Review also posted to my blog.


Feminist Lit Feb: an #ownvoices book about an experience other than your own, a book by a female/non-binary/genderfluid black author


content warnings: loss of a loved one, murder, police brutality, gun violence, gang violence, drug addiction, racism, misogyny, mentions of homophobia
representation: black protagonist, main and side characters, gay black main and side characters, sapphic black main and side characters, f/f side relationship, m/m side relationship


“It is kinda messed up. Here my brother is, doing everything right, and nothing's coming from it. Meanwhile, Aunt Pooh’s doing everything we’ve been told not to do, and she’s giving us food when we need it. That’s how it goes though. The drug dealers in my neighborhood aren’t struggling. Everybody else is.”


Angie Thomas’ books make me want to fight, and I mean that in the best way possible. I, along with many other people, were worried that there was no way she was going to be able to live up to the phenomena that was The Hate U Give, but not only does it live up to its predecessor, in my opinion it’s even better.

The story of On the Come Up is a much smaller one than THUG. It follows Bri, a teenage girl whose dad was a rap legend in Garden Heights until he was murdered. Bri has always dreamed of being a rapper and now she doesn’t just want it; she needs it. Her mum’s just lost her job, and they weren’t exactly rolling in cash before that. Bri needs to became big not just to fulfill her dream, but also to support her family.

Bri might be one of my new all-time favourite protagonists. She has attitude, she doesn’t think everything through, she jumps to conclusions too quickly, but she also cares about her family and friends (who she considers family) so much and spends a lot of her time worried about her family’s financial situation. Her character arc is one that we’ve seen before, particularly in movies: it’s one of someone who becomes famous and loses themselves. This story is being told on a much smaller scale, as she’s really only famous in Garden Heights, but it still works really well, probably because that’s not the only thing going on.

After Bri’s dad died, her mum turned to drugs. This resulted in her and her older brother, Trey, being in the custody of their grandparents for several years. Their mother is eight years sober, but Bri still refers to her mum by her first name, Jay. Reading about their complicated relationship was amazing.

I loved seeing Bri with her two best friends, Sonny, a gay graffiti artist, and Malik, a wannabe-filmmaker who Bri has had a crush on for a while. Their friendship is tested throughout the entirety of this book and there are large stretches where they’re not talking, but they also so clearly consider each other family. They’re the kind of friends who have been that way since birth and it’s obvious.

As would be expected from an Angie Thomas book, this deals a lot with race, and it doesn’t sugarcoat any of it. The school Bri goes to has security guards who target the black and Latinx kids for ‘random’ locker searches and pat-downs; the only thing news outlets who get wind of Bri’s songs say is that they’re inciting violence; Bri’s grandmother, a black woman herself, tells Bri to talk differently when they go to store’s in predominantly white areas. This book also talks a lot about sexism, particularly within the rap industry. Bri talks about how much harder she’ll have to work to make it as a black woman, and there are several scenes of men who could help her get somewhere looking down on her because she’s a teenage girl. And it’s all handled with the ferocity of both a character and writer who are fed up with all of it.

There is also great discussions of poverty in this book. Bri’s mum is often behind on rent, they’ll get the gas and power turned off semi-regularly, they had to choose between losing the TV and losing their phones, and there’s a point in the book when they have to go to get food donations from the church. This is constant throughout the whole book and is part of the reason why Bri is so insistent on getting her big break sooner rather than later. There was one line in particular that I loved, when Malik is talking with Bri towards the end of the book and says “Lately, you only care about money. Money isn’t everything, Bri”, and she says, “That’s so easy for you to say… We didn’t have lights for a while, Malik. We’ve barely had food some days. You aren’t worried about stuff like that. I am.”

And finally, I get to talk about my favourite part of this entire book: the writing. Or, more specifically, Bri’s songs. First of all, I loved that there were many instances throughout the book when someone would say something to her that would impact her in a certain way, like the security guard calling her a “hoodlum”, and she would break down the word in her head and come up with a few lines about it. Then there’s the full songs themselves. There are only a couple printed in the book itself, including the eponymous “On the Come Up”, and they are all so incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a film adaptation of a book in my entire life because I can’t wait to see them being performed on the big screen (also, they better use Angie’s lyrics word-for-word because they are literally perfect).

Because this has only just come out I don’t know how popular my opinion is, but I think that Angie Thomas’ follow up to The Hate U Give surpasses it. I’m already excited for whatever she’s going to write next because the odds are definitely in favour of me loving it with my entire heart and soul.