On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

It's been a while since I've posted a review, so I thought I'd kick things off with a bang!

Here's my review of Angie Thomas' second book, On the Come Up!

Hope you enjoy it!

Title: On the Come Up

Author: Angie Thomas

Genre: Hard-hitting contemporary

Release date: 7th February, 2019

Status: Standalone

Pages: 435

Blurb: "Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the

greatest rappers of all time. It's hard to get your

come up, though, when your labelled 'trouble'

at school and your fridge at home is empty after

your mom loses her job. But Bri's success is all

that stands between her family and homelessness,

so she doesn't just want to- she has to.

Even if it means becoming exactly what the

public expects her to be."

My Thoughts

How does a book even compare to the success of The Hate U Give? Picking up this book, I was genuinely sceptical about whether I would love this book as much as I did it's predecessor. I'll tell you something. I had nothing to worry about. I'm not going to say that it was exactly the same as The Hate U Give, every book is unique. It had similarities between the structure of The Hate U Give, even went as far as to interweave specific points of THUG into the story. But it was a different type of story. The characters were different; the issues introduced were different; and this time, there were conflicting factors that meshed into the overall story.

Writing and venting my thoughts, even now, it's all coming rushing back. This book was amazing. There's nothing that I love more than some family subplots, and family, loyalties and hope was such a recurring theme in this novel, and because it didn't have the picture of the perfect family, it made it that much easier to delve into Bri's life.

Another aspect that I loved about Bri and her life, was the passion to take the risk and follow her dream, even though there's still other people trying to encourage you to do well and try hard in school, make the most of your education while you still can.

Not to mention, the pressure to live up to what people think of you, whether they're thinking true things or not.

One thing that I will say is that Angie Thomas is so smart in the way she weaves her story, it's like each subplot is balanced within the story, nothing is over-used, they each have that time in the story when it's the main plot, and that's subplot is being brought front and centre, and all the time, the story is being weaved into a perfect tornado of characters, tension, plot and funny/heartfelt/mad moments.

When it comes to the writing, one word I will use to describe it is definitely, intriguing. I was constantly intrigued, as to what was going to happen to Bri, her friends and her family within the next chapter. Whether Bri will get her Come Up, whether it'll all come crashing down around them.

Overall, a fantastic book. If there's one book up that you pick up this year, make it this one.

Let me know your comments down below, we can have a right natter about it.

Right! That is my post for today, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you all on Monday!

Byeeeeee!

-Abi xxxxx