You can tell the author used to be a rapper because Bri's songs are genuinely very good. And I loved how she turns to hip hop to make sense of her feelings, finding rhymes in her everyday life and spinning clever verses in her head.Īs someone who finds books about music a bit hit and miss, I have to say this one was a definite hit. I felt every bit of her pain and anger as she watches her family scrape together to try to pay the bills, watches her aunt buried deep in the world of drug dealing, watches security at her school targeting black and Latinx students for searches, watches male rappers make sexist jokes or erase her name and voice because she is a girl. I can see why some people won't like her, but I actually kinda loved her. She considers giving up important parts of herself for a shot at fame and fortune. She pushes her family and supporters away, but believes she is doing it to get “on the come up” for them. She has a difficult relationship with pretty much everyone in the book. She gets into fights and doesn't play nice. She's angry, resentful, impulsive, and outright rude at times. Her story may not make quite the same impact - being largely about hip hop rather than police shootings - but she herself felt like such an authentic teen voice. Bri is much more complex.įor me, though, she was a far more interesting character than Starr. She has very basic easy-to-relate-to relationships with her parents and friends and we are never asked to sympathize with hard-to-like characters. She's a clear victim of a screwed-up system clearly in the right for the whole book. Starr is a much easier character to like.

I've already seen some (understandable) comments about how Bri was a tough character to like compared with Starr.

Overall, people will probably like this book less than the author's debut. I think, however, it is a book which shows that Thomas is a great writer, not just someone who can ride the wave of an important issue. I was witnessing a person using their art to say loud and clear “ENOUGH.” On the Come Up looks at some of the same things, but it is a different kind of book. Reading THUG, I got the impression that I was experiencing something momentous. How do you follow a book like The Hate U Give? Aunt Pooh said I only get one chance to let everybody and their momma know who I am.

On the come up by angie thomas