The Hate U Give

Starr Carter lives in the predominantly black suburb of Garden Heights, but has attended Williamson, a predominantly white prep school, for six years. When she goes to a spring break party in Garden Heights with her friend Kenya, she feels uncomfortable. She doesn’t know anyone else at the event.

Her evening brightens when her childhood friend Khalil comes over to talk to her. He’s wearing really expensive clothes and jewelry, which upsets Starr because she knows it means he’s become a drug dealer. When shots ring out at the party, she and Khalil assume that the gun violence is yet another skirmish between the local gangs called the King Lords and the Garden Disciples. They run to Khalil’s car and drive away.

As Khalil and Starr leave the party, they are pulled over by a police officer. The policeman, Officer 115, tells Khalil to get out of the car and pats him down several times in an attempt to find drugs or weapons. He tells Khalil to keep his hands on the car. When Officer 115 steps away to his own vehicle, Khalil walks to the driver’s side door to check on Starr. The officer then shoots Khalil three times, killing him.

An ambulance and a few more police vehicles arrive, and Starr’s parents, Maverick and Lisa, come to take her home. After discarding her bloody clothes and sleeping, Starr thinks about another childhood friend, Natasha, who was killed at age 10 in a drive-by shooting. Starr’s parents are concerned because she is the only person besides Officer 115 who saw the incident. Maverick tells Starr not to reveal that she was a witness to the murder so she doesn’t receive any pressure from the police. It’s a Saturday, so Starr goes with her father to work in their family’s grocery store, as if nothing happened.

Starr’s friend Kenya comes by the grocery store to see her, and as the two girls walk out on the street, they meet Kenya’s father, King, the leader of the King Lords. King asks Maverick to hold on to some drugs for him, but Maverick says he won’t tolerate any illegal activities going on at his grocery store. He also tells King to make sure not to hit Seven, who is Maverick’s son with King’s partner Iesha. King tells Maverick to watch his step and not make enemies.

That night, Starr wakes up from a nightmare about Natasha and Khalil, both dead from gun violence. When she wakes up, she overhears her Uncle Carlos, a police officer, talking with her parents in the kitchen. Uncle Carlos wants her to talk with the detectives assigned to the case, but Maverick opposes the idea.

Starr considers talking to the police but wonders whether the police really want justice for Khalil. On Sunday morning, Starr, Maverick and Lisa go to pay their respects to Ms. Rosalie, Khalil’s grandmother. Ms. Rosalie is taking chemotherapy for cancer, so her health is frail. Although she raised Khalil like her own son and his sudden death affects her deeply, she remains emotionally strong.

After school on Monday, Starr goes to the police station with her mom. During her interview, the detective asks Starr leading questions about whether Khalil was involved in drug dealing or illegal activity, implying that his death was justified. At school, Starr’s white friend Hailey asks if the recent shooting death mentioned on television was Starr’s old childhood friend Khalil.

Hailey thinks Khalil deserved to be shot because he had been involved in selling drugs. Starr lies and says that her childhood friend was a different Khalil. She doesn’t want anyone at her school connecting her with the tragedy.

Starr goes to Khalil’s funeral. Before the service, April Ofrah, a member of the local police accountability advocacy group Just Us for Justice, makes a statement. She announces to the crowd at the funeral that Khalil was weaponless when he was murdered and that the local police department has no intentions of arresting the officer responsible.

As the funeral ends, King and multiple members of the King Lords enter the church. King lays a gray bandana, a symbol of his gang, on top of Khalil in the casket, but Ms. Rosalie screams and throws the bandana at King. The King Lords leave, and Starr breaks into tears when she finally has to confront the fact that Khalil is gone forever. Ms. Ofrah offers to represent Starr in court, since Khalil’s wrongful death is about to receive national attention.

That evening, the news shows a protest over Khalil’s death being broken up by police throwing tear gas at the participants. Soon thereafter, all of Garden Heights is in an uproar. Police cars are set on fire, a gas station is looted and Starr can hear machine guns firing outdoors.

The next day, Lisa takes Starr and her younger brother, Sekani, out of Garden Heights to stay with their Uncle Carlos and his family. Starr feels guilty because she didn’t tell the detectives that Khalil got out of the car with his hands up and that the officer also held a gun on her while she was unarmed and crying over her friend’s body. She reasons that if she had mentioned those facts sooner, the detectives would have arrested Officer 115, and the riots and protest marches wouldn’t have happened.

After a long talk with her dad, Starr realizes that the riots are happening partly because of the unjust prosecution system. People are angry because Officer 115 isn’t the first white officer to kill an unarmed black person and not be charged with a crime. She understands that unless people speak up against injustice, the killings and riots will keep recurring.

While at the store with her dad, Starr’s acquaintance Devante comes in, looking frightened. DeVante is a teenage King Lord, but he’s hiding from King, and he no longer enjoys the gangbanger lifestyle. Maverick agrees to help Devante get out of the gang, and Starr feels that even though she wasn’t around to help Khalil leave the drug-dealing lifestyle, maybe she and her father can help DeVante.

At school, Starr’s white friends stage a walk-out protest over Khalil’s death, but they’re only protesting in order to get a day off from school. Hailey still thinks Khalil deserved to die if he was a drug dealer, and Starr is furious over her friend’s callousness and over the other students’ selfish reasons for the protest. When she gets home, she hears that local gang members have beaten up some police officers.

Reporters come to Garden Heights, and an elderly man named Mr. Lewis says on live television that King, the leader of the King Lords, is to blame for the beatings. After the reporters leave, Maverick argues with Mr. Lewis about the foolishness of his statements. Police officers arrive to see if there’s trouble between the two arguing men.

