The Hate U Give

This has been on my awareness for two years, on my physical bookshelf for one. It's YA – not my thing – so I just kept postponing it. Mistake.

OMFG.

What a beautiful book. Thomas has an exquisite sense for human complexity, moral dilemmas, for inner beauty and decency. Yes, it's heavyhanded, especially in the goody-goody Kumbaya sense – did I mention it's YA? – but I may have been needing that just now. I found questions to ponder and ideals to live up to. I found a horrible new insight, one I hadn't considered: blame. In addition to the powerlessness and anger that targeted communities must feel, there must be some people who feel (inappropriately) responsible: “If only I had done X or Y”. What a crippling burden.

Yet I think it'll change one day. How? I don't know. When? I definitely don't know. Why? Because there will always be someone ready to fight.

right now