A review by mepresley
Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really enjoyed this novel and found it to be a page-turner. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. Jackson does a fantastic job building suspense, even when the reader knows more than our narrator, Claudia. She also does really well with capturing the voice and mindset of a young teenager. Claudia lacks confidence and is self-absorbed, though she’s also a very sympathetic character.
We see this youthful naïveté principally through Claudia’s blindness to the glaring signs that Monday is being abused, and through Claudia being stuck in the denial and anger stages of grief about Monday’s disappearance, focusing more for most of the narrative on Monday leaving her and the effects that has on Claudia than on concern for Monday’s well-being. It’s extremely human of her.


Jackson deftly weaves the narrative, jumping back and forth in time, and paints a vivid picture of the soul sister —Claudia’s words—friendship between Claudia and Monday.

I knew that
Monday was dead from the start, though I admit that Jackson got me to question it when Tuesday was talking about playing with Monday, even though Monday spent so much time in the closet, and when the social worker reported back to the school that he had seen Monday. At that point, my main theory was that Monday had gotten pregnant and her mom was hiding it by keeping Monday essentially as a hostage in the house. I was surprised at the We Were Liars-style twist: Claudia’s extreme mental health issues and amnesia even in the face of having been told the truth repeatedly—that she has been doing this same song and dance (appropriate metaphor—idiom?—given that Claudia and Monday love dance) for two years.

The ending was a lovely tribute to Monday, and reminded me quite a bit of the touching final dance with Sam and Jules in one of my favorite YA novels ever, A Time for Dancing.


Ultimately, I was frustrated that
we didn’t get to see more of Monday’s journal.
I was a little confused as to when
the bodies were recovered from the freezer and the funeral was held. Did that happen two years ago even though it seemed to be essentially in the present day?
 

Oh, I also love that we see Claudia’s immense growth
as a writer, from before we even know about her dyslexia; she’s composing this entire story as a kind of therapy exercise, and she does a beautiful job.
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