Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

12 reviews

klaraax's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5


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_ren's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The most refreshing writing style I have read in a while.

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lshorner's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book was absolutely amazing and so well written. I want to read it over and over again! Sooooooooo good!

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things100's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was an amazing book, I’m so glad I finally read this but this book also caused me so much anger and pain at what the main character had to experience
and how in the end the cop that murdered her friend was never found guilty
anyway this was an amazing book even tho it made me cry and I recommend everyone read it 

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bebidocrimes's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I have got to be more careful with grief-heavy books. I know I'm behind the trend with this one, but it is still as relevant as ever.

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gamora_zen1's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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ringamboa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0


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her_littleclouds's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I had to read this book for school and im so glad I did. It's extremely well written, and i genuinely couldn't stop reading this. Everybody should read this book, no excuses.

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grainjordan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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lectrixnoctis's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter goes between the poverty-stricken neighbourhood where she lives and the rich suburban prep school she visits. The awkward balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal gunfire of her youth best friend Khalil at the hands of a policeman. Khalil was defenceless.
Soon afterwards, his passing is a national title. Some are calling him a criminal,  even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the places in Khalil's name. Some policemen and the local drug lord try to threaten Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what went down that evening? And the only person alive who can explain that is our protagonist. 
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

"The Hate U Give" explores the link between race and identity as Starr tries to navigate the primarily black life of Garden Heights and the predominantly white world of Williamson Prep. Starr feels torn between her Garden Heights self and Williamson Prep self, and she switches her speech, mannerisms, and behaviours to fit whichever place she finds herself in. After Khalil's shooting, Starr is hesitant to speak about his death for panic that her white friends, Hailey and Maya, and her white boyfriend, Chris, will not understand everything that happens in her Garden Heights life. Starr feels concurrently "too black" to speak about Khalil's life and death with her fellow students but "too white" at home to stand up for her friend, mainly after Kenya challenges Starr of behaving like a white person who thinks herself better than her neighbours.

Starr's personality conflict is apparent in her father figures, Maverick and Uncle Carlos, who have varied perspectives on authentic blackness. Maverick pulls inspiration from the Black Power Movement and believes in a self-reliant blackness that uses existing constructions within black neighbourhoods to better circumstances. Maverick's philosophy explains why, throughout most of the novel, Maverick refuses to move his family from Garden Heights to a more protected area—he believes they should change their community from the inside. Besides his job as a police officer and house in a gated neighbourhood, Uncle Carlos represents absorption into white culture. Uncle Carlos thinks he can support black communities by using white organisations like the police force to battle gang violence. The endless argument between Maverick and Uncle Carlos highlights how tricky it is for Starr to settle her two worlds and find a way to honour her whole self.

"The Hate U Give" analyses how society uses stereotypes of black people to verify brutality and racism against them. These stereotypes shield white communities, such as the pupils at Starr's school, Williamson Prep, from reflecting upon systemic racism, perpetuating discrimination. We see this bias most clearly in how One-Fifteen justifies his murder of Khalil. The officer has no reason to think Khalil's hairbrush is a gun other than One-Fifteen's presumption that Khalil is a criminal because he is black. However, the broadcast media and many white characters endorse One-Fifteen's version of events because they protect law enforcement from accusations of racism by watching him. Uncle Carlos, Starr's black uncle on her mother's side, is on the same police force as One-Fifteen, also initially defends One-Fifteen's actions before realising he wrongly tried to defend the shooting of Khalil. The media disguises racism in One-Fifteen's efforts by portraying them as logical, and news coverage emphasises Khalil's alleged gang associates, preserving black boys' stereotyped as violent and dangerous. Hailey, Starr's Williamson Prep friend, settles that Khalil was nothing more than a thug upon hearing these rumours. The media circus surrounding Khalil's death shows how white media prioritises protecting law enforcement and perpetuating stereotypes over black lives.

This novel was written in the first person in the present tense. Moreover, it is written like it is happening in this day and age in our natural world.

Holding the traumatic events of "The Hate U Give" is the cyclical reality of racialised poverty, which Maverick describes to Starr during their conversation about Tupac's phrase "Thug Life." According to Tupac, public racism keeps black communities from the possibilities and sources needed for financial success, and poverty feeds on itself, affecting periods of black families. This cycle captures many of "The Hate U Give's" black characters into a situation where they cannot flee poverty without relying on the drug business, which is then used to decrease them as somebody in both life and death. Maverick was born to a drug dealer and joined a gang to create some feeling of protection. Due to the difficulties created by poverty, Khalil marketed drugs to pay off his mother's bill. DeVante explains to Starr—who is initially confused about how Khalil could sell the same "medicines" ruining his mother's life—that Khalil felt compelled to provide for his family and could not find a more suitable alternative. Through Starr's hollowing understanding of racialised poverty, we see how this intergenerational cycle is hard to break because black neighbourhoods, like Garden Heights, do not have adequate access to sources such as education, employment, and protection from police brutality.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I did not think that I would appreciate it as much, but let me tell you, this is everything you need to read about a fiction book that is a place in the real world. I have laughed because of this book, but I also have cried; it is exceptionally well. You feel connected with the characters. For me, a white girl in Germany, I especially adored the insides given to me by seeing the other side and feeling with the black characters.
Moreover, I enjoyed that the book felt realistic. It is so hard to imagine that a teenager dies because of a hairbrush. Although the ending was sad, I thought it was the best ending the book could have since this is a path from reality which is unfortunate that black people die in the white cop stays alive and free.

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