Christy's Reviews > On the Come Up

3.5 stars!



Angie Thomas' debut novel 'The Hate You Give' blew me away. I hate to compare it to this, because they are totally different stories, but I couldn't help myself. For me, this was good, but not near as good as THUG. Angie Thomas is an amazing writer and there was lots I loved about this book, but there were also things that missed the mark a bit.

Bri is a teenager and an aspiring rapper. She wants to make it big not only because she is talented and wants to be famous etc, but because she wants to help support her family. Times are hard, and now that her mom lost her job they're even harder. Bri feels a lot of pressure. Most of it she puts on herself, but her life is far from easy. I could sympathize with Bri. Growing up in poverty is not easy and I understood why she made a lot of the choices she made.

While on the come up, Bri has a lot of hard choices to make. There are people that want to take advantage, to use her to get ahead themselves. She finds out really fast who she can trust and that people will see you the way you portray. This was a tough lesson for her to learn.

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

There were so many great moments in this book and characters I loved. Bri's mom was probably my favorite. Jay had been through so much and overcame so much. She was genuine and only wanted what was best for her kids. I also loved Bri's brother and friends. This is one of those books, like THUG, I could see on the big screen.

Overall, I did enjoy this one. There was no huge thing that was wrong with it, it just didn't hit me like THUG did. It was still a worthy read and I'm glad I read it. It had emotion, humor, and a good message. Also, the audio book was excellent. Bahni Turpin (the narrator) killed it. If you're going to read it, I would highly recommend listening!