"Magic was actually two shades of lipstick staining a shared Coke bottle. Magic was sweat-slick dancing to mantle-deep beats, magic was renaming constellations after Black women because who else could be worthy?"

I was already intrigued by this one from the synopsis and beautiful cover and it was definitely worth that and more! I loved the exploration of the different relationships - whether that be the friendship between Avery, Simone and Jade, the beginning of Avery & Simone, or the mending of the bond between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty (absolutely LOVED her! 🥰), the beautiful representation and existence of the queer community (In serious need of a Renaissance and the community inside! 😍), and the added bonus of a mystery woven in.

I felt seen in so many areas while reading, and though pieces of the story hit me deep in my feelings, I’m extremely grateful for the experience I had with this one!

*Thanks to Roaring Book Press, NetGalley and Hear Our Voices Book Tours for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.*

This is an ambitious but brilliantly executed coming-of-age debut that focuses on Avery as she tries to make a home for herself in a small Southern town and get to know her dying grandmother. Avery, her family and friends, and Mama Letty are all memorable and realistically drawn characters, and while this novel is emotional and complex, it was also very fun to read about Avery making friends and falling in love for the first time. Avery slowly learns the history of her own family as well as the dark history of the town, and following the mysteries definitely kept me turning the pages. I am so impressed that this is a debut and know I will be picking up the next thing Jas Hammonds has to offer us. I can't wait to recommend this to teen readers who are looking for complex queer characters, deep family relationships, and richly drawn settings.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful book. It tells of one family's attempt to heal from the past, both what they have done to each other and what has been done to them. It is a story about racism, both past and present, about homophobia both past and present. About three girls with intertwinned family histories, that threaten to destroy their friendships. It is also a love story of two girls and a love story of healing from the hurts we have caused each other 4.5

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and I am happy to say it has lived up to my expectations.

The. book follows the protagonist Avery as she moves to a small town as a senior in high school to live with her grandmother. Throughout the story, we follow Avery as she learns more about her family's past and the relationship between her mom and grandmother. We see how Avery begins to embrace herself more but also how her mother's relationship with her grandmother comes to affect her.

This book deals with extremely heavy topics revisiting the past, but Hammonds does a wonderful job tying it to the present time and how it affects those today. There are so many themes in the book that are tied perfectly together. It was a balanced book about hope and friendship while revisiting heavy topics.

I loved Avery, Simone, and many other characters in the book. All were well rounded dynamic characters that I loved following along with. With that said, I do feel at times that the book is much more character driven rather than plot driven which did slow down the story in some parts, but this is only minor to me and didn't drag the story on for too long.

This should be required reading, wow. It's that good. I was in awe by the emotion brought forth from the main character and the journey she has to go on. Wow, just... wow.

4.5 stars for sure! Only took a half star away for how some of the scenes dragged on. Overall, I absolutely adored this novel about family trauma, reparations, culture, grief, etc. I cried many times and I can't wait to tell all my library teens to read it when it comes out!

While I was enjoying the book, it moved very slowly and I could see where exactly it was going. It could tell it wasn’t going to meet the needs of my book club. Therefore I abandoned it to move onto something else.

This book had me sobbing towards the end.

Avery had what she thought was a good life in DC. She had two friends, one became a girlfriend. But the relationship ended and things felt weird. She wanted to finish her senior year and get into a good college. Avery's grandma is dying from cancer and her mom decides to move them in with Mama Letty in a small town in Georgia. Avery's mom and grandma had a falling out and Avery hasn't seen her in 10+ years. She doesn't want to be there. Not only do Avery's mom and Mama Letty fight, but Avery and her mom start fighting too. It's always super tense. Mama Letty isn't the nicest person, but Avery started to get her to warm a bit. She wanted to know all about Mama Letty and her grandfather that she never met. She found out things that were terrible and started to understand why Mama Letty was the way that she was. Avery doesn't want to make friends, but she becomes close to Simone and Jade. Simone lives next door. Jade's family is old money and they live on a plantation. Her parents are terrible people and it causes problems between her and Avery at times. Avery starts to have feelings for Simone and tries to hide it. Things in this small town are still not progressive. Simone and Jade have a no dating anyone pact. The longer Avery is in Georgia, the more she starts to open up and be herself. She doesn't have to be perfect anymore.

