Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - We Deserve Monuments

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

120 reviews

shadesofdivine's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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leontyna's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Maybe some of the secrets were overdone a little, but I don't care, I loved it. It was devastating in the best possible way, I haven't read an account of difficult but still alive family relationships that felt so real in a while. I wa angry, frustrated, frightened and sad with the characters. It was amazing.

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shockyreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sarahsbookstacks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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jillgoober's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is a fantastic black, queer, young adult story about intergenerational trauma. Our main character, Avery, is forced to temporarily move from her Washington, D.C. home to her mother's old home in Georgia because her grandmother has terminal cancer. She barely knows her grandma, Mama Lettie, because of the strained relationship between her and Avery's mother. During her time there, Avery gets to know her grandmother better as she gets to know herself better too.

I really enjoyed this from beginning to end except for one little tidbit that kept me from giving it five stars. I won't be specific because it's a big spoiler but the twist at the end just didn't do it for me. I felt like it was unnecessary and it personally didn't make sense why the character would do something like that.

Despite the strange plot twist, this is still an incredible novel overall. Please be cautious in reading this if the topics of terminal cancer and family death are difficult for you.

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lit_with_lauren's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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literaryintersections's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. 2 queer teens. A mystery murder. A racist town and teens who find each other to survive racism and abuse. And a dying, grumpy, but so soft hearted grandma. This is a tear jerker for real.

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ooohgoshtara's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This novel is layered and has a lot of depth. Beware it's an emotional story. A slow burn that follows main character Avery. Avery is a queer, biracial teen. There are secrets, drama, and a decades old mystery. Avery's family uproots their life moving them from D.C. to a small southern town to stay with their dying grandmother. The relationship between Letty, Avery's grandmother and her mother Zora has been strained for years. Because of their turbulent relationship Avery and her grandmother have never gotten the chance to get to know each other. Their strained relationship made me sad. Avery does what they can to get to know Letty even though neither Letty nor her mother make this easy. Avery is discovering who they are navigating friendships, love, family, and multi-generational trauma. The characters are so well developed. I enjoyed navigating this story with them from the family dynamics to the friendships. This YA novel touches on racism, anti-blackness, police violence, homophobia, grief, terminal illness, and death. I found Avery's family struggles to be very relatable. Deep rooted resentment from past hurts, secrets, and repeating the trauma cycle generation to generation.
"All night I thought how mom uprooted our entire lives to move down here. And now all she did was swat away my questions in a half baked attempt to pretend like everything was okay. Mom had always raised me to mature and inquisitive. But when it came to our own family all of that was out the window and replaced with her don't worry about it life is short the universe is big and our problems are not bullshit."
I thought this novel was well done from beginning to end and was floored by the many revelations at the end. Loved the title and how it ties into the overall story.

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e_flah's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

We Deserve Monuments is a lyrical, compelling YA contemporary that does a fantastic job balancing an interesting story with powerful themes. I really liked how the story interrogates intergenerational trauma, legacies, and complicated family relationships.

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scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was both easy and difficult to get through — easy because the writing and plot was not hard to follow. There were tidbits of flashbacks scattered about the chapters but they didn’t take away from the main plot. And it was difficult because of the topics of grief, terminal illness, and racism. Jas Hammonds has created a story absolutely beautiful and heart-breaking, executed so perfectly in every aspect. This book isn’t just about Avery and Simone’s wonderful slow-burn romance, but also about dealing with generational trauma, grief from death of a family member, and struggling with living as a Black person in a bigoted South town. This was such an important book to read and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

Despite knowing fully how this book would end especially when terminal cancer comes into play, it was still shocking to the system and I cried so hard for all the characters. I cried when Mama Letty took her last breath, and when Avery cried in Mama Letty’s room desperate for even a last whiff of her cigarettes. I also cried with Simone’s struggles of coming out (I’m closeted with my family as well) and cried with Mama Letty recounting Ray’s memories and how he was taken and killed by a racist sheriff. I was all around a giant baby during this!

I am gutted after this one and it's going to stay with me for a really really long time. Good job, Jas Hammands and an equally good job to the narrator of the audiobook, Tamika Katon-Donegal.

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