A sixteen-year-old girl watches her friend die and finds her voice in the ashes.
Who drives the story
Sixteen, split between Garden Heights and Williamson Prep, and the only witness to Khalil's shooting. She spends the book deciding whether silence will keep her safe or cost her everything, and finally speaks under her own name.
Starr's childhood friend, killed at the traffic stop while reaching for a hairbrush. He sold drugs to care for his sick mother, and the media turns him into the thug he wasn't.
Starr's father, a former King Lord who did time and now runs a grocery store in Garden Heights. He gives Starr 'The Talk' about surviving police, protects DeVante from King, and loses his store without losing his family.
Starr's mother, a nurse who refuses to let her daughter stay quiet. She warns Starr the defense will paint Khalil as a thug and pushes her to testify.
Starr's white boyfriend from Williamson, a secret from her father at first. When he learns she's the witness, he can't fully understand her world but refuses to leave it.
Starr's white Williamson friend whose 'officer's life matters too' comment and Confederate flag post end the friendship. She's the face of polite racism Starr can no longer excuse.
Lawyer and activist with Just Us for Justice who hands Starr her card at a protest and later represents her before the grand jury.
A former King Lord hiding from King after leaving the gang. Starr's family shelters him, and King's revenge burns down Maverick's store.
The King Lords leader who forced Khalil to sell drugs and later torches Maverick's grocery store in retaliation for DeVante.
Starr's seven-year-old brother, who witnesses a drive-by shooting and becomes the reason Maverick decides to move the family out of Garden Heights.
Also in the story
Starr's godfather and a police detective who defends the shooting. He taught One-Fifteen at the academy and admits, 'I taught him to protect and serve. I don't know where I went wrong.'
Starr's childhood friend and King's half-sister, who shames Starr into showing up at the protest instead of hiding at prep school.
How they are connected
Sixteen, split between Garden Heights and Williamson Prep, and the only witness to Khalil's shooting.
Starr's father, a former King Lord who did time and now runs a grocery store in Garden Heights.
Starr's father, a former King Lord who did time and now runs a grocery store in Garden Heights.
He gives Starr 'The Talk' about surviving police, protects DeVante from King, and loses his store without losing his family.
Starr's mother, a nurse who refuses to let her daughter stay quiet.
She warns Starr the defense will paint Khalil as a thug and pushes her to testify.
Starr's white boyfriend from Williamson, a secret from her father at first.
Starr's white Williamson friend whose 'officer's life matters too' comment and Confederate flag post end the friendship.
Starr's godfather and a police detective who defends the shooting.
Starr's childhood friend and King's half-sister, who shames Starr into showing up at the protest instead of hiding at prep school.
Starr's childhood friend and King's half-sister, who shames Starr into showing up at the protest instead of hiding at prep school.
Lawyer and activist with Just Us for Justice who hands Starr her card at a protest and later represents her before the grand jury.
Go deeper
The two selves · Silence as complicity · The cycle of hate · Who gets to be innocent
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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