Police brutality is a controversial topic and I picked up this book because I heard a lot of praise of it. I couldn’t have predicted how hard-hitting this book would be, not only with the importance of the story, but the way it was coveyed. Some say it will become a classic, I can only hope so.
Synopsis
Starr (sixteen year old girl) witnesses her best friend Khalil get murdered by a police officer, she’s the only one in the car with him, making her the only witness. The murder makes national headlines and protests erupt. Starr is trying to lay low, but there’s divide in her mostly white private school along with her poorer neighbourhood, some druglord is after her family because they interefered and she has to deal with a more and more hostile police.
My thoughts
the writing
The writing is straight-forward, the cleverness of the banter and dialogue balances out some of the darker side of the story. It makes it seem realistic and relatable, however surreal (or too real) the story is. It’s well written and pretty straight-forward, making it easier to follow for more people. I’m not american, I can’t vouch for accuracy or much of anything, but I loved the community aspect of the story, it’s one of many good ones.
i love this book but
I did a horrible thing and looked at the reviews on goodreads. This book has gotten a lot of praise, but the first review in my feed argumented how wrong to point out a “white cop killed her”, that this book enforced “white-guilt” and that a person should be judged on their actions so “why does skin-color matter” in reference to police killing black kids. To those who think this is some “pc bs”; the whole thing about this book and the characters in it is that they say stupid and ignorant things, both black and white people and eventually they all learn. Well, most of them do, some kills kids. Starr’s father disapproves of her white boyfriend, at first. Everyone have their own problems and prejudices here. It’s just when they’re not a police officer pointing a gun at a teenager, their prejudices doesn’t mean life or death in that moment. Don’t people see the difference? That kind of ignorance is predicted and talked about in the damn book, in a conversation between Starr and one of her private school friends.
so…
We need more of these books, that’s what I’m getting from all this. I hope the author gets all the praise and love she deserves for putting this out there. Would recommend it to everyone, despite your political opinion of preferred genre.
aquapages 