Alina's Reviews > The Hate U Give

The book was the first book about Black that I read. Before reading, I was a lot worried about the book because it was so thick and there were so many words and slangs I haven’t even heard about them before. But I tried to read the book deeply and finally I found out lots of impressive parts in the book. While reading, I totally felt like I were Starr and I got shocked and mad just as she did. The book-THUG-was really challenging for me and it took long time to read the book but I think it’s really worthy to read this.
The best benefit of reading THUG is that I could think of various social issues. The one was about ‘media’. I could think very deeply about the power of media and how we should treat it. In the story, there was a scene about a TV program, having interview with dad of the Officer One-Fifteen, the cop who killed Khalil. He talked that the officer One-Fifteen loved working in the neighborhood and he always wanted to make the difference in the lives there. And when the man talked about his son, the TV program showed the pictures of Garden Heights, how dangerous and dirty neighborhood it is. While Starr saw the picture, she mentioned that it must be the worst part of her neighborhood. When I read this part, I realized how strongly the media could lead people to think as it wants to make. It is true that the Garden Heights has some parts like the picture, but it’s a very small part. If the media was on the Khalil’s side, they wouldn’t show that kind of picture on the program, but they would show the normal, and average one. By showing the worst part of the neighborhood, the media could lead people to think the Officer is a victim and Khalil was just a drug dealer who had lived in a ghetto. Eventually, the media decides which side it would support, and therefore it made the public statement and it influences which side will be the winner.
This book was very impressive for me to get to know some parts of black lives, and the hurts they have. But I think the story was developed in too dramatic way. I guess it was also one of the author’s intention and the message. But ‘death’ appeared on a scene too early, as I felt, so it made me feel too heavy to read the book. And the each chapter was so long that it took too much time to read every single chapter and as a result it made me feel the story less interesting.