This was a devastating, haunting, emotional whirlwind of a book. We follow 8th grader Claudia as she tries to unravel what has happened to her best friend, Monday (nobody else even acknowledges Monday's absence).

 Tiffany D. Jackson covers some hard hitting topics around community responsibility and child abuse and the many unexplained disappearances of Black children.

Monday's Not Coming is a young adult book and the main characters are teenagers, but I found it to be a very poignant read as an adult. I almost think I found it more emotionally devastating now than I perhaps would have as a 13 year old – but the writing style is definitely targeted towards younger audiences. And the mystery elements, too. Reading as an adult ... there was no mystery at all. I knew exactly what had happened to Monday from the first chapters. But it didn't make this read any less painful.

The final twist was the main reason this wasn't a 5 star read for me. It felt weak, unnecessary, and not well thought out compared to the rest of the book ... like for some reason we needed one final moment of shock.

But this will be a book that sticks with me for a long time ...

CW: child death, child abuse, bullying, grief, homophobia, physical & emotional abuse, confinement, miscarriage, mental illness, slut shaming, psychosis