Reviews

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

bookness's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

sundriedangel's review against another edition

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5.0

I’ve never cried so hard reading a book. Filled with characters-mostly young black girls mainly- who deserve compassion and care, they all did the best they could. A real journey of grief and hard hard truths. There is real tenderness for friendship and girlhood here. The adults failed them. Though April and Claudia both have support in the end, they’re will always be a hole in the world where Monday could have had a beautiful life and safety too. My chest is still tight thinking about this story over a year later

niccinite's review against another edition

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3.0

I'm very conflicted about how I feel about this book. The story is good, the execution is ehhhhh. In the book Monday disappears and nobody seems to notice except her best friend Claudia. Claudia tries to get the adults around her to notice and take action and it seems that nobody really takes her seriously. What I liked least about this book is the jump in the timeline. It goes from 'Before' to 'After' to 'Two Years Before Before' etc...it's a bit confusing and unnecessary.

nathaleyr7's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

wauu730's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.75

thealien_em's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

emldavis001's review against another edition

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4.0

(4.5)

heidikundin's review against another edition

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3.0

I know what you’re thinking. How can a whole person, a kid, disappear and no one say a word? Like, if the sun just up and left one day, you’d think someone would sound an alarm, right? But Ma used to say, not everyone circles the same sun. I never knew what she meant by that until Monday went missing.

3.5 stars

There is a lot in Monday's Not Coming that does it right, and Tiffany Jackson draws attention to all of the things that need to brought to light - child abuse, the disproportionate amount of attention given to missing Black girls and other women of color, and the way the overwhelmed system is set up to be dismissive of certain situations and allegations. However, as much as it pains me to say it, there are also definitely some shortcomings in the novel as well.

First, as many other reviewers have mentioned, the pacing and the timeline is scattered and confusing. I was pretty pleased with myself for having no trouble following the timeline...and then I hit the 80% mark and everything fell apart for me. Despite having a good understanding of the previous timelines, there were things in the ending that just didn't seem to make any sense or line up, which made the ending rather unsatisfying for me.

I also had trouble reading Claudia as a teenager (she really reads like a ten-year-old much of time), and even with all of the pieces of the puzzle put together at the end, though I better understood why it was written that way, I still didn't love it.

I very much appreciate what Tiffany Jackson was trying to do with Monday's Not Coming, but honestly, I wish that it would have just been more straightforward and less of a twisty trip through Claudia's mind. This was a solid 4-star read for me up until the very end, but I had to round down due to the jumbled confusion that followed.

sirrydactyl's review against another edition

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5.0

There are so many layers in this book! I highly recommend this book to everyone. I hope to give a more in depth review soon!

mzdeebabii's review against another edition

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5.0

Too Many Mondays

This book had me in a chokehold bad. It’s like I wanted to know so badly what happened to Monday but I was scared to find out. Most of ‘us’ know a Monday. It hits different when you know deep down this could be your story, your best friend’s story, family member etc. Too many Mondays’ stories go untold.