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anyaemilie 's review for:
Concrete Rose
by Angie Thomas
Thank you to Harper Collins (via NetGalley) for the ARC!
Angie Thomas has another winner on her hands, and I will be shocked if this doesn't end up a bestseller. Concrete Rose is a prequel of sorts to The Hate U Give. It follows Maverick, Starr's father, as a 17-year-old dealing with more problems than he ever expected. One day he's playing ball with his friends, and the next he's the sole caretaker of a 3-month-old baby when a DNA test confirms that Iesha's child is Mav's. Now Mav has to deal with the fact that he is a father, juggle school, and decide whether he wants to keep living the life of a gang member.
I always thought Maverick was an interesting character in The Hate U Give. He was very supportive of his children, and wanted better for him than he had growing up. He steered his kids away from gang life, sometimes at great risk to himself. So I loved that this book gave me more insight into how exactly Maverick turned into that caring, supportive adult.
Concrete Rose is also a look into the inner life of a person who, in pop culture and other forms of media, is rarely given a voice: a young Black teenager living in poverty who joined a gang because he thought that was his only option. We get stereotypical portrayals of people like Maverick in the media, but Concrete Rose gives readers insight into the daily life and struggles that he deals with. We learn about his rich inner life, the tough decisions he has to make, the things that make him happy, and the people who are important to him. In other words, he is human. And he gets to be human in this book without being condemned for just existing, as so many Black boys are.
I won't say more in this review because I am not the target audience for this book, and I don't feel like I can accurately speak to the experiences Maverick goes through in this book. But I did really enjoy it, and I think Angie Thomas has written another excellent book. I hope that it will find its intended audience, because I know there are kids out there who will see themselves in this book and hopefully find some comfort in that.
Concrete Rose is out January 12th
Angie Thomas has another winner on her hands, and I will be shocked if this doesn't end up a bestseller. Concrete Rose is a prequel of sorts to The Hate U Give. It follows Maverick, Starr's father, as a 17-year-old dealing with more problems than he ever expected. One day he's playing ball with his friends, and the next he's the sole caretaker of a 3-month-old baby when a DNA test confirms that Iesha's child is Mav's. Now Mav has to deal with the fact that he is a father, juggle school, and decide whether he wants to keep living the life of a gang member.
I always thought Maverick was an interesting character in The Hate U Give. He was very supportive of his children, and wanted better for him than he had growing up. He steered his kids away from gang life, sometimes at great risk to himself. So I loved that this book gave me more insight into how exactly Maverick turned into that caring, supportive adult.
Concrete Rose is also a look into the inner life of a person who, in pop culture and other forms of media, is rarely given a voice: a young Black teenager living in poverty who joined a gang because he thought that was his only option. We get stereotypical portrayals of people like Maverick in the media, but Concrete Rose gives readers insight into the daily life and struggles that he deals with. We learn about his rich inner life, the tough decisions he has to make, the things that make him happy, and the people who are important to him. In other words, he is human. And he gets to be human in this book without being condemned for just existing, as so many Black boys are.
I won't say more in this review because I am not the target audience for this book, and I don't feel like I can accurately speak to the experiences Maverick goes through in this book. But I did really enjoy it, and I think Angie Thomas has written another excellent book. I hope that it will find its intended audience, because I know there are kids out there who will see themselves in this book and hopefully find some comfort in that.
Concrete Rose is out January 12th