It’s strange reading this prequel because most of the large events you already know, if you’ve read The Hate U Give. But it is still interesting seeing these characters as their younger selves and the events that snowballed into the powder keg that was the sequel too.

I ended up vacillating between being really interested in what was occurring and feeling like I already knew everything, so the tension in the plot wasn’t really present. In the end, this is another book where the voice is so quintessentially YA, in the same earnest and heartfelt way the authors other books are, that even when you’re retreading ground, it’s an empathic and compelling experience.