Staff Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas has been one of the most highly anticipated debut novels of 2017, and it's a YA novel at that. Don't let that deter you from reading it, though, because it has a powerful message that everyone should hear. This novel has been billed as "inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement" and comes out of the We Need Diverse Books and #OwnVoices campaigns. It's timely and relatable; in turns funny and sad.

16 year old Starr Carter lives a double life. Half of her time is spent in her mostly white, rich, suburban private school, and the other half is spent in the poor, black neighborhood she grew up in. Her friends from school (especially her white boyfriend, Chris) will never truly understand her family or the people from her neighborhood, so she keeps them separate. Starr thinks she has found balance between these two lives, until she witnesses her childhood friend Khalil being fatally shot by a police officer. Everyone wants to know what really happened that night, and Starr is the only person who can tell that story.

As the case becomes a national headline, the pressure is on Starr. She has to decide between doing what's right by Khalil, and keeping herself and her family safe. Her feelings about her neighborhood, the police force, and her friends at school, are all challenged.

I loved this book. It didn't feel like a lecture about compassion, but the message came across just the same. Personally, this was the best YA book I've read so far this year, and I don't think anything is going to top it. As a reader, you relate to Starr no matter what your skin color is, or where you grew up. Starr is real; she is someone you want to be friends with. Even the side characters like Starr's boyfriend Chris, her police detective Uncle Carlos, her friend Kenya, and Starr's parents are all fully realized characters. Thomas's writing is masterful.

John Green had this to say about The Hate U Give: “Angie Thomas has written a stunning, brilliant, gut-wrenching novel that will be remembered as a classic of our time.”

I couldn't agree more.

-Libby, Youth Services

If you like The Hate U Give, check out:

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
Black and White by Paul Volponi
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Rest in Power by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

Follow Angie Thomas on twitter!

#ComicsWednesday: Mooncop by Tom Gauld

Someone probably already said this, but Mooncop by Tom Gauld is The Little Prince of our times.

Like The Little Prince, this new, tiny book is elegant and beautiful. It expresses in a few short pages what it means to be human, not only in an imagined future where we fly through space and colonize the moon, but in the present, at this very moment.

Mooncop is sad and lovely. Don't let it slip by!

~Mike, Adult Services

Staff Review: Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler is not the sort of book I normally read, but my daughter works in the restaurant business, so we decided to read it together. She read a paper copy and I listened to audio. This novel earned its young debut-author a six-figure advance but it's meeting with mixed reviews; critics are swooning but readers aren't so smitten: on Goodreads, they're more inclined to three stars.

Sweetbitter tells the story of Tess, a 22-year-old Midwesterner who, in 2006, leaves home to move, solo, to New York City, where she quickly lands a back-waiter position at one of New York's most prestigious restaurants (a loosely disguised Union Square Café).

What follows is the narrative of her exhilarating, heartbreaking, exhausting, energizing new life. There's a great deal of food and wine talk, lots and lots of drugs, and a generous helping of sex. Foodies will enjoy the book for the truffles, figs, and oysters alone. It's the alcohol- and drug-fueled decadence that seems to turn some readers off, but my daughter confirms that the lifestyle Danler depicts is spot-on for many in the industry.

Sweetbitter looks, and occasionally reads, like a nice bit of fluff, but the novel is more than a beach book. It's got some meat on its bones. For one thing, Danler can write and she has a wonderful eye for the telling detail, whether it's the look, smell, and feel of a rapidly altering New York City or the devastating after-effects of an over-the-top binge. The rigors of restaurant work are nicely drawn too, and we get a genuine feel for staff camaraderie, liaisons, and clashes, the flawless nights of almost-choreographed service and the nights that are slapstick fiascos.

I found the book's ending to be something of a disappointment. That aside, what impressed me most about the book is the author's psychological acuity. She describes her character's loneliness in the vast, churning city, or her sudden recognition of the shallowness of her staff friendships, and the reader feels these things too. For all her callow youth, Tess's observations are often wise beyond her years and it's a testament to the author that they so often ring true.

Audio Notes: the audiobook narrator takes a little getting used to --  her voice is husky, characterized by what reviewers call "vocal fry," but once I adjusted, I enjoyed her nuanced reading. She's great with accents too and has some fun with southern, Bronx, and heavy Russian ones. 

~Ann, Adult Services