Author : Angie Thomas
Publisher : Walker Books.
Genre : YA, contemporary
My ratings : 4.5 stars
Goodreads bio : Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. 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. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
Set up in the United States of America, THUG is a debut novel of Angie Thomas, which has gained an enormous amount of praise as well as success. Firstly I would like to thank the author for writing such a brilliant and powerful book and I appropriate beyond words, the amount of research and hard-work she has done to finally establish this amazing piece of contemporary fiction. I also came to know that this book is inspired by the Black lives matter movement.
I really enjoy reading female oriented books, portraying strong, independent and influential character and I feel like Starr without a doubt matches the criteria.
“Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.”
The story is about this teenage girl named Starr, who is living two lives. Needless to mention, she is black and her neighborhood is not kind of exclusive while her school is at this posh area. Starr constantly tries to maintain a balance between both to prevent it from getting intertwined. But she is definitely not ashamed of who she is or rather she is proud of her background.
“I can’t change where I come from or what I’ve been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?”
The story takes pace when one night her childhood friend Khalil (who is also black) get killed out of nowhere by a white police officer and Starr is the only witness of the whole situation. On the police officer’s defense, Khalil seemed to be a threat to him which is so stupidly absurd. He assumed that Khalil was trying to get hold of a gun.
The rest of the story is about Starr’s struggle to get justice for Khalil. She did not gave up and the ending is really heart breaking (not giving away spoilers). There is a constant struggle between both the lives she’s living and that makes Starr a very strong character.
I loved the family dynamics of this book. This is one of those books where the family members might not get along but they are there protecting each other in their worst. Her family supported her a lot even her white boyfriend who is a very sweet person, never giving up on Starr.
Another character I liked was Starr’s dad who has his flaws but it’s hard to hate him as a character because that’s the magic of Angie’s writing. She portrayed most characters with diversity. They have their flaws but you won’t end up hating them for it.
“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”
Starr has a couple of friends and they have their differences. There’s broken friendship and the fact that you can let someone go when it’s high time and it doesn’t make you a bad person is just so relatable.
Another important things shown in this book is the power of social media. Starr has her pinterest account where she starts her struggle gains a lot of support eventually. She raised her voice which eventually started a movement.
“That’s the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
This book is strong slap to all the racist people out there. Not every white people are evil just like not every black people are either! So someone shouldn’t be categorized or judged according to their caste, color or creed.
This book is mainly about raising your own voice and saying what is wrong and what isn’t out loud, make it matter and fight for it till the very end. It has a special message to give to the people who are unaware of all that’s happening int his world. So when I closed this book it made me furious and determined. I liked how Angie kept the ending or else it would have been too predictable.
“Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug.
He lived, but not nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life I’ll remember how he died.
Fairy tale? No. But I’m not giving up on a better ending.”
Don't forget to follow me on
Instagram - fict.scoop
Twitter - Fictscoop
Fictscoop 