If books are our life, then music is our reason for living, book nerds. Just like superstar YA author Angie Thomas did for her sophomore novel On The Come Up, she’s back with an official playlist we can jam to while reading her latest and greatest literary installment, Concrete Rose. Music is a huge influence in all our lives, and artists and writers are no exception!
Angie Thomas’s latest novel is the story we need to kick off the new year. You can catch a sneak peek here, but here’s the premise: Maverick Carter, Starr’s father in The Hate U Give, is seventeen years old coming of age in Garden Heights in the 90s. Check out the trailer to learn more, and learn how this gorgeous cover art came to be! And we would be remiss not to include the reactions from Angie herself, of course. Classic.
Without further ado, check out the stellar playlist below, and peep a few choice songs we decided to call out that really speak to what Concrete Rose is all about. Mav may be juggling a lot of competing responsibilities on his plate, but he does so with grace, determination, and humor, which is Angie Thomas’s specialty.
Concrete Rose
THE OFFICIAL PLAYLIST
Track 1: The Rose That Grew From Concrete
The title is pretty self-explanatory, but there’s always room to ~dig~ a little deeper. The title of the book, Concrete Rose, is an homage to Tupac’s book of poetry, “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.” Tupac also inspired the title and content in The Hate U Give.
Track 5: Baby Don’t Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)
Mav learns early on in the book that big, life-changing news is coming his way. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at first when life throws such drastic changes, but there’s only one thing you can do: keep your head up and keep going.
Track 9: How Long Will They Mourn Me?
A violent crime becomes personal, and changes Mav’s life forever. He’s devastated, overwhelmed, angry, and hell-bent on revenge. But what is the best way to mourn the dead? This is just another question Mav asks with in this book.
Track 23: Me Against the World
Becoming a father is hard work. Mav finds himself with no spare time—or money—to lose. His social life dies down, and Mav feels more alone than ever. He knows he’s not, but sometimes it’s hard to see beyond the daily grind that seemingly has no end in sight.
Track 40: End of the Road
Like this song, Mav is a romantic. He’s only got eyes for the love of his life, Lisa, and no matter how many times she hints that he needs to work to deserve her, he never stops putting in the work. Mav’s love is unquestionable and true, and we can’t help but Feel Things when we hear this song.
Track 61: Thuggish Ruggish Bone
As she did in The Hate U Give, Thomas proves with Concrete Rose that, however Garden Heights and its community are portrayed on the outside, there are so many more stories on the inside. This community is full of vibrant voices, and they deserve to be heard, starting with Maverick’s.
About Concrete Rose
International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.
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.