Blogger Reads: On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

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If you haven’t caught on by now, Anne and I are slowly starting to share one brain. Okay, just kidding, but besides having a love of J.Crew Factory, she and I also share a love of reading. So when she jokingly threw out the idea of also doing a reading link up, I knew it was something that we actually had to make happen.

Unlike our monthly style link up, this link up will be a little less infrequently. That’ll give us more time to give you a heads up about the , books (in case you want to read it too) and it’ll also give us time to get our hands on the book.

For our inaugural post, we chose the book On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. After being obsessed with her novel, The Hate U Give, I was basically counting down the days until On the Come Up came out. And luckily, it did not disappoint (not that I thought it would).

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Two-sentence summary

On the Come Up focuses on Bri, a girl from a neighborhood near Garden Heights (the area where The Hate U Give took place), who has dreams of becoming a female rapper, with the talent to match. But after a security guard at her school tackles her to the ground, she starts to feel like she needs to take her life and family responsibilities into her own hands.

What I liked most and what frustrated me

I loved how confident Bri was in herself and her talent. Though she became frustrated in others, she never doubted herself when she got up on stage. She knew that she had the skills it took to make her dreams of rapping a reality. Oh, I also love how Bri is a big nerd that loves Star Wars and Harry Potter (and admits to being a big nerd).

What frustrated me the most was how much the people in Bri’s life wanted to take advantage of her. And in some cases how much she let them (whether or not she realized it). In some cases the people had good intentions, but they wanted to use her regardless of how she felt about it. And when she felt negatively, they didn’t seem to ask why.

Favorite quote

(I have two, both are quotes from Bri.)

“There’s only so much you can take being described as somebody you’re not.”

“Sometimes she’s my personal Yoda. If Yoda was a woman and had a gold grill. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know who Yoda is.”

Recommended For

I would obviously recommend this book for anyone who was a fan of The Hate U Give. Oddly enough, I would also recommend that fans of Sarah Dessen give this book a chance. Angie Thomas is doing something very similar to Dessen where she’s creating strong female characters who exist in the same universe. Yes, the tone may be different and it’s not taking place during the summer. But there’s still a little bit of romance and it’s giving you some pretty inspiration female characters to look at.

I would also recommend this book for anyone who’s trying to educate someone about how racism is still widely visible in society, but maybe they need to see it in a more relatable way or on a smaller scale. Sometimes it’s easier to hear one person’s story than to hear a whole crowd shouting.