I thought that even though there wasn’t a ton of super dramatic moments it still had enough to keep me intrigued and the characters were distinctive enough that I wanted to know where they ended up. Angie Thomas puts so much life and personality into every single character interaction that it's hard not to feel like you know them all on some personal level. All of the other characters were equally wonderful, however minor. It showed how strong he was from the very beginning, he loved his children and was an amazing father, despite the circumstances. Maverick was a character I really loved in that book so to get a book entirely focused on him and see all he went through it, I really enjoyed it. You can so clearly understand their emotions and their situations. Like these things are happening and you can see and feel these character's frustrations and struggles. It's not just that she depicts realistic situations and people, but that her stories feel real. I think the most special thing about her writing is just how real it is. I would recommend this book to anyone – it is an amazing book that opens your eyes about the systematic oppression black people face then and applicable to recent times with the 2020 protests about police brutality.Īngie Thomas is such a talented writer and I loved reading Concrete Rose. Since reading this book I have since read the sequel ‘The Hate U Give’ which also is about racism and police brutality. Despite this, the book handled these topics in a way that made it accessible for younger people but not bruising them off. The plot of this book was very moving with Maverick navigating his life without his cousin and having to face up to being a father at such a young age – with his own father being in prison. It was interesting seeing the different methods of communication used – at one point Maverick desperate to get hold of Lisa had to resort to leaving a note in her mailbox putting an interesting unknown to them challenge. Something that surprised me about this time period was the amount of permitted racism in this book with every single Black character whether small or big facing prominent racism throughout their life and no one saying anything or not allowing that to happen despite it not being set many years ago.

This book was set in 1998 but despite the lack of mobile phones or social media gangs were still a huge problem in society at the time. His character development throughout the book was clear – with him going from a young adult in a gang with no responsibilities to a respectful adult with two children and a job. Maverick was one of my favourite characters in this book with him appearing in the sequel to this story ‘The Hate U Give' so it was interesting seeing his backstory. I enjoyed this book so much – despite the serious topics covered it was still easy to get through.

Concrete rose review