4 starred reviews!

Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer’s Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home.

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

I was looking on TikTok about a week ago, for some disturbing books. I couldn’t find anything that struck my fancy, so I went on Pinterest and came across a pin about this book, along with a few others. So of course, I bought it.

First, I 100% suggest going in blind – if you can of course. I know a lot of us need to read the blurb but with this book, it was so much more fun, going in with no information at all.

Now I will preface this by saying that this is NOT a romance, while there are some romantic elements in it. It’s YA and packs quite the punch. It’s like Orange Is The New Black but with younger characters. Also, the main premise of this book is that the lead character “killed a baby”, so if that’s a trigger, please read with caution.

This book is raw and gritty in the best of ways. It’s dark, written well and kept me engaged from the first few chapters in to the end. I will be honest and say that it did take me about 3 chapters to get fully invested in this story but once I did, wow. Just wow.

Mary…oh Mary. I really couldn’t predict the outcome of this book. I was a mixture of feelings when it came to this girl. And I say “girl” because she is just a kid.

Mary was accused of killing a baby and this book recounts what actually happened. It’s a “did Mary actually kill this baby?” kind of story. We don’t even know exactly who Mary is until the very end of the book. Now I did glance at some reviews saying that they lowered their star rating based on the last chapter but I honestly thought it ended perfectly. I was left in shock and I sat there for a few minutes after turning that last page and thinking “wow.” Now that’s a job well done on the author part.

I won’t give much away because like I said, I do suggest going in not knowing much about this book at all.

So if you like stories filled with grit, mystery, family drama, and “who dunnit” moments, I highly reccommend reading this one!

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