Hardcover, 360 pages
Release Date: January 12, 2021
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Read from: January 14-22, 2021
The Hate U Give, #0.5
Source: Bought
TW: Drugs (Selling & Mention of Users), Parent in prison
For fans of: Contemporary, Own Voices, Racial/ Ethnic Diversity, Realistic Fiction, Family Diversity, YAInternational phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.
If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.
Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.
Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.
Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.
When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Just like I said in “pre-review” on Goodreads, Angie Thomas can do no wrong. Not gonna lie, it read like a movie. I cringed when they did something stupid, I laughed when something was funny, and I was happy when it seemed they were. Definitely saw some of the Mav I saw in THUG.
“Everybody gon have an opinion bout how you do things what I always tell you? Living your life based off what other people thing–.” “Ain’t living at all,” I finish.”pg. 44
The son of a gang leader, Mav knows his biggest responsibility is taking care of his family. How? By dealing with the King Lords, the guys his dad left behind when he landed in prison. He’s got everything he wants: a girl he loves (but won’t say), best friends in the King Lords, and a cousin who’s more like his brother. But then he finds out he’s a father. And things begin to get out of hand. He has a kid that depends on him, he’s still in school, and his job, which is to sling drugs. Can Mav survive the streets and the child who needs him to?
“Don’t throw something on your son.” Pop goes on. “Give him a name that tells him who he is and who he can be. The world’s gon try to do that enough.”pg. 45
I was a bit worried about this because I doubted it would show the Mav that I loved from THUG. But because Thomas is a beast, it showed him and so much more. The characters and family dynamic in this were still just as amazing as THUG. I loved Faye (Momma Mav)! She showed why Mav grew up to sound like he did. Looking at the Mav in the future, he got some of both his mom and his dad in him, even though in this book he hadn’t really seen his dad in a decade. I also really liked Mav as a main character. It was an interesting concept to see a book about a teen father instead of a teen mom. I saw some of the same things Mav did when I worked at one of the libraries I used to work at. There was one teen dad there who had a kid that used to try making his money by dancing on the corner. He did anything he could to support his kid. I remember he also did many of the other things Mav did as well.
“…Shawn, Dre, and them looking out for you?” […] “Yeah, sometimes they do it too much.” “No such thing. Be glad somebody got your back. You may not always be so lucky.”pg. 46
As some of y’all may know, I’m not a huge fan of drugs in books. It was because of this that I almost DNF’ed this. But after reading it and seeing that the teens weren’t actually using it and it wasn’t showing anyone really using it, I felt a bit better. So if anyone is like me and has reservations, there are a few instances where they are smoking, but it’s easy to skip those scenes like I did. Just read the dialogue and you should be fine.
“All parents have their moments.”pg. 76
Growing up on MLK in my town, I related to a lot of the things happening in the Garden. (IYK about MLK then YK) The things they went through were real things that I remember happening back in the day to my friends. Which is why I loved this. I don’t know how many times to say this: Own Voices is a real thing. I’m sure the things discussed in this book are still going on now even though it’s 2021. But I love that Angie always gives them an alternative.
“The Garden take somebody from everybody, and we still go hard for it, I guess it’s cause it’s all we know.”pg. 51
Lastly, I LOVED all the Easter eggs and the 90’s references. It was cute and they took me back to my childhood! (I grew up in the 90’s) It was fun to pick out all the things that made this a 90’s book, from the slang to the things they had or the things they used. And the Easter eggs SPOILER: like the early CD and the tour guide from the college. END SPOILER. I thought they were great! I think I liked them so much because I wasn’t expecting them, but when they came up, the only thing I could really get out was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol I wonder if anyone else caught them?!
“…one of the biggest lies ever told is that Black men don’t feel emotions. Guess it’s easier to not see us as human when you think we’re heartless.”pg. 163
Again I say, Angie Thomas can do no wrong. From her realistic writing, to her amazing characters, and the bomb family dynamic they have, I loved this book to no end. There were some things I could have done without, but I get why it was in the book. It was a real thing for some teens.
Overall, I give this
