On the Come Up

I didn't feel for Bri the way I did for Starr. I think the difference was mainly that ‘The Hate U Give' encompassed so much for me. The family, community, social scene and it hit you right in the gut. On the other hand ‘On the Come Up' was more centered around Bri and what she wanted. Yes, there was talk about her father and mother (and I really, really loved Jay) and the struggles their family has seen, but despite Bri's talk about wanting to help her mom out it did really just feel like she was a selfish, hotheaded young girl.

And I get that. I was a selfish, hotheaded, young girl when I was 16 and I didn't have the sort of tragedy Bri had. She had every right to act the way she did, but it was so frustrating that she couldn't even hear what other kids her own age were telling her. She was a class A brat. It probably says something that my two favorite characters in this book were Jay and Aunt Pooh.

I also felt that the reason why THUG hit me so hard was because it really centered around the homicide and what that meant to Starr and everyone in the country. Here, she touches upon another huge problem, this time in our schools, but it wasn't central to the plot and it was kind of just relegated to the epilogue.

I gave the book to my daughter to read next and I'm curious to see how she likes it compared to how much I liked it!