Rating: 4/5
Concrete Park is set on a desert planet that is used as a dumping ground for criminals and exiles from Earth. These people join gangs to fight over the limited resources in the town that has formed. Conceptually, this reminded me of Bitch Planet and Escape From New York.
The book is pretty in your face from the beginning. Violence and sex abound. It is great at dialing into the character personalities and showing the struggle that these people have. Luca, the leader of an all female gang, does a nice job of trying to avoid violence though.
It is a little short for my taste. The setting is established very well, but the characters could have been developed a lot more. Since these characters are exiles, it would have been cool to find out more about their pasts. The way the book unfolds leads me to believe that this will be addressed later on, but its absence is notable.
There is quite a bit of diversity in the characters. The main character is female, there are people from different ethnic backgrounds, and some characters that might be aliens. I'm not positive on that last one because the book doesn't go into a lot of detail on these characters.
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