The Hate U Give

Starr maintains two different versions of herself — Garden Heights Starr and Williamson Starr. Is this code-switching a strength, a survival strategy, or a form of self-betrayal? Can it be all three at once?

Maverick explains Tupac's THUG LIFE acronym to Starr. How does this framework explain Khalil's decision to sell drugs? Does it excuse him, explain him, or do neither?

Starr names the officer who killed Khalil only as 'One-Fifteen' — his badge number — for most of the novel. Why? What does refusing to use his name do to the reader's relationship to the shooting?

Hailey says she's not racist. Is she? How does Thomas use Hailey to show that racism doesn't require conscious malice to cause harm?

The novel ends without legal justice — the officer is not indicted. Does Starr win? What does winning look like in a system designed the way this one is?

Uncle Carlos is a Black police detective who defends the system that killed Khalil. Is he a traitor to his community or a pragmatist working from the inside? What does the novel ultimately suggest?

Thomas writes Starr's Garden Heights voice in African American Vernacular English and her Williamson voice in standard American English. How does this structural choice make the novel's argument about identity and power without stating it directly?

Compare the media's narrative about Khalil (drug dealer, thug, threat) to the novel's narrative about Khalil (childhood friend, family supporter, victim of circumstance). How does Thomas construct the counter-narrative? What tools does she use?

Maverick Carter chose to stay in Garden Heights after prison rather than moving his family somewhere safer. Is this heroic, selfish, or something more complicated?

Starr says she doesn't want to be 'a hashtag.' What's the difference between being a hashtag and being a person? What does it mean that the movement needs hashtags to function?

The title comes from a Tupac Shakur lyric. Why would a 2017 YA novel center the philosophy of a rapper who died in 1996? What does Thomas gain by reaching back to Tupac?

Thomas was inspired by the Oscar Grant shooting in 2009 but also by Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, and others. How does the novel absorb these multiple real-world references without collapsing into a documentary?

Chris is white, privileged, and kind. Does kindness make him an ally? What is the difference between being kind and being an ally, according to this novel?

The riot damages Garden Heights more than it damages the system it protests. Does Thomas present the riot as justified? As counterproductive? As both?

Starr tells her story to the grand jury but also to the reader. How are these two acts of testimony different? Who is the reader being positioned as in this novel?

Khalil's mother Brenda is addicted to crack. Thomas gives her enough characterization that she doesn't function simply as a symbol of failure. What does Thomas gain by humanizing Brenda?

The novel is told entirely in first person by Starr. What can't we know because of this choice? Who is silenced or seen only partially because of Starr's perspective?

Compare Starr to Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Both are girls narrating racial injustice. What does Thomas gain by replacing the white observer with the Black witness?

Thomas refuses to let the novel's ending be a legal victory. Why? What would a grand jury indictment of One-Fifteen have cost the novel?

The grocery store Maverick built — an act of faith in Garden Heights — burns in the riot. What does this image mean structurally and symbolically?

Seven Carter — Starr's half-brother — has Maverick as his father and King as his biological father. How does Thomas use Seven to show what it costs to be loyal to incompatible worlds?

Angie Thomas was writing this novel before Black Lives Matter and finished it after Ferguson. How does the real-world timeline of its composition change how you read its ending?

The novel has been banned in many school districts. For what reasons? What do the banning arguments reveal about who the banning arguments are designed to protect?

Starr's voice shifts register throughout the novel — sometimes within a single scene. Find a moment where she moves between Garden Heights and Williamson language in the space of a page. What triggers the switch?

April Ofrah tells Starr that her testimony can't guarantee justice but can guarantee that the true account exists on the record. Is this enough? Should it be?

Compare Khalil's situation to that of any character in The Great Gatsby who is destroyed by a system they tried to enter from outside. What structural similarities do you find between Gatsby's world and Garden Heights?

Thomas writes Garden Heights with love and detail — the food, the parties, the specific textures of community — before the violence that threatens it. Why establish the neighborhood's value so thoroughly before putting it in danger?

Starr says near the end of the novel: 'I can be two things.' Is she right? Has the novel shown this to be true, or has it shown that the cost of being two things is unsustainable?

If you had to explain what the novel means by 'voice' — not just speaking, but the kind of voice it values — what would you say? Use at least three specific moments from the text.

The novel ends with Starr speaking at a protest — not in a courtroom, not in a school, but in her neighborhood. Why is this the right ending for this particular story about voice?