When they learn that Maverick is Starr’s father, the father of the murder witness, they force him to lie on the ground while they search him for drugs or weapons. The rioting situation in Garden Heights becomes extreme. A 10 p.m. curfew is instated, and an Army tank rolls through the streets warning citizens to stay inside or be arrested.

Mr. Lewis is beaten up by King Lords in retaliation for calling out King’s name on television. Maverick finds out that DeVante stole money from King in order to get his family out of Garden Heights, so he takes DeVante to Uncle Carlos’ house for safety. DeVante tells Starr that Khalil wasn’t a King Lord. He turned down King’s offer to join the gang but sold drugs for King mostly to pay off his drug-addicted mother’s debt to King.

Bolstered by this knowledge, Starr gives her official statement to the district attorney (DA) for the criminal case and even agrees to go on national television and have an interview with a famous broadcast personality. In the interview, Starr puts herself at risk by saying that Khalil only became a drug dealer to save his mother from the wrath of the biggest drug dealer in Garden Heights. Her statement could make her a target for King’s retaliation, but she doesn’t care. Her interview goes viral, receiving millions of views and a deep outpouring of support and sympathy.

Starr goes to prom with her white boyfriend, Chris, who is emotionally distant from her. Chris feels hurt that he had to learn that Starr was the witness to Khalil’s murder by watching her interview on national television, not by hearing it from her in person. Starr cries and tell him about all the violence she’s witnessed, telling him about her home life and her hidden struggles for the first time. They make up and enjoy prom.

Due to the ever-increasing violence, Starr’s family decides to move out of Garden Heights. Before they can actually move away to a safer environment, someone fires a gun at their house and throws a brick through their window. Maverick isn’t’ sure whether it was the police or the King Lords.

Grand jury day arrives, and Starr feels apprehensive about going to the grand jury room alone. Her mother tells her that being brave doesn’t mean not being scared — it means being scared and doing something anyway. This gives Starr the courage to speak with the DA, Ms. Monroe, in front of the jury for three hours.

Eight weeks after Khalil’s murder, Hailey confronts Starr for lying and saying she didn’t know Khalil. Hailey also says that Khalil would have been shot sooner or later anyway because he was a drug dealer. She believes that it was good that he died so the world could have one less dealer.

Starr punches her, and then she and Hailey get into a fistfight. Hailey’s brother grabs Starr, which makes Starr’s older brother Seven join the fight, too. All four of them are suspended from school for a few days, and Starr finally cries and screams enough to help her process her grief. At home, Starr finds her dad having a meeting with some King Lords and Garden Disciples, discussing how they can all show some unity when the grand jury’s verdict comes out. Maverick is concerned that if the jury doesn’t indict Officer 115, the gangs will riot again.

Thirteen weeks after Khalil’s murder, Starr’s family has moved into their new neighborhood. Seven hears that DeVante is hurt, and he, Starr and Chris go to Seven’s mother’s house in Garden Heights. A bruised and bloody DeVante lies on the floor as the King Lords have a party in the backyard.

Seven’s mother tells Seven to get DeVante out of the house and to take Seven’s younger sisters Kenya and Lyric away, too. Seven’s mother acts like she doesn’t care about her son, but she’s really trying to save him and his sisters. She wants them to run away while King is distracted.

Seven, Starr, Chris and DeVante leave Kenya and Lyric in a safe place and drive away. On the radio, they hear that the grand jury has decided not to indict Officer 115. Starr and Seven are so angry, they want to riot. Dozens of people are already rioting on Magnolia Street, and although Starr is initially glad to scream along with the other rioters, she balks at their willingness to burn and loot local businesses.

Police in riot gear, accompanied by two Army tanks, arrive to disperse the rioters, who throw objects at them. Starr and Seven walk to Carnation Street, the site of Khalil’s murder, where Starr’s attorney, Ms. Ofrah, is leading another protest. The police warn the rioters to disperse.

Ms. Ofrah tells Starr to use her voice as a weapon and gives her a bullhorn. Starr tells the police that what happened to Khalil was wrong and that until the police change their ways, she and others like her will keep rioting. The police throw a tear gas canister at the crowd, but Starr grabs it and throws it back at them before it explodes.

A King Lord friend of Maverick’s picks up Starr, Seven, DeVante and Chris in his truck and drops them off at Maverick’s grocery store so they can get milk to pour on their faces, which have been burned by tear gas. A flaming explosive flies through the grocery store window and detonates, starting a fire that traps the four teens inside.

At the last minute, Maverick arrives to unlock the back door and rescue Starr and her friends. Across the street, King laughs and smirks, finally having gotten his revenge on Starr’s family for Starr mentioning him on TV. The police arrive and arrest King for suspected arson, while firefighters put out the blaze at the grocery store.

Uncle Carlos says that King will get an arson charge, but that he’ll probably be out of jail in a week. DeVante offers to reveal the location of King’s drug stash to the police, to get King put away more permanently. He says that Starr’s speech to the police gave him the courage to speak out, too.

Starr and her family visit the remains of her dad’s burned-out store. Old Mr. Lewis decides to give Maverick some land so that he can expand his grocery store and make an even better shopping place for the people of Garden Heights. Starr rests happily in the knowledge that she and her family will rebuild their business and strengthen their ties with their community, despite having changed residences. She also mentally promises Khalil that she’ll never forget him and that she’ll never again be silent in the face of injustice.