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britt_writerly's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
"Painful but necessary"
It took me four months to read this book. It's so painful to read about a Black children being overlooked, abused, under-served, and forgotten. The amount of people who refused to care, to look, to protect Monday and August is disgusting and demoralizing. I already knew this happened in theory but reading an individual account isn't the same as abstract statistics. I'm glad this book exists because statistics are escapable. Stories stick.
The plot twist is out of this world and you will NOT see it coming. The one reason I gave it a 4.50 and not a straight 5.0 is that the "Before" and "After" separation was confusing (which maybe was the point) but I never figured out exactly what the separation was (but that might be explained by the plot twist so it's hard to retroactively assess it).
The characters in this book are amazing. Tiffany Jackson does a great job with them-- even the ones you hate, hate, HATE are perfect. Claudia and Monday are perfect in their friendship, Claudia's parents are perfect in their guardianship, Marcus is THE BEST fullstop. Everyone is just super real and they all play their part in the story, no matter how frustrating or admirable we think they are. Even though it's a plot-driven book and you don't see the last threads coming together until the very end, it's the characters' motivations that resolve the narrative.
The last thing I'll say (because it's still just difficult to think about and process) is that the treatment of trauma is the most understated and ah-mazing I've seen in ya contemporary fiction. Claudia's PTSD is legitimately hard to see at first and once we do see it, it's shattering. Truly, you never know how trauma will show itself but a solid support system is everything and the fact that Claudia has it is one of the things I'm most grateful for in the book.
Monday's Not Coming is one of the hardest books I've ever read and I'll probably never be able to read it again. But you should read it at least once.
It took me four months to read this book. It's so painful to read about a Black children being overlooked, abused, under-served, and forgotten. The amount of people who refused to care, to look, to protect Monday and August is disgusting and demoralizing. I already knew this happened in theory but reading an individual account isn't the same as abstract statistics. I'm glad this book exists because statistics are escapable. Stories stick.
The plot twist is out of this world and you will NOT see it coming. The one reason I gave it a 4.50 and not a straight 5.0 is that the "Before" and "After" separation was confusing (which maybe was the point) but I never figured out exactly what the separation was (but that might be explained by the plot twist so it's hard to retroactively assess it).
The characters in this book are amazing. Tiffany Jackson does a great job with them-- even the ones you hate, hate, HATE are perfect. Claudia and Monday are perfect in their friendship, Claudia's parents are perfect in their guardianship, Marcus is THE BEST fullstop. Everyone is just super real and they all play their part in the story, no matter how frustrating or admirable we think they are. Even though it's a plot-driven book and you don't see the last threads coming together until the very end, it's the characters' motivations that resolve the narrative.
The last thing I'll say (because it's still just difficult to think about and process) is that the treatment of trauma is the most understated and ah-mazing I've seen in ya contemporary fiction. Claudia's PTSD is legitimately hard to see at first and once we do see it, it's shattering. Truly, you never know how trauma will show itself but a solid support system is everything and the fact that Claudia has it is one of the things I'm most grateful for in the book.
Monday's Not Coming is one of the hardest books I've ever read and I'll probably never be able to read it again. But you should read it at least once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, and Violence
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