On The Come Up is a book about a teenage aspiring rapper, Bri, who is trying to find her big break into the industry while also dealing with poverty, police brutality, and circumstance of living in a more urban community.
My Opinion
I am not one to spoil the book because you do have to read it BUT, Bri lost her father as a child, who was also pursued rapping, and just reconnected with her mother who was a former drug addict. Her mother loses her job and is having trouble maintaining the bills. After an incident at her school where she is accused of being a drug dealer and forced to the ground by school security, she expresses her grievances through rap. The song then becomes an anthem for her community. Other things happen in the book but this is the gist.
I did enjoy this read to the point that I did not want to put the book down. It was a fairly easy book to read and I was able to finish it in about 3 days. The characters are easy to connect with and offer a fair range of differing Black perspectives. The raps in this books are really incredible. It’s crazy how Angie could come up with straight bars.
On The Come Up is very different from The Hate U Give, yet they are very similar.
The Hate U Give vs. On The Come Up
Thomas’ debut turned blockbuster, The Hate U Give, definitely set the tone for her writing style as well as the topics addressed in her books. Both books take place in the same city, riddle by the same gangs, but does show differing perspectives. While both are bused out of their neighborhoods to differing schools, Bri is still amongst peers that look like her.
Both books speak to police brutality and the power differential between White authority and Black bodies. Starr (The Hate U Give) witnesses the death of her best friend at the hands of the police. Bri is forced down to the ground by school security. In both books, activism offers some remedy to these issues.
Another pertinent issue in both books is the effect of poverty on Black communities. In both books, students are bused away from their neighborhoods to attend schools in better neighborhoods. This speaks to the lack of resources allotted to schools in urban neighborhoods. It also plays into the rhetoric that students must be bused out of their home neighborhoods in order to get a quality education.
Angie Thomas has been able to depict Black families through their ups and downs. Her writing style allows for easy reading but also for a wide range of readers to connect with her stories. There are talks that she will be turning this book into a feature film and I am excited to see the visual.
