Review: Monday's Not Coming

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Claudia returns from her summer vacation at her grandmother’s looking forward to seeing her best friend, Monday; and not looking forward to eighth grade. Her best friend, almost sister, will make being at school better.

But Monday isn’t at school. And there’s no answer at her house. Her mother and sister are around, and Claudia hears different stories: Monday is at an aunt’s. Monday is at her father’s. Monday is being homeschooled. Monday doesn’t want to be her friend anymore.

Claudia’s worry grows, even as the adults around her dismiss her concerns.

This is told beautifully, in different sections of time: Before. Before (that is, last year.) And After. Claudia is telling the story, always, but from different points of time: now, then, flashbacks. It is confusing at times, but Claudia is also confused, as she tries to find her best friend and tries to see if there were clues in the past, and also tries to survive a year without her best friend – a year without her only friend, to be honest.

In addition to a chilling mystery that made me go back and start rereading immediately, this is also a story of a close working class family in Washington DC, full of local details about places, music, food. Part of the details includes how willing the police and other adults are to ignore the pleas of one young black girl to find another young black girl.

Tiffany D. Jackson is now one of my favorite mystery authors. I recommend this highly; and to sneak in another recommendation, her book ALLEGDLY about a nine year old accused of killing an infant.







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