Here we are then: part two of our first book in Beautiful Stagey: The Read Alongs series. On Monday, we covered chapters 1 – 9 of our first book The Hate You Give – you can catch up with my thoughts on that first section here.

Onwards then, to explore chapters 10 – 18. This middle section of the book covers more about Starr’s family dynamic, racism, and crucially it’s the section where she decides how she’s going to fight the injustice of Khalil’s murder. Her relationships with her friends also begin to change, as she keeps her witnessing Khalil’s murder from them. The book explores the idea of family and friendship in some very powerful scenes throughout the book, and with that in mind this became our main focus of our talking points for this section of the book.

Starr and Hailey have a very turbulent relationship that changes throughout the novel. What are your thoughts on friendships changing as we grow?

When Kara and I were discussing our initial reactions to the book and specifics we wanted to bring up, the relationship between Starr and Hailey stood out; it’s in this section where we see Hailey’s brother Remy, come up with the idea that the student body protest Khalil’s murder, but there reasons for doing so aren’t genuine and they see it purely as an excuse to skip class. Starr realises she hates being treated as if she were the token black girl, and Hailey’s racism starts to needle away at her, coming to a head with a fight that sees Starr and her half brother Seven being suspended. I was particularly touched by the way Angie Thomas chose to resolve their friendship: Hailey is only actually sorry for Starr’s reaction to her comments, not the comments themselves.

Though racism isn’t something I’ve directly experienced, I could certainly relate to the idea of our friendships changing as we grow. When I was in primary school I had a primarily female friendship group, then at secondary had more male friends, then at university and life since, my friendship group is predominantly female again. My interests changed a lot as I grew, and so did what I wanted from friendships and people in my life; so something Starr’s mother Lisa says struck a chord here, words to the effect of: you have to decide whether the bad outweighs the good.

Also, teenage girls and drama! Some things never change…

We’ve both decided Starr’s parents are excellent characters. Is this something we usually see in the YA books we read? Why do we love them as much as we do?

To quote Starr in the film adaptation: they’re my OTP. One True Pairing indeed, I love them. All too often in the YA books I know, the protagonist is from a broken home, or has lost a parent, so it was just a refreshing change to see this moved away from. I love them both for their love for their children, but also each other. Not only that, there’s an element of warmth and humour in those relationships that help keep the heavy subject matter subtle but poignant: I vividly remember laughing out loud when Lisa reprimanded Starr for being on TV throwing tear gas at cops but not being able to call her, and when she and Maverick, Starr’s dad, joke around that they didn’t hear Starr shout when she left the house!

It also really struck me how Thomas took great care to flesh out the other characters in the book, even the more secondary ones, like Starr’s parents. Both of them wrestle with their sense of and their own relationships to their community, and that makes for an interesting dynamic when as parents they want to keep their children safe, and Lisa wants to move away from Garden Heights. Having these sort of tensions made the family dynamic more real and relatable.

Family is very important to Starr. How do you think this is handled in the book? What jumped out at you particularly?

Leading on from my adoration of Lisa and Maverick, I just want to highlight my love for the fact that Starr’s own family is blended – again something you don’t find much in other books; and it’s a conversation that Starr and Kenya have that really stuck with me in light of that: Starr struggles with the idea that Kenya doesn’t use “our brother” when talking about Seven, and it turns out that both of them share similar feelings: Starr loves Seven and wants Kenya to give herself permission to feel that love as they are family also, and Kenya feels like Seven sees she and her younger sister Lyric only as an obligation, and that’s why he spends more time with Starr’s family unit.

I also enjoyed Starr’s relationship with her uncle Carlos, who is a father figure to Starr after helping raise her when Maverick was in prison, and the tension this creates as Carlos is also a police officer. Maverick is a very proud man, and he struggles with the guilt he has about that, leading to some resentment between him and his brother in law which just adds another element of depth.

For me, there’s a powerful sense of family and community being what you make of it or how you interpret its meaning. Carlos takes in Devante to keep him safe from King, Khalil still loves his mother despite her drug issues, and the local’s of Garden Heights rally round when Maverick’s store is burned down. A moment that really jumped out at me here was Seven’s confronting his biological mother when she turns up uninvited to his graduation party, and didn’t attend his graduation ceremony.

The way Starr handles what is happening throughout the novel is powerful. What struck you the most?

I loved Starr’s arc and development throughout the whole novel – she goes through all these conflicting emotions, and has to decide whether to stand up for Khalil when the police paint him in a negative light, and it takes the combination of talks with her dad, a comment from Kenya and her school experiences to understand that her voice can be worthwhile. I think that’s hugely important and something we can all relate to in some way.

That’s it for my thoughts on this section, be sure to check out Kara’s blog as well! We’ll be back on Friday with our final thoughts on The Hate You Give, and keep up to date with our hashtag #BeauteafulStageyReadAlong – we love hearing from you.