THE HATE YOU GIVE by Angie Thomas,

Walker Books, £7.99 (ebook £3.79)

THIS book is exceptional. At 16, Starr Carter is torn between the neighbourhood she grew up in – where drive-by shootings, gangland territory battles and poverty are as normal as being made to work in her dad, Big Mav’s, grocery store – and her almost exclusively white private high school in the ‘burbs.

Bright and witty, Starr is also black, and the only witness when her best friend, Khalil, is pulled over by a white cop and shot dead on the way home from a party.

Between her own fear, the silencing tactics of the police and local gang lords getting involved, Starr must decide whether she can risk fighting for justice for Khalil.

I read this in one sitting, staying up until 2am to finish it, The Hate U Give is not just timely, it’s beautifully written, painfully honest, sweet, silly and thoughtful, sweary and gutwrenching and astutely observed.

Angie Thomas forges a sprawling dysfunctional family that will steal your heart – from Starr’s all-knowing mother and irritatingly protective older brother, Seven, to her steadfastly loyal Uncle Carlos and tough yet tender dad, who has her memorise the Black Panther’s Ten-Point Program before she hits her teens.

A blistering debut that deserves to find its way onto English literature syllabuses soon.