We Deserve Monuments

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We Deserve Monuments
Author(s)
Age Range
13+
Release Date
November 29, 2022
ISBN
978-1250816559
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What’s more important: Knowing the truth or keeping the peace?

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family―whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer―Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance―the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell―or if some things are better left buried.

Editor review

1 review
We Deserve Monuments
(Updated: October 27, 2022)
Overall rating
 
5.0
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
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What worked: Powerful, poignant coming-of-age story. Seventeen-year-old Avery moves from DC to a small town in Georgia to help her dying grandmother. There are many secrets that include intergenerational trauma. One of those secrets involves a tragedy with Avery's family and anger that continues to haunt the family.

I really loved this novel. Avery is biracial and when she is around her dying grandmother Letty she's slowly able to piece together what happened one fateful day in Georgia to the grandfather she never knew.

Avery hooks up with Jade, a girl whose family lives in a Southern Plantation and has their own secrets, and next-door neighbor Simone. The romance between Avery and Simone is a slow burn that has some similarities to their own mother's friendship years ago.

Readers follow Avery as she navigates such issues as homophobia, racism, and family trauma in a small Georgia town. Great pacing throughout with hope resonating at the end.

Amazing, gripping tale of trauma that is felt for generations. A total must-read.
Good Points
1. Amazing, poignant story of intergenerational trauma set in Georgia
2. Queer love story
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Powerful, beautiful and heartrending
Overall rating
 
5.0
Plot
 
5.0
Characters
 
5.0
Writing Style
 
5.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
5.0
We Deserve Monuments follows Avery, a lesbian, biracial high school senior who moves to her mother's small Georgia hometown with her parents to help her dying grandmother, Mama Letty. She doesn't know Mama Letty and barely remembers her. Her mother and grandmother start fighting almost as soon as they arrive, and Avery is determined to discover their secrets and end the hostility.
Avery initially resolves to complete her senior year with no involvement or drama, but makes two friends, one of whom becomes a love interest.
This book is a deeply complex character-driven story which navigates intergenerational trauma, the ugliness of southern racism, white privilege, homophobia, police brutality, female friendships, family secrets, and identity.
This coming-of-age debut novel is beautifully written, powerful, emotional, gripping and utterly heartrending. We Deserve Monuments deserves awards. Thank you to BookishFirst for a copy to review.
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