On The Come Up by Angie Thomas


On The Come Up by Angie Thomas



                When Bri walked into the Ring that night, she knew she had to deliver. She couldn’t walk through those doors, Law’s daughter and not deliver in this rap battle. Deliver she did and while she get some traction on YouTube, it’s nothing compared to the love she gets after she releases her first recording, “On The Come Up.” But people are taking her words and twisting them. She’s not advocating violence against the police. She’s not the girl with clips on her waist. She is the girl labeled aggressive for doing the simplest things like rolling her eyes. She is the girl with a father who was gunned down and a mother who years ago had to battle a drug addiction. She is Bri and the world is finding out who she is at the same time Bri is.

                I just finished this book, blazed through over 400 pages like it was nothing. I couldn’t put this down. Thomas brought Bri and the people in Garden Heights to life in such a stunning way that I couldn’t stop reading. Bri’s voice throughout is so well defined and so incredibly believable. She feels like a teenager in the most self-centered, unaware, insecure, longing and nuanced way. She is a young woman coming into her own and Thomas made her a character that is instantly relatable and yet undefinable. The characters around Bri, are just as well sculpted even if they aren’t the main focus of the story. You can feel how each person’s presence affects and molds Bri, influencing decisions and changing her world.

                On The Come Up though is also a stunning look at our culture right now. With references littered throughout the book that had me laughing out loud, to moments that made me cringe and made my heart hurt because of the situations at hand. That’s an area where this novel really shines. I loved this book. I’m highly recommending it. I’m surprised I was even able to get my thoughts on the page because I’m still shook. If this is what we can expect from Angie Thomas after the success of The Hate U Give then I need her to simply keep writing. I give this 5 out of 5 stars.


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