Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Concrete Rose

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

139 reviews

ninascozydayreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I heard about Thomas having written a prequel to The Hate U Give (one of my favorite novels) starring Starr’s father, I bought it as soon as it came out. But, because I’m me, it took me years to actually read it. Concrete Rose is the story of Starr’s father, before he was her father, when he was just Maverick. When he was just a 17 year old kid who suddenly had a son (Starr’s older brother Seven) to provide for. Given how much I liked The Hate U Give, I was sure to love this one, and I was right. Concrete Rose is a slower read that is more character driven than plot, and therefore making this a bit harder to get into. Maverick is not without his flaws, and sure, he does bad things, but the book does a great job of showing the necessity of it all. As it details the hard choices that Maverick has to make, it also feels so real - it doesn't try to gloss over anything. It also challenges manhood, and specifically Black manhood - the ideas of what a "man" is supposed to be. As always with an Angie Thomas book, the subject matter is heavy but written in an approachable way, making this a quick but still somewhat challenging read. And let's be real Angie Thomas just knows how to write. And does it well. (bewerkt)

What I found most interesting about this novel is that it is written entirely in AAVE. Something I sometimes struggled with, as I’m not used to reading in AAVE, but that I appreciated nonetheless as it also helped in defining the character. The one point of critique I had at the AAVE was that the novel tended to explain the language used. Maverick said a lot of “what that means” to explain a term, sometimes unnecessarily so as the definition could be gathered from context, but I also feel that if you’re going to write in AAVE, embrace it fully. Add a glossary if necessary, but don’t let explanations interrupt the text. Overall, I really did enjoy this book and the characters. This however shouldn’t be the first Angie Thomas book you pick up, because it does have references to The Hate U Give that you will miss otherwise. Start at the beginning, with The Hate U Give. And then, definitely come back and read this one.

Content Warnings