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 novel 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 received a nomination for the Carnegie Medal in 2018. Also in 2018, director George T. Tillman adapted the novel into a critically acclaimed film of the same name.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of racism, police brutality and racial profiling, murder, addiction, drug-dealing, and gang-related violence.

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 that stands for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.” However, they are soon pulled over by a white police officer who claims that Khalil has a broken taillight and proceeds to order him out of the car to search him. When Khalil moves to check on Starr, the officer shoots him multiple times, killing him. 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 the ways in which she is different 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 that the detectives’ 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 confirms that 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 a gang called the King Lords, places a bandana on Khalil’s chest, suggesting that Khalil joined the gang. The lack of justice for Khalil’s death leads to protests and later riots in Garden Heights. Starr and her family worry about their store, which her father, Maverick or “Mav,” owns and operates. 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 has already successfully extricated himself from this same gang. Mav agrees to help and allows DeVante to live with the family. When Mav learns that King wants DeVante dead, he sends DeVante to stay with Starr’s Uncle Carlos.

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 to 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, the police throw tear gas canisters at the crowd, and Starr throws one back at the police. The group then goes to Mav’s store to get milk to clear the tear gas from their eyes. While they are there, King and his gang try to burn the store down. Mav arrives just in time to save Starr and her 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 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 everyone.