Grant was rushed to the Highland Hospital but was pronounced dead later in the day. While in a prone position, Grant was shot in the back by Mehserle. Unarmed, Grant was kneed in the head and was forced to lie face down on the Fruitvale BART Station platform. The BART Police Officers were responding to reports of a fight on a Bay Area Rapid Train returning from San Francisco. I’m really looking forward to the movie version as well.In the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009, 22-year-old African-American Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a BART Police Officer, Johannes Mehserle, in Oakland, California. I’m so glad that I finally read The Hate U Give, and will be pushing it on my family and friends. Where it really excels is by showing us, through the power of fiction, what the lives behind the headlines look like, and how the victim of violence is too often labeled a thug or a criminal when what truly matters is the person’s life being unjustly ended. The entire book is engaging and impossible to put down. Main character Starr leads us through her double life, letting us see the conflicts she faces on a daily basis as she tries to navigate her neighborhood and her school. It’s an eye-opening, upsetting, deeply human look at the costs of violence, prejudice, and brutality. The Hate U Give is a raw, unfiltered look inside a life and a world that people of privilege never see.

Now that I’ve finally read the book, I can add my voice to the raves and say with certainty that all the praise is absolutely deserved. Released early in 2017, The Hate U Give has generated a tremendous amount of buzz, has been nominated for and won numerous literary awards, and won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Young Adult Fiction and Debut Author. I don’t think there’s anything I can say about The Hate U Give that hasn’t already been said. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.īut what Starr does or does not say could upend her community.

Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. “Take a Peek” book reviews are short and (possibly) sweet, keeping the commentary brief and providing a little peek at what the book’s about and what I thought.

The hate you give book genre