THE. HYPE. IS. WORTH. IT. 
 Okay, so there are really obvious ties to All-American Boys with the plots revolving around police brutality and protests, but in my opinion, the truest connection between these two FANTASTIC novels is how they depict teenage relationships. Hell, how they depict human relationships. 
 Friendships aren't neat. You don't have your one best friend and one worst enemy and occasionally you fight with your friend and often you fight with your enemy and everything eventually returns to the status quo. That's just not realistic. Angie Thomas so clearly gets that. Starr's relationships with her friends are fraught with tension even when they are going well; she doesn't have specific enemies, just maybe people she tries to avoid. Starr is closer to some friends at some moments, close to others or her family at others. New friendships are formed, some slowly fade into the background, and others are intentionally ended. This is how the real world works. 
 And the way that this book discusses race is so perfect. Starr lives a double life; she gets to behave completely differently in her home and community than she does at her private school. She is constantly aware of the stereotypes that she can fall into and tries to tip-toe around every single one. Each moment brings new little microaggressions out and effectively shuts them down. Like this conversation that Starr has with her white boyfriend: "He got a tan over break. I used to tell him he was so pale he looked like a marshmallow. He hated that I compared him to food. I told him that's what he got for calling me caramel. It shut him up." UGHHHH book you are perfect never change. 
 These characters are anything but black and white (and not just in race). Starr's dad is an ex-con and an ex-gang member. Starr's uncle is a police officer who has to deal with a whole lot of confusion around the shooting. Hell, Khalil was a drug-dealer, which is, of course, problematic because "if he does become a hashtag, some people will only see him as a drug dealer," but Thomas makes it so easy to see why it isn't as simple as it looks: 
 "Lack of opportunities. Corporate America don't bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain't quick to hire us. Then, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many schools in our neighbourhoods don't prepare us well enough. Our schools don't get the resources to equip you. It's easier to find some crack than it is to find a good school around here. 
 Now think 'bout this. How did the drugs even get in our neighborhood? This is a multibillion-dollar industry. That shit is flown into our communities but I don't know anybody with a private jet. 
 Drugs come from somewhere, and they're destroying our community. 
 You got folks like Brenda, who think they need them to survive, and then you got the Khalils, who think they need to sell them to survive. The Brendas can't get jobs unless they're clean, and they can't pay for rehab unless they get jobs. When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. 
 That's the hate they're giving us, a system designed against us. That's Thug life." 
 And since I just complained about it in The Go Between , The Hate U Give ABSOLUTELY NAILS its Harry Potter references. "Tighter than the inside of Voldemort's nose?! That's actually hilarious. A family having a debate about why Harry didn't just shoot Voldemort? Spot on. Whether or not Harry Potter could be considered a metaphor for gangs? I had never considered it, but I totally see the merit in that hypothesis. 
 RUN AND GET THIS BOOK. SO DAMN GOOD.