At the root of these events is the death of Bri’s father, a local rap legend and rising, who was murdered in front of the family home by a rival gang, a trauma that still reverberates in the present setting of the novel. Trey, her loyal and erudite older brother who seemingly broke the cycle and graduated college, is stuck back home making pizzas for a living to support the family. Her mother, Jay, a former drug addict, can’t afford to pay for private school, so Midtown was the second-best option. Bri, the star of On the Come Up is a high-schooler at Midtown School of the Arts, drily noting the “diversity initiative” that allowed her to bus in. The book shares a setting-and the ever-lurking shadow of racial tensions and discrimination in background-with Thomas’ debut novel: Garden Heights, a neighborhood notoriously poor, black, and gunshot-haunted, a bad reputation that the reader is challenged to consider. Back with her second novel after The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas hits the ground running with On the Come Up, a funny, hopeful, and deeply impactful story of a young rapper fighting through poverty, trauma, and controversy to realize her dream.
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