Just finished reading this book. It came out about a month and a half ago. It doesn’t normally take this long for me to finish a book, but I had midterms then an unfairly busy schedule the next few weeks. Anyways...Â
It’s the prequel to The Hate U Give. While this book was amazing, I really enjoyed it, I don’t think it lived up to the hard-hitting story of The Hate U Give. THUG tackled so many tough topics that were extremely relevant to the time it came out and now. I truly feel like that book will one day be considered a classic. Concrete Rose lacks that timelessness, though. The only tough topics it covers are gang life and teen pregnancy. While those are important topics, I just don’t think it lived up to my expectations.Â
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the book. A lot. I highly recommend to everyone. It adds so much to THUG. It wasn’t the kind of prequel that felt unnecessary. It truly added so many more dimensions and story to the characters in THUG.Â
If there wasn’t the context of THUG, I don’t think it would be nearly as good. It’s a prequel and it does it’s job very well.
Overall, 10/10.