Is The Hate U Give Worth Reading?
by Angie Thomas
Ada’s Score
Starr Carter's voice hits immediately — conversational, sharp, carrying the full weight of code-switching between her Black neighbourhood and her predominantly white prep school. Angie Thomas structures this novel around a single act of violence and its expanding consequences, using Starr's first-person narration to hold grief, fury, and tenderness in the same breath. The prose is unadorned but precise, and that plainness is strategic: it refuses to aestheticise tragedy. Where the novel excels is in its domestic texture — Starr's family feels genuinely inhabited. It resonates most for those willing to sit with moral complexity rather than resolution.
Spotlight“Starr's journey from silence to speaking out changed how I think about courage. This book started conversations I didn't know I needed to have. 💪”
Finding Your Voice When Two Worlds Collide
There's a moment early in this book where Starr Carter stands between two worlds — her Black neighborhood and her mostly-white prep school — and I felt the weight of that impossible balancing act settle into my chest and stay there. Angie Thomas writes with a voice so alive and immediate that the grief never feels performed; it feels witnessed. I finished it hollowed out in the best way, the kind of hollowed out that means something true got through.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Starr's journey from silence to speaking out changed how I think about courage. This book started conversations I didn't know I needed to have. 💪”
Finding Your Voice When Two Worlds Collide
There's a moment early in this book where Starr Carter stands between two worlds — her Black neighborhood and her mostly-white prep school — and I felt the weight of that impossible balancing act settle into my chest and stay there. Angie Thomas writes with a voice so alive and immediate that the grief never feels performed; it feels witnessed. I finished it hollowed out in the best way, the kind of hollowed out that means something true got through.
Ada’s reservations
Starr's voice is electric, but the supporting cast runs on archetypes—the rich white boyfriend, the gangbanger uncle. The didactic stretches flatten characters into lesson-delivery devices.
Ada’s score reflects both strengths and reservations.
Book Details
- Publisher
- Balzer + Bray
- Published
- January 1, 2022
- Pages
- 480
- Language
- ENG
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Affiliate linksISBN: 9780062498540
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Ada’s Score
4.55
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About The Hate U Give
- Is The Hate U Give worth reading?
- Starr's journey from silence to speaking out changed how I think about courage. This book started conversations I didn't know I needed to have. 💪. Ada rates it 4.5 out of 5.
- What are the main weaknesses of The Hate U Give?
- Starr's voice is electric, but the supporting cast runs on archetypes—the rich white boyfriend, the gangbanger uncle. The didactic stretches flatten characters into lesson-delivery devices.
- How many pages is The Hate U Give?
- The Hate U Give is 480 pages long — around 8–9 hours at an average reading pace.
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