The Hate U Give: Chapter 25 Summary & Analysis

The group tries to get out the back door, but it’s locked, and Goon still has Starr’s keys. Smoke fills the aisles and they struggle to breathe. Mr. Lewis sees them from outside and screams for help. Tim comes running and opens the front door, but the path to it is blocked by flames. Moments later Maverick shows up and rushes to unlock the back door. Everyone tumbles out of the store. Neighbors with buckets of water try to put out the flames, which have spread to Mr. Lewis’s store as well, but the fire is too big to control. King pulls up across the street in his gray BMW. He and other King Lords laugh and point at the fire.

Maverick screams at King for starting the fire, but King keeps laughing and hides behind his King Lords. Mr. Lewis shouts that King burned down Maverick’s store—loud enough that the gathered crowd hears it. The police and a firetruck arrive. As the police order the crowd to back up, Mr. Lewis tells them that they need to be focused on King because he started the fire. King calls him a liar, but to Starr’s immense surprise, Maverick speaks up to confirm Mr. Lewis’s story. Starr is shocked that her father has “snitched.” But soon many in the crowd join in to confirm that they, too, saw King start the fire.

An ambulance arrives and tends to DeVante. Starr and Chris hold hands, and Starr is grateful that they went through the craziness of the past few hours together. The firefighters put out the flames, but it’s too late: only a shell of the store remains. Starr feels like she is losing another family member.

Maverick and Lisa ask where they’ve all been all night. Maverick is impressed when he hears that Starr threw tear gas, though he half-heartedly scolds her in front of Lisa. Maverick admits that Chris must be brave to have stayed with Starr all night through the riots. He tells him to meet him at the boxing ring the following weekend, because you can “learn a lot about” someone by the way they fight. Starr understands this to be a step toward Maverick accepting her boyfriend.

The police take King and his boys away in their patrol cars. DeVante asks Carlos if he is going to kick him out for walking off without telling anyone, but Carlos assures him that he will just be grounded for the rest of his life and that they love him. Carlos then says that, thanks to all the witnesses, they should be able to charge King for arson, though they won’t be able to hold him for long.

DeVante asks if knowing where King’s stash was would help them put King away for good. Carlos says it would help the whole neighborhood if King went to jail, and promises that he would protect DeVante. Remembering April Ofrah’s claim that his voice is his strongest weapon, DeVante agrees to turn witness on King.