“Jackson’s characters and their heart-wrenching story linger long after the final page, urging readers to advocate for those who are disenfranchised and forgotten by society and the system.” (Publishers Weekly, “An Anti-Racist Children’s and YA Reading List”)
From the critically acclaimed author of Allegedly, Tiffany D. Jackson, comes a gripping novel about the mystery of one teenage girl’s … gripping novel about the mystery of one teenage girl’s disappearance and the traumatic effects of the truth.
Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried.
When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help.
As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?
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Have you ever read a book where the characters and events linger in your mind long after you have finished it? This is that book! An amazingly, haunting, yet unforgettable book about the realities of life!
This book felt like I was watching a documentary on the disappearance of a teenage girl by her best friend, both the one person who knew something was wrong and a narrator who is just a kid and can a kid that young really see everything that’s going on the first time they experience it?
Suspenseful and raw, the author doesn’t hold back about the truth about abuse in families, the sinkholes in the educational and social service systems that allow far too many of our girls to tumble in, the things our brains and hearts do to protect ourselves and others from pain.
Jumping back and forth in time, this brilliantly written novel is a force, making just the right impact without being gratuitous or patronizing the reader (who will most likely be a teenager).
Highly, highly recommend it.
Monday’s Not Coming is a gripping tale that left me haunted. How often do children go missing and no one dares to ask why? It’s a sad truth wonderfully brought to light through the struggle of a young girl who misses her best friend. It’s a ‘must read’.
Well worth reading.
This book captured my interest – it was a mystery, and the author made me feel invested in the two girls in the book, as well as the difficulty the m.c. has in determining where her friend, Monday, is. The author kept me guessing at the plot until the very end.
The premise of the book was interesting, but there were several points throughout the story where I found the culture and setting inaccessible. Some of the characters were engaging, but confusion in the narrative prevented me from complete immersion in the unfolding tale.
This was inspired by two tragically similar events that happened, one in Detroit and one in Washington. For me it reinforced the need to pay attention to the children around us. Monday never came back to school after summer vacation and her best friend refused to give up searching for her. Being acquainted with the real story I knew the outcome but by showing it from a different point of view made it even more heartbreaking. Read this book with tissues.
Staggering.
This book takes a big 180 and does not end the way you think it should! Could not put it down.
Come for the page-turning mystery, stay for the charming, poignant, and absolutely fierce friendship between Claudia and Monday. When Washington D. C. middle schooler Monday Charles goes missing, Claudia won’t rest until she finds out what happened to her best friend—even when no one else takes her concerns seriously. And they should really listen.
Monday’s Not Coming is a hard book to review. Its an important book that touches on something that has happened and is happening in the world. I felt the foreboding and it chilled me to the bones. I will never be able to shake this book from my mind and it will haunt me like a scary movie. I want to cry so hard at the things that happened in this book. Tiffany Jackson sheds light on a hard and neglected issue that needs to be spoken about. By the end I truly applaud her what she’s done with this book.
So why the 3 stars? I rated this book low because while it is definitely an important book that needs to read about, I think a lot of the execution failed. The book jumps back and forth between the “Before”, “After”, and “Before the Before.” Its very confusing. But I will not say what each part entails because it is like a slap in the face at the end when you understand the timeline. It was very shocking and unexpected. Some may like it, some may not. I liked it despite how confusing it was while reading.
My other issue was that I could bring myself to like the main character Claudia. She was very immature for her age. Yes, she is in junior high school, but she acted like a little kid. I think some of this has to do with the fact that her parents may have babied her and her best friend Monday enabled her for reasons of her own. I skimmed through a lot of parts because Monday is just so boring. She has no friends, lets people punk her, and is borderline obsessed with her only friend. I mean they did have a great friendship and Claudia cared about Monday’s whereabouts when no one else did, but their friendship consumed her. It just made for hard reading.
But what I will say about this book is that it does a great job of showing how kids in bad neighborhoods/homes and troubled youth get overlooked. Mostly, minorities. It broke my heart for Claudia to have to see the kind of life Monday had. No one was concerned but her and a few staff at the school. This is truly a sad story that probably happens to kids all the time and its enough to make you sick.
Monday’s Not Coming is brilliant. I appreciated this author for writing this book. There are plenty of Monday’s in this world and no one cares. So while I do have issues with this book, I still recommend reading it.