From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

On the Come Up

Angie Thomas

Start date: August 1, 2020

Finish date: August 31, 2020

Discussion: August 2025 Group Read

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Mid-Reading Discussion
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What Members Thought

Apr 22, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, fiction, r2019-in-2019

2.5 stars

This book just didn't thrill me. But it's got a lot of good points, and I'm still excited to see what Angie Thomas writes next.

The good stuff: I enjoyed a YA protagonist who is not perfect, who gets into stupid fights with her friends, etc. I'm not sure if I've read a YA book before that features a family struggling to get by, lining up for food banks and WIC, etc, so that felt fresh and new. I also appreciated seeing characters recovering from addiction, showing how much willpower it t 2.5 stars

This book just didn't thrill me. But it's got a lot of good points, and I'm still excited to see what Angie Thomas writes next.

The good stuff: I enjoyed a YA protagonist who is not perfect, who gets into stupid fights with her friends, etc. I'm not sure if I've read a YA book before that features a family struggling to get by, lining up for food banks and WIC, etc, so that felt fresh and new. I also appreciated seeing characters recovering from addiction, showing how much willpower it takes to stay mentally healthy, and other characters who are dealing drugs and facing legal consequences, and none of these characters are portrayed as fundamentally bad people, just regular people making bad decisions. And there's a great message about learning for yourself who you are, and not trying to be someone you're not.

And while I'm not into rap, it was cool that Angie Thomas wrote out the full rap lyrics and included them in the book - we're not just told that Bri is writing lyrics, we get to read the lyrics. Nice touch!

The bad stuff: It was too long, with too many pop culture details that I don't care about (like all the exact dialogue when Bree goes live on Instagram), and stilted dialogue that seems to exist just so the kids can add more boring pop culture details, or just toss in some slang that I guess is meant to make it feel real but just felt forced to me, and it was slow to get moving (all those details!!) - I don't know exactly what it was that didn't work for me, but it just didn't wow me. I feel like it needed some heavy editing to slim it down. Thomas's author bio says she started out as a rapper, so this book must be a labor of love for her, I'm sure she put her heart and soul into it so maybe she couldn't bear to edit out one single line? It didn't work for me, but I think this will be a hit with teens (who, after all, ARE the intended market).

This could have been so great. I loved that the protagonist was prickly and angry, but the problem (well, one of my problems) was they we were told she is angry and always talking back to teachers, etc - which I love because it feels so real - all teens are angry and talk back! - but we don't really see it in her thoughts or actions.

While I loved Bri at first, I did start to get sick of her navel gazing and general bull-headedness. It was repetitive: An adult tells Bri not to do something, Bri does the thing anyway, something bad happens that Bri could have totally predicted if she'd just taken a moment to think about it (or, alternatively, if the adult had bothered to explain why she shouldn't do The Thing), Bri gets all down on herself about it, Bri promises herself that she'll "fix" it, and then the entire cycle repeats.

For example, this dialogue between Bri and her brother Trey from page 359 (which by the way is when this book finally started to pick up the pace), Trey has been giving her good advice and she's just been tossing his advice in the toilet:

"Trey, I can explain."

He sets the mop in the bucket and looks at me. "Oh, so you have an explanation for acting a damn fool on the radio?"

"He pushed my buttons!"

"Didn't I tell you that you don't have to respond to everything? Huh, Bri?"

"I'm not gonna just take shit that's thrown at me!"

"You can speak up for yourself without acting like that! ... What the hell is wrong with you?"

GOOD QUESTION! What IS wrong with you, Bri??? I know teenagers are impulsive, but they do have brains and they can stop and think a sec. ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Mandy rated it liked it · review of another edition

I wanted to like this more than I did, but also know as a suburban mom over 40, I am very much not the intended audience. Something about the style didn’t flow for me though I felt strong feelings for the characters and appreciated and cheered on the journey. Worth reading but in my humble opinion, it just wasn’t as amazing as The Hate You Give.

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Feb 25, 2020 Kristen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, contemporary-lit, literary-fiction, aoc, audio-book, 2020

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4.5 stars

Bri Jackson is a 16 year old who wants nothing more than to be a rapper like her father was before he died. People call her Lil Law, an homage to her father’s stage name Lawless. But Bri is very much her own person with her own style and ideas, not a copy of her father. When she wins a rap battle in the ring, Bri finds herself suddenly in the spotlight, and not always in a good way. Navigating her way through a fledgling career in the music industry and helping/worry My Blog | My Twitter

4.5 stars

Bri Jackson is a 16 year old who wants nothing more than to be a rapper like her father was before he died. People call her Lil Law, an homage to her father’s stage name Lawless. But Bri is very much her own person with her own style and ideas, not a copy of her father. When she wins a rap battle in the ring, Bri finds herself suddenly in the spotlight, and not always in a good way. Navigating her way through a fledgling career in the music industry and helping/worrying about her mother’s unexpected job loss, Bri has to figure out how to be on the come up in a way that is true to herself.

Initially, I was hesitant to read this because how could it possibly be as good as The Hate U Give? I went ahead and bought it when it was an Audible daily deal, but I didn’t work up the nerve to listen until now. Am I ever glad I did! This was a fantastic novel! Thomas does such a good job of bringing readers inside the heads of her characters. You can really feel the anger, disillusionment, disappointment, and fear of the characters. Frankly, anyone who reads a book like this and doesn’t feel rage at all the injustice must have something wrong with them. Bri is angry, yes. She’s got an attitude and can be rude. But she was doing nothing wrong and got thrown to the ground by two grown male security guards at her school. That’s a whole lot of bullshit. I’d be furious if that happened to me, too. I’m furious just reading about it happening to a fictional character.

I felt Bri’s pain and worry when she saw her mother and older brother trying to scrape together enough money to pay the utility bill AND also buy food; her shame when her shoes fell apart and she couldn’t afford new ones; her embarrassment at having to go with her mother to the food bank. Children shouldn’t have to worry about things like this, and it hurts and is shameful that children anywhere, let alone one of the richest countries in the world, deal with food insecurity and poverty daily.

The references to various rap and hip-hop artists throughout the book made me want to listen. I’ve never been much of a fan of rap, but I know that some artists use it to highlight social injustice. This story made me want to educate myself better.

I listened to this on audio and Bahni Turpin’s performance is fire. She is one of my favorite narrators anyway, but she really went above and beyond in bringing these characters to life, especially Bri and her music.

I can’t wait to see what Angie Thomas writes next, and I hope Bahni Turpin narrates it.
...more

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Jul 15, 2020 Lisa rated it really liked it

Every once in a while I dip into YA to see what the kids are getting up to. In the case of Angie Thomas, the project is so layered--it is a lesson about the range of languages, patterns, families, conflicts and relationships that exist among my students. And in that range are commonalities and differences. It is my job to know about all of it.

When I read The Hate U Give, I had been borrowing a copy of the text that a student had left behind in one of the classrooms. When I opened that book up, I ...more

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