The Hate You Give: Angie Thomas | Spoiler-Free Review | Faith

I'm going to start this review off by saying that I am absolutely thrilled that it has been receiving so much praise. I am also thrilled, that is a #1 NYT Best seller. Not to mention that it has also already been adapted into a film. That being said, I would like to point out a few things. I was straying away from this book really because I don't like reading hyped books because in the end I find that I can be left disappointed. The next thing, diverse books are very important to me. And I do not really go out of my way to read said diverse books. The fact that this book is written by a woman of colour and that it tells such an important story and has an impactful message---that is the reason why I picked this up. Not because it's a popular book.

I had been wanting to read this book ever since I heard it was coming out, and that was a while before it was published and became widely popular. I often get turned off by popular books because in certain cases---it can be over-hyped. I'm not here to say that this is the case with The Hate you Give, but at the end of the day... No book is perfect. Every book I deem to be "perfect", I know that it has flaws just like everything in this world. Now, was I disappointed with this book? Hell no. Now, did this book meet my expectations? In a way, yes.

This book's strong point is most definitely the story, the characters and the message. I went into this book expecting to see some raw and real stuff, and that is exactly what I saw in this book. Within the first couple of chapters, my heart felt like it was aching. There is no beating around the bush---It gets straight to the point.

I think the story itself reflected reality really well.

Putting the fact that this is a very impactful and realistic book. The entire dynamic between the characters, I found to be realistic as well. In my opinion, the fact that this book was so realistic, I think that it can allow readers to really invest themselves in the characters, and the story. 

Pointing out the fact that it was pretty realistic, the realism did shape the writing of the novel itself. While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I did find that the writing style wasn't exactly absolutely fantastic. In various points of the book I found that I wasn't really gripped by the writing. The only thing that was really pulling me through the book was the story, which is obviously not a terrible thing. In the end, the writing itself fell a little flat.

Another aspect of the book that I found to be a little flat was the pacing. The chapters ran a little long for me at some points. That was another aspect of the book that pulled me out of the story a little.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. No, it wasn't my absolute favourite book in the entire world. What I love most about this is that it has a meaning behind it---there is a message. For me, I didn't love the structure of the novel itself but I still enjoyed it. I would rate it a 3.5/5 stars.