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

challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I I'm not gonna lie, it's been like a week and a half since I finished this book so my memory of it isn't the most coherent, but I'll try my best. Okay, not gonna lie, I went into this book with the wrong expectations. I was kinda expecting it to be "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" type of format where the main character was discovering where her friend had gone and was gathering clues on what sparked her disappearance and the past timeline on the things that the main character missed. It's not really that so if you're like me don't go into this book expecting that.

No, this is more of a book about Claudia who throughout the book is concerned as to where her best friend has gone and scrambles to figure out why her friend would abandon her the way she did. Throughout the story you see Claudia worry and get dismissed by almost every adult she encounters. In the second half, she actively tries to find out what happened to Monday as well as simultaneously trying to figure out how to live her life without Monday.

There are a lot of important themes
Themes of learning disability. And how people in the black community view them. How black girls are neglected by government officials in their times of need. As well as the influences that cause a lot of black trauma and how the girls especially are forced into adult-like situations and behaviors at such a young age. And just so much.
in this book. And I feel like once you've finished reading, all the messages start to hit. However, I will say that the execution could've been better.

The past timelines are confusing and don't become clear till towards the end of the book. I feel like you've have to reread this book and have those timelines actually make sense. I'm still iffy on the twist.
It kinda boggles me that everyone would just fall in line in pretending that Claudia is two years younger than she is and that no one would try to break her out of it. Also, it always feels cheap to me to use a form of mental disorder to shock the reader.
Even with what happens in the end, I still can't fathom Claudia being a teenager. She literally thinks like a 10-year-old. I thought she was much younger than she was until they mentioned she was about to graduate middle school and head to high school.

I'm still annoyed that no one in this book pointed out how codependent Monday and Claudia's friendship was. Like she genuinely felt like she couldn't live without her; it was a little odd and obsessive for my taste. And they're also kinda fake to each other sometimes. Also the weird age gap between Claudia's mother (who met him at 19) and her dad (who met her mom at 29). Yes, they're both consenting adults, but she was barely a legal adult when she met the dad. I just found that creepy considering Tiffany D. Jackson literally has another book called "Grown" centered around the topic of grooming and pedophilia. I lowkey wanted the dad to end up being a villain or something because their age gap from when they met gives me the ick.


Another thing that bothered me was how underdeveloped certain characters were. Like Monday's sister for example even toward the end the motivations for her actions are still unclear to me, as well as why people kept calling her a hoe the entire book. I felt like there was more depth to that but it wasn't explored. Also, Monday's mother felt like a caricature.
She literally kills both her children and acts all nonchalant about it. And if she was depicted that way throughout the entire I would've believed it more but her being this cold-hearted psychopath just doesn't suit the story in my opinion. Like why did she kill her children?! Her just being cold-hearted isn't cutting it for me.
I did like the little romance between Claudia and Michael. I thought that was cute. I liked the whole colors thing too. Overall, a decent book. The Flowers in the Attic allusion was a nice touch. I literally watched the movie a few days later because of this book.
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