It’s a lot of change and a lot of pressure, and Maverick doesn’t know how to tell his girlfriend Lisa about the baby, and doesn’t want to sell weed anymore now that he is a father who needs to be there. In “Concrete Rose” he’s seventeen, he’s a member of the King Lords (the gang his father was a high ranking member of), and he’s just found out that he’s the father of a three month old baby that had previously been believed to be his best friend’s (you may remember King from THUG). When we met Maverick in “The Hate U Give”, he is a loving father and very well respected member in his community of Garden Heights. While her previous works have tackled social justice themes and Black girlhood, “Concrete Rose” now has a focus on that of Black boyhood, and the difficulties it can entail in a racist society. And I was very interested to see where that backstory went. We were finally going to get the backstory for Maverick Carter, Starr’s compelling father in “The Hate U Give”. I was STUNNED when I saw that it was available for request on NetGalley, but took advantage of that and downloaded it. Both that one and “The Hate U Give” made my lists, so when “Concrete Rose”, her newest novel, was announced I knew that it would be the first to keep the promise. Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!īack in 2019 when Angie Thomas’s “On The Come Up” made my Favorite Read list for the year, I promised myself that even though her genre isn’t usually one I cover, I would make exception for her books.

He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father. Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords.

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.īook Description: International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood. Publishing Info: Balzer + Bray, January 2021

Concrete rose review