YMMV / The Hate U Give

• Anvilicious: It is very important for the readers (and in the movie's case, the viewers) to understand where Starr and her family are coming from. The novel is not particularly subtle about its views on police brutality, how much police get away with in regard to excessive and sometimes fatal force, and the systemic racism in America... and, as the ending narration reminds us, cases like Khalil's still happen several times a year.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Starr beating the crap out of Hailey, after approximately 400 pages of Hailey being a racist brat with no comeuppance and chewing out anyone who dared to suggest she's being bigoted with her less than funny race jokes. Also, Starr and Maya cutting out Hailey from their lives in general when she shows utterly no remorse whatsoever for being very bigoted towards their cultures.
  • Starr giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the police force after One-Fifteen walks away without punishment.
  • The Garden High residents one by one backing up Maverick snitching on King to the police after the latter burns the former's store in an attempt to kill Starr for telling people about his history with Khalil, causing King to get arrested after all the misery and fear he causes on the town.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Everyone simply loves Starr's parents, with many reviewers saying they'd gladly read a book about them. Later, they got their wish!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Starr says she is a LeBron James fan, and that she'll root for any team he's on. Her father likes LeBron, but he won't stop being a Lakers fan. A year after the book is published, LeBron is now a Laker.
• Iron Woobie: Starr. The girl is sixteen years old, and witnessed a horrific event that would drive most adults into a Heroic BSoD. She loses her childhood friend (the second childhood friend, actually, as one of her friends died in a drive-by when they were kids) and has to go through all sorts of emotional trauma as she tries to help bring his killer to justice. And he gets away with it. It's frankly a minor miracle she stays sane throughout the story.
• Jerkass Woobie: Iesha is a lousy mother, and not a very nice person, either. But then you remember she's married to King, who, although charming at times, gradually reveals his true colors throughout the book. In the end, she basically performs a Heroic Sacrifice, getting all her kids out of the house so when King came back and found that DeVante was gone, there'd only be one person he could take his anger out on... Iesha. She winds up hospitalized.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • King attempting to murder DeVante, a teenage boy.
  • In-Universe, Khalil being outed as a drug dealer and gang member is enough for some people, including Hailey, to decide that he was a bad person who deserved to have gotten fatally shot. Unfortunately, this type of reaction is far too common in real life police shootings as well.
• Tear Jerker: Khalil's death. It's so sudden and he and Starr were having friendly conversation not two minutes prior, neither having a clue what was about to happen.
• Tough Act to Follow: The book's Spiritual Sequel On the Come Up, which takes place in the same fictional neighborhood but has new main characters, debuted as a #1 New York Times bestseller, just like The Hate U Give did. But it was knocked from its #1 spot on its third week by The Hate U Give (which had been out for over two years by that point). In October 2019, On the Come Up had dropped off the bestseller list, and its time on the list overall was shorter than the time that The Hate U Give has spent on the top of the list.

---