On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

BOOK REVIEW

Release Date: February 5th, 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

464 pages

Published by Balzer + Bray

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My Goodreads Rating

BOOK BLURB:

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.


MY THOUGHTS:

This book was PHENOMENAL!!!
4 syllables…rhymes with…
Nominal
Abdominal
Comical…huh, I’m obviously not good at this :-(

Seriously now, #OnTheComeUp has propelled Angie Thomas to stardom !
 
You know how we constantly see book reviews stating how “the story flows”?  Well, here it actually does.
The story moved without disruption, made me feel the struggles, hear the battles (emotional & musical) and when it finally came to an end, left me satisfied at getting to know the characters.  All of this in 2 days, because I was unable to put it down (and I only read at night).

The characters were so real.  Sixteen year-old Bri, our main character, is a funny, sometimes moody teenager, who loves video games, Star Wars and hip-hop.  She’s talented and she wants to be a rap star.  She worries about a boy she might have a crush on.   What she shouldn’t be worried is if the food in the fridge will spoil because the electricity got cut off.  Her family struggles.  Her mom lost her job and her brother can’t get a decent one even with his college education.  It’s tough for a teenager (hell, it’s tough for anyone) to see her mom and brother trying to do everything right and being unable to pay the bills…while some other people in the neighborhood seem to be doing just fine.

“I’ve always had this theory that God is a sitcom writer who loves to put me in ridiculous situations.”

A racial profiling incident in the school infuriates Bri and when she decides to turn her anger into lyrics, she is faced with the impact that her song has on the community.  The challenges Bri and her family face escalate to larger proportions after that, and the decisions that each of them makes bring us deeper into the reality and unfairness of the world we live in. 

Angie Thomas has repeatedly stated that this book was “her love letter to hip-hop” and it is, in some ways, a #1 hit song.

If you’re reading this review, go and get this book.  Buy extra copies and give them to the people you care about.  You won’t regret it and they will thank you for it!

“Just recognize when you say brilliant that you're also saying Bri.”

📚📚📚📚📚

Quick Note: I got my Signed First Edition copy of On The Come Up + a specially curated playlist inspired by the book, with my box subscription of NowInBooks 💙 

You can get $10 off your first box when you use my code 10REPMP