Pop-Culturalist.com

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas is the prequel to The Hate U Give or THUG. The story is set in Garden Heights, when Starr’s Dad, Maverick, finds out he’s going to be a dad. It’s an important novel about racial injustice, death, sex, and discrimination. It has a more mature tone than THUG does. Maverick is only seventeen when this happens and he has already been through so much trauma. In this book, he witnesses his cousin being shot in front of his own house.

Maverick Carter or Mav knows the importance of family. He’s the son of the former gang legend and he deals with the King Lords because his dad’s in prison and the money could help out his mom. His mom works two jobs and is doing the best that she can under the circumstances. He’s living in a society where he’s told he probably won’t make it big or be successful. He wants to show his kids that there’s something worth fighting for. But walking away from the King Lords comes with a price and no one walks away without consequences. It’s through his journey of becoming a father that Mav discovers what it’s like being a father.

Highlights

• “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but it can roll away from it. It simply needs a little push.” This quote shows how Mav has come along way from what was expected of him. His father was a former gang legend and he was expected to be a part of the gang. When he finds out that he’s going to be a father, everything changes for him.
• The nods to Nic Stone’s Dear Martin and Dear Justyce duology.
• Seeing how Mav changes as he realizes he’s going to be a dad. Mav didn’t have the best role model and he becomes a phenomenal Dad in THUG!
• Lisa stays with Mav despite knowing he has a kid with another woman (this is a known fact in THUG).
• The importance of a parental role model.

Lowlights

• There really isn’t any, but I would love to know what Lisa was thinking when all of this went down. How did she find the strength to stay? Lisa briefly mentions her reasons in THUG, but it would be interesting to get a glimpse into what she was feeling.

Final Thoughts: Concrete Rose is a must-read! If you haven’t read any of Angie Thomas’s books yet, you definitely should. It’s the prequel where readers will get a glimpse into the events that shaped Mav into who he is in THUG! You can purchase your copy of Concrete Rose here and you can follow Angie Thomas on Twitter here!