‘Concrete Rose’ Review

Warning: Minor spoilers for ‘The Hate U Give’ and ‘Concrete Rose’.

‘Concrete Rose’ revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of ‘The Hate U Give’ which recently became a major motion picture, exploring black boyhood and manhood and the struggles Maverick had to face.

‘With his King Lord dad in prison and his mom working two jobs, seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter helps the only way he knows how: slinging drugs. Life’s not perfect, but he’s got everything under control. Until he finds out he’s a father…
Suddenly it’s not so easy to deal drugs and finish school with a baby dependent on him for everything. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. But when King Lord blood runs through your veins, you don’t just get to walk away.’

Angie Thomas is so incredible at what she does, she is able to provoke emotions so easily through her characters and created atmospheres which are able to make you feel something! You are able to connect so easily to the characters and empathise with them which is one of the reasons that makes her books so special.

It took me a few days of reading to really get into the story but I was glad I did, the story she has created is so in-depth with her characters and details it takes a little bit of time to ingest it all but once you have you wish it were longer…
The book ends with Maverick and Lisa discussing the name for their baby girl, which we learn in ‘The Hate U Give’ is Starr, but the way the story finishes makes me want to know so much more about their lives and struggles in-between the two books; the way the characters and their stories are written makes you feel so attached to them.

One element of the book I really enjoyed was how each character came with their own personal story, although Maverick is the narrator of the story and shared his own personal story; each character had their own struggles to share. One of those I particularly felt drawn too was Maverick’s mom’s. I don’t want to spoil too much of the story but it was so refreshing to see her share her story without it being a major deal, this is something I definitely wish to see more of in YA novels. (and if you have read it let me know what you think!)

One of the things that makes Thomas’s stories so special is that they are real, every situation depicted within her stories happen in the world. Although the books aren’t based on true stories, everything that has happened in the stories has happened to real people and that is very eye-opening. I think everyone should read these stories and educate themselves on this because it gives you a real insight into what people have to go through that some of us are so lucky to never have to think about or experience.

It focuses on the good and the bad in real life areas like Garden Heights, showing the relationships built, the complexities of life, the tragedies and pain and the achievements too, sharing everyone’s stories.

Unlike many books it does not end where everything is magically perfect and sorted, injustice still exists but it finishes at a good point for those characters, but as we know from ‘The Hate U Give’ it is far from perfect for them.

Overall, I enjoyed ‘Concrete Rose’ and would encourage anyone who hasn’t read both ‘The Hate U Give’ and ‘Concrete Rose’ to give them a go, not only are they stories but they are important stories.

Book TW: death, racism, gun violence, drug dealing, gang violence, grief