We also get a vivid picture of the inner life of a conflicted young man that is tender and surprisingly sweet. In Concrete Rose, however, Maverick becomes a father in an instant and struggles to learn how to fill that role. Usually, when a book handles teen pregnancy, it follows a young mother, her decisions and struggles. I think what is especially noteworthy about this book is the focus on a single father. Maverick struggles to make ends meet, to go to school when his son keeps him up all night, and with grief after his cousin is killed in a robbery. Whereas The Hate U Give dealt with police brutality and had Maverick’s history with the gang on the side, this book deals with the difficulty Maverick faces as a young father whose own father is in prison. I think she handles heavy topics with prose that is light with hope and youth and then hits hard when the moment is right.

I really like Angie Thomas’s style as a writer in general. Thanks to my own daughter taking an uncharacteristically long nap, I read it in one day. For those who loved Starr in The Hate U Give, this book leads up to the time just before her birth. Mav renames the baby Seven, the number of perfection and a number significant to theories about the recently departed Tupac. He thought that the baby belonged to his best friend, King, but when a DNA test reveals the truth and the baby’s mother leaves the three-month-old boy with Maverick, he has to grow up fast. We got a right to show them feelings as much as anybody else.” ( Concrete Rose 163-64).Ĭoncrete Rose, the prequel to Angie Thomas’s hit book, The Hate U Give, is a moving coming of age story that focuses on a young Maverick Carter in the aftermath of finding out that he has a baby son. Guess it’s easier to not see us as human when you think we’re heartless.

“Son, one of the biggest lies ever told is that Black men don’t feel emotions.

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