The Hate U Give

On the drive home, they see the news spread through the neighborhood that Officer 115 will not be charged with any crime in the killing of Khalil. Everyone in the car gets upset, and Chris is confused as to why Khalil won’t get justice. The rest tell him that this is not uncommon. Seven asks Starr what she wants to do. Starr wants to protest or even riot. She says that she “did everything right, and it didn’t make a fucking difference. I’ve gotten death threats, cops harassed my family, somebody shot into my house, all kinds of shit. And for what? Justice Khalil won’t get?” (390). She tells Chris he doesn’t have to agree, he just has to support her.

Kenya and Lyric stay with their grandmother while the rest of them drive over to Magnolia where the protestors were before. They park in front of Just Us for Justice. Half of the neighborhood is out in the streets. They rap along to Ice Cube and shout “fuck the police” (393). In the crowd, King Lords and Garden Disciples flip cars, and someone throws a Molotov cocktail. The looting starts as people break into stores. When this happens, Starr and others in the crowd try to stop it. She doesn’t want to be a part of that kind of riot.

Cops in riot gear appear, and the crowd continues to chant “fuck the police” (395). There is a small explosion, and the crowd breaks up as people run in different directions. Starr, Chris, DeVante, and Seven run back to Seven’s car and drive away from the violence. They decide to go to the store to help Mav in case looters try to break in. They run into police roadblocks and are forced to backtrack several times.

In the car, Seven and DeVante are impressed that Chris knows the words to the NWA rap song. They also talk about the assumptions that white people make and the strange habits they have. Chris asks about “unusual” things that Black people name their children, but the rest of them point out that “unusual” is just a point of view. They hit more roadblocks, and Seven tells them that they’ll have to go through Garden Disciple territory. This is where the worst of the riots happened last time, and it is also rival gang territory. Seven tells them that they will be fine, but they can already hear gunshots nearby.

It takes them a long time to find an unblocked road, and when they do, Seven’s car runs out of gas and dies. Chris and Seven try pushing it toward a gas station but there is thick smoke in the air so they decide it will be faster to walk.

On the walk, as Chris asks Starr about the neighborhood, she realizes this is the first time he’s been to Garden Heights. They come upon a crowd of protestors chanting “a hairbrush is not a gun” (407). They are on Carnation, which is where Khalil was killed.

April Ofrah leads the chant, shouting through a bullhorn, then gives it to someone else and comes over to Starr. She tells her that as her attorney, she has to tell her to get to safety. When Starr says she wants to speak, April tells Starr to fire her as her attorney. She then tells Starr that if anything goes wrong, she should run for cover behind a nearby bus. Starr understands, and April takes her over to stand on top of a patrol car and gives her the megaphone.

Starr speaks to the crowd, telling them that Officer 115 is a criminal who made deadly assumptions about her and Khalil. She tells the crowd, “[T]his isn’t about how Khalil died. It’s about the fact that he lived. His life mattered. Khalil lived!” (412). She shouts at the cops, who form a wall nearby. The crowd chants, and the police throw tear gas. Starr sees a can land nearby, so she jumps off the patrol car and throws the canister back toward the cops. Then “all hell breaks loose” (413).

She runs toward the bus and meets up with Chris, Seven, and DeVante, but they are engulfed in tear gas. It burns their eyes, and they cannot see the bus anymore. Suddenly, a truck comes screeching up to them. In the back is Goon, one of the Cedar Grove King Lords who protected her before. They get into the truck and drive away. Also in the back is a reporter who asks her a few questions.

They drive to Mav’s store and let themselves in with Seven’s keys. Everyone in the truck rushes to pour milk over their faces to counteract the effects of the tear gas. Goon takes extra milk and leaves to go help more people; the reporter asks to go with him.

The four kids are left in the store. Starr sees many missed calls and texts from Lisa and realizes they are in deep trouble. They decide to call home from the office so that the caller ID will prove where they are. However, before they can, a Molotov cocktail comes sailing in the window, setting everything on fire.

The front exit is blocked by fire, so they try to reach the back door, but it is locked. Mav, Lisa, and Carlos arrive just in time to unlock the door and let them all out. Coughing, Starr sees the neighborhood all coming to try to stop the flames, but they are too big to be doused. Nearby, King and some of his gang members lean on a car, watching. Mav calls him a coward for trying to burn children in the store. Carlos has to hold both him and Lisa back from running at King. Mr. Lewis shouts to the neighborhood that King burned down the store.

Police and a fire engine arrive, and while they put out the fire, Mr. Lewis tells the cops that King is responsible. Mav tells them too, snitching on King right in front of him. When the cops say they require an eyewitness who actually saw King do it, several people from the neighborhood claim they saw it. King and his gang members are arrested. The EMTs give the four kids oxygen to help with the smoke inhalation and tear gas. Starr holds Chris’s hand while they sit on the curb.

They tell Mav and Lisa where they were all night. Mav comes over to talk to Chris. He respects him for being in the area for so long and asks him to come to the boxing gym with him so that Mav can learn more about the man dating his daughter. Carlos comes over to tell DeVante that while he’s glad he’s safe, DeVante is also grounded. Carlos tells everyone that they will be able to charge King for arson, but he’ll be free by the end of the week. DeVante says he knows where King’s stash is and decides to turn witness to help the neighborhood. Carlos promises to protect him from reprisals for becoming a snitch.

The next morning, Starr gets up at 11. April Ofrah calls to apologize to Starr for putting her in danger but says that she is proud of her. She also tells Starr that she has a future in activism. Starr gets a text from Hailey that says she is sorry about the grand jury’s decision and that she wants everything to be like it was. Starr texts back that it can never be like it was ever again. She deletes Hailey’s number.

The store is damaged, so they will have no income from it for a while, but the family will still make it work with the new house. They also vow not to abandon the community. They go to the store to meet with the insurance agent. Mr. Lewis is there and tells them that he decided to retire and leave Mav his shop so that he can expand the store. The insurance agent arrives to take stock of the damage, and the family starts to clean up the burnt store.

Kenya stops by to say that King put Iesha in the hospital. She and Lyric will stay with their grandmother for a while. Still, she is relieved that King is in jail. She tells Starr that she is sorry for calling Seven her brother only. She explains that she always felt like Seven and Starr were ashamed of them. Starr admits that this was once the truth because she “was ashamed of Garden Heights and everything in it,” but now she admits that this mindset “seems stupid” and adds, “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?” (441). She tells Kenya she’s not ashamed anymore, and neither is Seven.

The book ends on a hopeful note as the family plans to rebuild the store. Starr decides that she will never stop fighting. She refuses to give up on a better ending to the story than what Khalil got. She promises “Khalil, I’ll never forget. I’ll never give up. I’ll never be quiet” (444).