The Hate U Give

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter lives between two worlds: Garden Heights, the poor, mostly Black neighborhood where she grew up, and Williamson Prep, the wealthy, mostly white school where she keeps that self carefully hidden. She has spent years code-switching between them — until one night forces the two worlds to collide.

Driving home from a party, Starr is the only witness when a white police officer pulls over her childhood best friend, Khalil, and shoots him dead. Unarmed, Khalil becomes a headline, a hashtag, and a symbol, and Starr becomes the one person who knows what really happened. As protests build and a grand jury convenes, she has to decide whether to stay silent and safe, or to speak — even as doing so puts her family, her friendships, and her own sense of self on the line.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas's award-winning debut is a powerful, deeply human story about grief, courage, community, and finding your voice in the face of injustice.