On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, 452 Pages

I was very nervous to read this book because I had such high standards for it. Angie Thomas's first book, The Hate U Give, was a life-changing book for me. Not only was the book phenomenally written, but the story itself is so important. It is one of the few books where I fell in love with the characters, and my heart broke a little bit when I had to let them go. I'm happy to say that On the Come Up lived up to every expectation I had! This is another story that is so well written, and another set of characters that you can't help but feel attached to. Angie Thomas has quickly became one of my favorite authors, and I will read anything and everything that she puts out there.

Bri knows one thing: She wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all-time. Following in her now-dead father's footsteps, Bri starts attending rap battles. Just as she begins to win the battles, and things look like they might start looking up, her mom loses her job and they're on the verge of being evicted. Bri knows that the one thing that would get her and her family out of this situation and out of her neighborhood is making it big. The only problem is, is that the one person who can help her do it expects her to rap about things that aren't an actual part of her personal life- guns, drugs and gangs. She battles an inner-turmoil of doing what she knows will get her top, or staying true to herself.