" moments. So, in those respects, I got exactly what I was expecting. I really enjoyed this book and it had an insanely crazy storyline. I didn't remember at what point, but I remember saying (and tweeting) that "I wanted to live inside Roehrig's head because it had to be wild in there for him to come up with this level of mind-fuckery"

Because there was a whole lot of insanity in this book. From April, Rufus's half sister to Hayden, Rufus's half brother, to Rufus's ex, Sebastian and all the other players in between them. Fox, Peyton, Race, Arlo, Lars, Lia, Isabel & Peter. This book had it all. Romance, mystery, complicated families, the whole shebang. Finally someone else had pretty close to my level of complicated family. Complex families are my jam and Rufus, his mom, April & Hayden and their parents finally gave me a family that resembles my own.

I don't know of a lot of people who would willingly drive all over the place at night for their ex, including myself. So either Sebastian has no backbone or I'm a jerk. I'm leaning towards the latter now that I think about it. Sebastian clearly wanted to make things right between Rufus and himself and I admired him for that. Especially when we got some backstory to their relationship. I did enjoy their romance, but the romance in Roehrig's debut, Last Seen Leaving, was my favorite of the two.

I was curious about why Rufus was so willing to clear April's name too. It just didn't make sense to me. They didn't really know each other all that well and April has a full brother that she could go to for help. Never mind that Hayden is a psychopath...actually, that's probably why April went to Rufus instead. That and she had something Rufus desperately needed. That same something ended up being tripled once a certain other person became involved.

I don't think I've ever read a book that took place in one night. Or maybe I have and I just cannot remember? I love unique storytelling and the whole "everything happened in one night" is one of those underused ways of storytelling. There needs to be more of these.

Final thoughts: This book was equally as good as Roehrig's debut, despite me not liking the romance quite as much. If you like dark contemporaries, then you need to pick this one up.