In the past few years, YA has grown massively as a genre of its own. It’s so important for teenagers and young adults in SO many ways, and I’ve slowly filled up almost my entire bookshelf with YA books.
But here’s the thing: while all YA books are important in their own right, there are certain books that are so important that everybody needs to read them. Two of those books are The Hate U Give and On the Come Up, both by Angie Thomas.
I’m going to write short snippet reviews of both of these books, and I’ll quickly explain why they’re so important and why I think everybody should read them!
The Hate U Give
Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.
The Hate U Give is one of those books that took me a while to get around to reading, for no particular reason. It was released a couple of years before I picked it up, and then once I did, it sat on my shelf for ages. I can’t remember why I decided to read it, but I’m glad I did!
THUG made me a lot more aware of the issues surrounding race, especially in neighbourhoods like Garden Heights, the fictional town featured in the book. It made me start researching people like Tupac Shakur and Emmett Till to find out more about them, because although they’re names I’ve heard, I realised I don’t know very much at all about their history and why their stories are so important.
The book deals with universal themes surrounding race and class divides, as well as very topical themes such as innocent black teenagers being shot by white police. The story focuses in very real characters who live through some situations that for some might seem unimaginable, but for them, it’s their reality every single day.
I talked more about The Hate U Give in this video about YA books I think everybody needs to read, so head over and watch that if you want to hear more of my thoughts.
On the Come Up
The award-winning author of The Hate U Give returns with a powerful story about hip hop, freedom of speech – and fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you. Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill. But when her first song goes viral for all the wrong reasons, Bri finds herself at the centre of controversy and portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. And with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it – she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be.
Before reading On the Come Up, I seemed the see the same unanimous opinion: it wasn’t as good as The Hate U Give. I received a proof copy of this from Walker Books, and I was so excited to read it myself. I realised, as I flew through the book in a matter of days, that I didn’t agree with everyone else: I thought On the Come Up was just as good as THUG, and I enjoyed it even more.
The story takes place within the same town as THUG, and Khalil – the teenager shot by the police in THUG – was mentioned throughout. It was interesting to see someone else from the town and how things have changed since the events in the previous book, and I loved finding out about Bri, her family, and her story.
I’m not particularly sure why I enjoyed this one more than THUG, but I seemed to be so invested in the story. Maybe it’s because I read THUG when I was distracted and in a reading slump, so it took me a while to read. Maybe if I read it again, I’ll get a different experience. I just know that I massively enjoyed both of these books, and I’ll definitely be reading them again.
So why are these books so important? For people like me – a.k.a. white people who have never experienced or even lived near places that deal with prominent race issues on a regular basis – it’s vital that books like this are accessible so that we can read and understand the issues.
They’re also important for people who are within the communities written about in the books to feel like they’re finally seen, heard, and represented accurately in hugely popular books. For some people, seeing themselves represented in stories that are held in the hands of millions of people – can be the difference between staying in the shadows, or building up the bravery to step out, stand up, and make a difference.
About Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. The Hate U Give was her debut novel, and both of her novels still sit at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list.
