Concrete Rose
by Angie Thomas
performed by Dion Graham
HarperAudio, 2021. 8.25 hours on 7 compact discs.
Review written August 26, 2021, from a library audiobook
Concrete Rose tells the story of seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter. As the son of a legendary gang member, now in prison, he follows in his father’s footsteps in the King Lords gang. As the book opens, he learns that a one-time incident when he and his girlfriend were on a break means that he is now a father. The same day the paternity test comes back, his baby’s mother takes off and leaves the baby with Maverick.
The rest of the book shows us Maverick figuring out what it means to be a good father. He wants to provide for his kid, so that means selling drugs with the gang, right? The owner of the store where he works after school doesn’t think so. But he doesn’t understand what Maverick is up against.
Things get more and more complicated for Maverick, and he makes some not-so-great decisions along the way, but I love the way Angie Thomas brings us along with him, not judging him, understanding how tough he has it. I also love the way she winds things up with hope at the end.
The narrator did a great job with this book. He takes on the street dialect smoothly and naturally in a way I couldn’t have necessarily reproduced reading print. Maverick tells the story in his own voice, and I felt like the kid was talking to me.
angiethomas.com
harperaudio.com
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