A review by beereadsya
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

5.0

Revising my review since we're about to do a big presentation on this book and i think it's important to actually write down my feelings on the book!

To summarize, this is the prequel to The Hate U Give, a book about a 16-year-old black girl named Starr Carter being the sole witness to the shooting of her friend by a white cop. Concrete Rose is the story of Starr's father, Maverick, and his life during his final year of high school.

This book, to sum it up, is a masterpiece, and it's a book that made me feel everything all at once. We were reading this together as a class, but I broke and had to end up reading ahead and finishing the book simply because of how good it is. Angie Thomas is a genius and deserves all her flowers for her writing and the way she conveys such powerful messages through her books. I've read and enjoyed all her novels, and they all have the same way of making you feel and connect with the characters, and really see the world through the eyes of these characters.

Maverick is such a well thought out character, too. From this book, we see exactly how Maverick became the man that he was in T.H.U.G, we see the stressful and traumatizing events leading up to T.H.U.G, and we see his own personal struggles with self doubt, poverty, wanting his own identity, and how he deals with his own mistakes or misfortune. He's a well rounded character without being perfect, and one that everyone can root for.

all in all.. 5/5 stars for a wonderful book and writer, with engaging characters and many lessons to be learned tied into the words and actions of the cast.