Thomas Takes it Back

The Hate U Give sequel hits shelves

By: Lacie Naden

If you liked Ange Thomas’s award-winning novel The Hate U Give, then you might like her newest book, Concrete Rose, released on January 12th. Thomas’s follow-up to her 2017 bestseller, is already the number one book on the New York Times young adult list. 

Concrete Rose returns to the neighborhood of Garden Heights, a place to get drugs, jumped, pregnant, or shot according to the book’s protagonist Maverick Carter. In the Heights, there’s always a party raging somewhere, and despite the fun and dangerous atmosphere, the rules of the neighborhood are clear: do no snitch. If you snitch you’ll end up getting jumped and risk the safety of your whole family. 

While The Hate U Give is about Starr Carter and her family, Concrete Rose is a prequel telling readers the back story of Starr’s dad and his friends. Maverick (Big Mav) Carter thinks he has his whole life figured out, that is until he finds out he’s a father at the age of seventeen. Going to school, selling drugs, and taking care of a baby is hard work. As Mav struggles to juggle work, school, and a baby, he encounters unforeseen struggles. 

Concrete Rose is one of the best books that I have read this year. This book deserves to get a 10 out of 10 stars. Thomas is really good at vividly describing the events that are happening and sucking the reader into her world. The plot is fresh and the ending unexpected; just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, a twist would come along and change everything I thought I knew.