Concrete Rose is a 2021 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is a prequel to The Hate U Give and details a pivotal year in young Maverick Carter's life.
Tropes for this book include:
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: Mr. Wyatt after Mav tries to convince him he's not higher than the stratosphere."Aww, Mr. Wyatt! C'mon! I ain't high.""And I'm James Brown.""You ain't got enough hair for that."
- Apathetic Student: Iesha. Maverick tries to avert this, but school is the easiest place for him to sleep once he starts working at the grocery store and taking care of his infant son.
- Bittersweet Ending: Maverick seems to have reconciled with Lisa and we know they’ll end up married from The Hate U Give...and we also know that Maverick will eventually only be able to get out of the King Lords by doing jail time in King’s stead, thereby missing some of Seven’s and Starr’s childhoods.
- Black and Nerdy: In chapter 7, Maverick reveals that he enjoys World lit and is a fan of William Shakespeare’s plays.
- Blatant Lies: Every time King tells Maverick he doesn’t mind that Iesha’s son is Maverick’s.
- Chekhov's Gun: Dre's watch. The same watch that Red wears after his murder.
- Disappeared Dad: Several characters have fathers who are dead, in prison, or just not around. Averted with Maverick, who takes care of Seven as best he knows how.
- Delusions of Eloquence: P-Nut makes this an art form.
- Drugs Are Bad: Explored. Selling drugs is very lucrative, and Maverick wants to provide for his son, but he’s also trying to provide for his son legally.
- Flower Motifs: Roses are an extended metaphor for Maverick.
- Foregone Conclusion: Readers of The Hate U Give will know that Iesha's baby is Maverick's son Seven and that Lisa is indeed pregnant with Starr.
- Gangbangers: The King Lords and the Garden Disciples. Maverick’s father is the former crown of the King Lords and Maverick had to join the gang for protection. Mav’s best friends, King, Rico, and Junie, all are members of the King Lords, as is his cousin Dre. Also, Mav initially suspects Ant, a Garden Disciple, of murdering Dre in a gang-related territory dispute (Dre had been racing his car in GD territory).
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Mr. Wyatt's "Heaven yes!".
- Karma Houdini: Red ultimately gets away with murdering Dre.
- I Have a Family: Red, pleading for mercy after Mav finds out he murdered Dre, who had a fiancée and infant daughter he adored. Mav immediately calls this out.
- Inner City School: Garden Heights’ only high school, which is actually called Jefferson Davis High School (but no one calls it that).
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Maverick and Iesha conceive Seven after having sex once due to a broken condom. Maverick then has unprotected sex only once with Lisa, who also gets pregnant with Starr.
- Meaningful Name: So many.
- “Maverick” means “independent thinker,” and Maverick’s middle name, Malcolm, is a reference to Malcolm X.
- Maverick names his son “Seven,” the number of perfection.
- King is named for the King Lords.
- Andreanna is named after her father, Dre (Andre).
- Starr, of course, is named for light, because she was in utero during a dark time in her father’s life.
- Meaningful Echo: The introduction is repeated almost word for word when Mav prepares himself to kill Red, but with a darker tone to signify that Mav isn't playing anymore.When it comes to the streets, there's rules.They ain't written down, and you won't find them in a book. It's natural stuff you know the moment your Momma let you out the house. Kinda like how you know how to breathe without somebody telling you. If there was a book, though, there would be a whole section on streetball...But when it comes to the streets, there's rules. Nobody will ever write them down, and you'll never find them in a book. It's stuff you need in order to survive the moment your momma let you out the house.If there was a book, the most important section would be on family, and the first rule would be:When somebody kills your family, you kill them.
- Men Don't Cry: Fabulously deconstructed by Mr. Wyatt before Maverick releases his bottled grief for the first time after Dre's murder:"Son, one of the biggest lies ever told is that Black men don't feel emotions. Guess it's easier to not see us as human when you think we're heartless. Fact of the matter is, we feel things. Hurt, pain, sadness, all of it. We got a right to show them feelings as much as everybody else."
- Morton's Fork: In Mav's self-perception. If he stays as a gangbanger, he considers himself filthy. If he leaves, he considers himself weak. Whichever path he takes, he thinks he's failed as a man. He eventually chooses to leave the gangbanger life.
- Oh, Crap!: Maverick realizes that Red may have murdered Dre when he sees Red wearing Dre’s watch. This leads to a major “Oh, crap!” moment not just for Maverick, but for Red, who fears retribution.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Dre, whose real name is Andre. Also, Red, whose real name is Jerome.
- Maverick is frequently called “Lil’ Don,” which gives him complicated feelings about living in his father’s shadow.
- P-Nut, whose real name we never learn.
- Parents as People: The book casts a brutally harsh light on the realities of teen parenthood.
- Please Wake Up: Maverick to Dre after he is shot in the head."Dre, wake up! C'mon, man! Wake up!"
- Polyamory: Faye, Maverick's mother, is dating Mo, what with Maverick's father Adonis being in prison. Adonis isn't thrilled about this arrangement, but he knows about it and eventually comes to peace with it because Mo makes Faye so happy.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Explored. Maverick believes this at first, at least in terms of avenging the murder of a family member. He eventually avenges them not by killing their murderer, but living the way they would've wanted him to live, and becomes a man by choosing his own path in life.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. Wyatt, who helps Maverick learn how to garden and run the grocery store, and who notably gives Maverick a second “strike” instead of firing him outright when Mav shows up to work one day high as a kite.
- We also know from The Hate U Give that Mr. Wyatt re-hired Maverick after he got out of prison and that Maverick eventually took over the grocery store.
- Sex for Solace: The tryst that led to Seven's conception; Iesha had sex with Maverick to take his mind off of his girlfriend Lisa breaking up with him. Also happens between Maverick and Lisa after Dre’s funeral.
- Shout-Out:
- To On The Come Up. Maverick and Dre listen to Bri's father Lawless' new LP.
- To Tupac Shakur. The book's title, section headings, and metaphor applied to Maverick are all based his poem "The Rose That Grew from Concrete", and Mav and Dre discuss him.
- Tangled Family Tree: We see the beginnings of this with King, Maverick, and Iesha. Specifically, Iesha becomes pregnant by a one-night stand with Maverick, and everyone thinks the baby is King's until a DNA test proves otherwise. Later, Maverick gets Lisa pregnant, and King and Iesha get back together which results in another pregnancy. When Maverick finds out about this at a family Thanksgiving, he compares the ridiculousness of the situation to a soap opera.
- Teen Pregnancy: Several occur over the course of the story, which is lampshaded by several characters, including Maverick himself, thinking "What the hell in the water around here?" when he finds out that Iesha is pregnant with King's child, who readers of The Hate U Give will know is King and Iesha's oldest daughter, Starr's friend Kenya.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Where Maverick lives. In the first scene, we hear Lisa's brother Carlos call Rose Park, where Maverick was playing basketball, a "gangbanger park."
