The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

The book tells the story of Starr Carter, a 16 year old black girl who lives in a poor nieghbourhood but goes to an expensive private school. She witnesses a white police officer shoot her unarmed black friend.

This is an important book and I learned a lot from it, particularly about gang culture. I enjoyed the story but my two complaints were firstly, I felt it could have been 100 pages shorter, and secondly I found the white characters to be a bit flat. They reminded me of characters from Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Beverley Hills 90210 etc. Wikipedia describes the book as 'young adult' fiction. I'd assumed it was aimed at adults. I gave it 4 stars but it probably deserves 5 judged as young adult fiction.