Editors Reads Verdict
The prequel to The Hate U Give is also its moral foundation — the story of how Maverick Carter became the father Starr needed him to be. Thomas writes the journey from gang member to man with the same unflinching care as the original.
What We Loved
- Makes Maverick's character in The Hate U Give make complete, earned sense
- The economic realities of teenage fatherhood in a low-income community are rendered without condescension
- Thomas handles the gang world with more complexity than the original novel
Minor Drawbacks
- Works best read after The Hate U Give — less standalone than her other books
- Some readers find the ending too convenient
Key Takeaways
- → Fatherhood at seventeen in a community without economic safety nets is a structural problem, not a personal failure
- → Gang membership is a rational response to specific conditions — leaving it requires both courage and alternatives
- → The father a man becomes is chosen, not inherited
| Author | Angie Thomas |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Balzer + Bray |
| Pages | 368 |
| Published | January 12, 2021 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult, Literary Fiction |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Readers of The Hate U Give who want Maverick's backstory — best read after the original rather than before. |
Maverick at Seventeen
In 1998, Maverick Carter is seventeen years old, the son of a Garden Heights gang member, with a scholarship to a school outside the neighbourhood and a girlfriend named Lisa who has just told him she is pregnant. The novel covers the year in which Maverick decides who he is going to be.
Concrete Rose is Angie Thomas’s third novel and a prequel to The Hate U Give — it tells the story of Starr’s father before Starr was born, filling in the backstory that makes Maverick’s quiet, determined parenting in the original novel make complete sense.
Why the Prequel Works
What Thomas achieves in Concrete Rose is the demonstration that Maverick’s character in The Hate U Give — his discipline, his deliberateness, his refusal to let his children be swallowed by the gang world he grew up in — was not given but built. We watch him receive the news of Lisa’s pregnancy, navigate the competing loyalties of family and gang, make a decision that costs him significantly, and emerge from it as the man he needed to become.
The specificity of 1998 Garden Heights — before smartphones, in the specific economic conditions of late-Clinton-era urban America — is well-rendered and gives the prequel its own texture distinct from the contemporary setting of its successor.
Our rating: 4.1/5 — The prequel that makes The Hate U Give’s moral architecture complete. Best read after the original.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Concrete Rose" about?
The prequel to The Hate U Give — seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter navigates early fatherhood, gang loyalty, and the decision of who to become in Garden Heights in 1998.
Who should read "Concrete Rose"?
Readers of The Hate U Give who want Maverick's backstory — best read after the original rather than before.
What are the key takeaways from "Concrete Rose"?
Fatherhood at seventeen in a community without economic safety nets is a structural problem, not a personal failure Gang membership is a rational response to specific conditions — leaving it requires both courage and alternatives The father a man becomes is chosen, not inherited
Is "Concrete Rose" worth reading?
The prequel to The Hate U Give is also its moral foundation — the story of how Maverick Carter became the father Starr needed him to be. Thomas writes the journey from gang member to man with the same unflinching care as the original.
Ready to Read Concrete Rose?
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