The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give is a young adult novel published in 2017 by the American author Angie Thomas. The book’s protagonist is a 16-year-old Black girl who witnesses a White police officer kill her friend. A New York Times bestseller, The Hate U Give won several awards, including the American Library Association’s William C. Morris Award for best debut and the Coretta Scott King Award for the best children’s novel by an African American author. The book appeared on the National Book Awards longlist for young adult literature, and it received a nomination for the Carnegie Medal in 2018. Due to its profanity and themes surrounding police brutality, The Hate U Give was also one of the top ten most-challenged books of 2017 and 2018, according to the American Library Association. In 2018, director George T. Tillman adapted the novel into a critically-acclaimed film of the same name.

Plot Summary

The narrator of The Hate U Give is 16-year-old Starr Carter. At the outset of the novel, Starr attends a party in her neighborhood, Garden Heights, which is a primarily Black, lower-income area. A few years before, after witnessing the murder of her friend Natasha in a drive-by shooting, Starr enrolled at Williamson Prep, a private school of mainly White, wealthy students. As a result, Starr feels out of touch with her Garden Heights community. At the party, she reconnects with childhood friend Khalil Harris. When a gang fight at the party results in gunfire, Starr and Khalil leave together in his car. Driving away, they discuss Tupac Shakur’s theory of THUG LIFE, an acronym which stands for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.” However, they are soon pulled over by a White police officer who claims Khalil has a broken taillight and proceeds to order him out of the car to search him. When Khalil moves to ask Starr if she is ok, the officer shoots him multiple times. Starr is the only witness.

Returning to school on Monday, Starr feels uncomfortable around her White boyfriend, Chris, who reminds her of the officer. She realizes that her classmates cannot understand what she went through, reinforcing how different she is from them. Starr’s uncle Carlos, who is also a police officer, encourages her to give her statement to the detectives investigating the shooting. Starr goes with her mother Lisa to do so but finds that the detectives frame her interview around Khalil and his connection to gangs and drug dealing. There are no questions about the police officer who shot him. Starr realizes their goal is to twist the story around to blame Khalil for his own murder.

At Khalil’s funeral, Starr meets the lawyer and activist April Ofrah who tells her that, as she suspected, the police will not charge the officer with a crime. Starr blames herself for not speaking out for Khalil in the media. At the funeral, King, the leader of the gang the King Lords, places a bandana on Khalil’s chest, suggesting he joined the gang. Lack of justice for Khalil’s death leads to protests and later riots in Garden Heights. Starr and her family worry about the store owned and operated by Maverick or “Mav,” her father. During this time, DeVante, a local boy around Starr’s age and a member of the King Lords, comes to Mav for help, as Mav successfully extricated himself from the gang life. Mav agrees to help, allowing DeVante to live with the family. When Mav learns that King wants DeVante dead, he sends DeVante to stay with Starr’s Uncle Carlos, a police officer.

Starr also has several altercations with her friend Hailey, who frequently says casually racist things to both her and Maya, an Asian American friend. Ultimately, Starr cuts off contact with Hailey, who refuses to admit any wrongdoing. Despite King’s attempts to intimidate her into silence, Starr testifies before a grand jury, which takes eight weeks to return a decision. They decide not to indict the police officer who shot Khalil. Angry, Starr goes with DeVante, Chris, and her half-brother Seven to the protests, which are reignited by the grand jury decision. They meet April Ofrah there, who persuades Starr to speak to the crowd.

After her speech, Starr throws a tear gas canister back at the police when they start gassing the crowd. The group then goes to Mav’s store to get milk to clear the tear gas from their eyes. While there, King and his gang try to burn the store down. Mav arrives just in time to save the group and tells the police that King is to blame, snitching on his old gang buddy. The neighborhood rallies around King, and DeVante agrees to snitch to the police, too, in order to keep King in jail. Even though the store is destroyed, the family resolves to rebuild. Starr feels closer to Chris now that he knows more about her family and neighborhood. She also vows to keep speaking up and being an activist in search of a better future for all.