Concrete Rose (Book Review)

Although anyone who’s read The Hate U Give will know everything going on in this prequel, young Maverick is someone you can’t help enjoy getting to know, despite his bad decisions. That’s the magic of Angie Thomas; no matter how terrible the Garden is you can’t help wanting to go back there and getting to know each and every one of its residents, all of them so seemingly real that you could jump in a car and go visit them.

In a surprise twist, not only does Thomas reference back to her other works in this new installment, but to those of Nic Stone, connecting their two series, a small detail that shook me to my core and has me wanting to reread Dear Martin.

Thomas’ plots and narration always score a perfect seven, balancing realistic characterization with keeping things interesting while also tackling important and pertinent topics. Concrete Rose was no different, although, shorter than Thomas’s other works, the novel doesn’t quite have as much going on. Not that Maverick doesn’t face a plethora of problems and choices that keep things interesting, but in comparison to the layers upon layers in the stories of Brie and Starr, this one seemed quite tame.

The focus often drifted back to Maverick’s fatherhood, which, considering the lack of representation of teen pregnancy in young adult books is anything but a bad thing. But there’s so much more to Maverick that we know about from The Hate U Give that I thought would be explored, like how he came to be a part of the Disciples in the first place and what happens with him and King later on. Since he’s the only character we’ve seen who’s actually been a part of the gang life, I figured it would get more into that aspect, but I couldn’t help thinking the story went a bit soft on him, glazing over these more questionable aspects of him and instead focusing on his more favorable fatherly traits. 

But it’s possible that my feelings are skewed by not wanting to leave the Garden quite so soon. Perhaps I just wanted to stay with Maverick, and his crew a little a little longer for fear of coming back to the real world where Angie Thomas’s next book is so far on the horizon I can’t see it. 

Catch me waiting for any and all things Angie Thomas writes and rereading her and Stone’s works in anticipation for whatever’s to come.

I rated Concrete Rose 4 out of 5 stars.

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