I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas Published by Balzer + Bray on 2/5/19
Genres: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 452
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill. But it’s hard to get your come up when you’re labeled a hoodlum at school, and your fridge at home is empty after your mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral . . . for all the wrong reasons.
Bri soon finds herself at the center of a controversy, portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. But with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri doesn’t just want to make it—she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be.
Short and Sweet Review
Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers, but first she has to get through a battle at the ring and win. When Bri does win she starts to get some traction and eventually she ends up recording her first song On the Come Up, unfortunately the people closest to her don’t approve her song and outsiders are hyping it up. Bri knows that she’s getting attention for all the wrong reasons but with her family struggling she feels like she has to make it in this industry.
On the Come Up becomes viral and for the wrong reasons, Bri is talking about a life she’s never lived and people start to think the song is about hating police and being in gangs when Bri wanted it to be about how people with her skin color are looked down upon as these things. Anyway Bri hasn’t had the easiest life her dad a well known rapper was murdered, her mom is a recovering addict, and her aunt is in a gang and a drug dealer. Bri is passionate about rapping and her aunt is probably her biggest supporter, but her aunt Pooh is also not as committed as Bri would want her to be. So when Supreme her dads old manager offers to start managing Bri and get her a record deal, Bri says yes mainly because she knows if she makes it she’ll be able to support her family. I think my biggest problem in this book was Bri. Like she may be struggling but she has a great support system around her, one that won’t let her reach rock bottom. Bri gets a lot of advice from the people around her that the song isn’t who she is and that its a bad representation of her but she takes the advice as if someone is attacking her and that bothered me the most. She really ended up learning that the things she was doing had consequences. I guess that’s a big thing in books people have to continue to be hard headed until the lesson smacks them right in the face. There was a love triangle which didn’t work out because first of all one of the boys had a girlfriend and it just ended up being awkward. Also there’s a lot of things that kind of remind me of The Hate U Give mainly that the character goes to a predominately white high school and that the peers don’t understand how black kids may be treated differently, and they definitely start saying that Bri’s song incited a violent incident that took place at the School. I did like how different issues were dealt with, like the gangs, drug usage, institutional racism and other things. Bri talks about most of these things in her raps and I feel like when she’s being authentic is when we see her best self.
Overall this was a good book, I can see how it’s like a love letter to hip hop and rap. I just think the hardest thing for me was seeing Bri make these bad decisions when everyone around her is giving her the best advice. The ending was a little rushed but I’m glad that in the end we see the support system Bri has around her and that she knows its okay to be herself.
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