Concrete Rose, which derives its title from a poem by Tupac Shakur, is a story of survival and a story of becoming. Set some seventeen years earlier, this book charts the young adulthood of Starr Carter’s father, Maverick Carter. Concrete Rose is the much-anticipated prequel to Thomas’ best-selling The Hate U Give. And her sense of responsibility makes her latest book, Concrete Rose, a particularly rewarding slice of YA. The genre shares a quiet commonality with Abolitionist thinking: a serious assessment of the world as it stands, paired with an intention to push it forwards.Īs an author, Angie Thomas is keenly aware of both the reach and influence of her work. There’s a ‘moral to the story’, some kind of aspirational sense of direction. At the same time, the genre offers ways through. Part of what YA does is to present and unpack the world as it is, with critical narratives that offer resonance to readers at impressionable points in their lives. Not only is its reach substantial, with breakout books topping best-seller lists for hundreds of weeks at a time - not to mention the continuing age of the Netflix adaptation - but as a literary genre it also operates in a key space.
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