concrete rose – Pleasant Nights

Title: On the Come Up

Author: Angie Thomas

Genre: YA Black and African-American fiction

When this book came out, I wasn’t really interested in it because I assumed it was just about a girl trying to make it in the music business. Knowing how powerful The Hate U Give is, I really shouldn’t have made this assumption. Nothing Thomas has written is “fluffy.” Everything has depth and meaning. And although I didn’t LOVE this one like I did THUG and Concrete Rose, it’s still an excellent book with a powerful message and heart.

From Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

Bri is a character who jumps right off the page. She’s so dynamic and powerful, without being cheesy or inauthentic, as many teens girls are written. I was rooting for her the entire book. Her home life isn’t always stable, but she has love and support from her mom, brother, and friends. But when Bri’s very explicit song becomes viral, who she is deep down is quickly misinterpreted and put on display.

This book was so much better than I was expecting. The assumption was entirely my fault. Thomas is three for three in my book. I will read her next book, no doubt about it. I am so thankful for her writing and her voice for today’s teens. She’s exactly who they need.

Title: Concrete Rose

Author: Angie Thomas

Genre: YA fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A book set somewhere you’d like to visit in 2021 (California)

Reading The Hate U Give was one of the highlights of the year I read it. Written for teens, which I am resoundingly not, I was still moved by the story. When I heard Thomas was writing a prequel, I was in. Maverick was such a great father in THUG that I was excited to see how he got to that place.

From Goodreads: If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.

When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

Spoilers for The Hate U Give below…fair warning.

So, you know from reading THUG that Seven is Maverick’s kid. You know he and Lisa end up together. And you know that Maverick ends up doing the right thing because he’s a good, stable father. However, the hardest parts are meeting some characters knowing their fate. We see baby Khalil, which just broke my heart. We see baby Seven (and yes, his name is explained) but know his life isn’t going to be easy. We meet King and see just how long he’s been a force in the community. The seeds are planted in Concrete Rose (ha…see what I did there!!) and they blossom in THUG.

Like THUG, the name is taken from another Tupac work. This time a poem and the book of the same name. Here is the poem:

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

It’s a perfect title for this book. The concrete rose is EXACTLY what Maverick is. He doesn’t want to be in a gang anymore, doesn’t want to be selling drugs, feels the pressure to do so because his father did. He wants to be a good dad and eventually a business owner. But that concrete is hard to break out of. Watching Maverick do so is a joy. Concrete Rose is an excellent book, and I cannot recommend it enough.