It is a young adult novel. It is the author’s debut novel, but it opened at number one novel on the best seller list of the New York Times.
The story revolves around the protagonist, Starr Carter, who gets involved in activism after witnessing the shooting of her unarmed friend by the police. According to the author, "The Hate U Give" was originally written as a short story for her senior project in Belhaven University’s creative writing programme. That short story was written soon after the shooting of Oscar Grant in 2009.