I loved Mama Letty. Her relationship with Avery made me cry. The book had some chapters that were about other people in the past and I enjoyed those. It really added to the story. This was an emotional read and very character driven. It was easy to love all of them. I wanted to know about the unsolved crime and I'm glad there was something about it towards the end.

I gave this book 5 stars. It's a great debut novel.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a link for netgalley.

Warnings for racism, homophobia, murder, cancer.

We Deserve Monuments is an incredible story of how prejudice affects three generations of women - Letty, the grandmother, Zora, the mother, and Avery, the daughter.

Avery is a high school senior, getting ready to apply to colleges and follow in her mother's footsteps as an astrophysicist. But when her mother gets a letter from her grandmother Letty's next door neighbor that Letty is dying of cancer, Avery is dragged to Bardell, Georgia with her parents.

To say that Letty and Zora are at odds with each other would be understating their rancor. Letty doesn't want Avery, Sam and Zora at her house. She is rude, grumpy, dismissive, and completely unwilling to do anything to improve her health, like stop smoking. Zora has brought Avery to Bardell just once in her life, and Avery barely remembers anything from that visit, other than the fighting between her mother and grandmother. Zora's motto in life is to "Live Forward," not revisiting the past or discussing it at all. Avery knows very little about her grandmother or her grandfather Ray, who disappeared before Zora was born.

At first, Avery plans to just survive her time in Bardell and focus on college applications, and her plan to go to Georgetown University. But her next door neighbor, Simone, captures her heart the second she sees her, and Avery can't help but become friends with Simone and her best friend, Jade. The best friends welcome her with open arms, and support her as she tries to connect with Mama Letty, discover what history her mother is hiding, and find out about her grandfather, whom her mother and grandmother don't want to talk about.

I don't want to spoil any of the plot, so I'll stop there, but I will say that this book touches on the Jim Crow South, racism, the Klu Klux Klan, murder, infidelity, trauma, bisexuality, queerness, and love. Each generation of women has their own burden that needs to be shared before healing can occur.

Hammonds has written characters that absolutely come to life in your mind. What I love about them is they're so flawed, but they're trying. And you want to cheer them on and try harder yourself, because this book brings up your own issues with race, sexuality, and trauma. The women in this novel are strong and hardheaded, but love deeply and fight for what's right.

This is a book that people of all ages should read - don't let the Young Adult label make you think it won't deeply affect you. I definitely cried for the last 100 pages or so of We Deserve Monuments, and loved every minute of it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this wonderful novel.

This book is so phenomenal and heart wrenching and absolutely perfect. I found it utterly unputdownable and love Avery, Simone, Zora, Carole, and Mama Letty so much.

When Avery’s mom learns of her mom’s cancer diagnosis and that it’s probably the end for her, the Anderson family packs up and moves from DC to Bardell, Georgia. Avery wants to find a way to fix things between her mom and Mama Letty before her death, but that’s hard to do when grappling with a history of grief and trauma that stretches back decades, plus secrets that maybe are best left buried.

This is a story that grapples with healing from intergenerational trauma as well as cycles of abuse and the work of breaking out of them. It is a story of family and secrets, but also friendship and love. It is a hopeful story, even as so much of it is dealing with painful parts of history and grief. I loved the way there are chapters that give background and perspective, because this isn’t just Avery’s story but also a story of Mama Letty and Bardell’s dirty secrets.

This book was exactly the emotional, cathartic read I needed. I love that it ends with hope and love and moving forward, but not losing touch with personal history. And truly one of the best parts of this book is Renaissance, a community built on found family and acceptance - there are only a few scenes there, but it’s a place that truly sets the tone of hope and acceptance that feels central to this book. All in all, please read this if you like emotional contemporary stories that also deal with trauma and love and messy family.

[review will be posted to CannonballReads November 27, 2022]

I loved this gem of a story - every single person felt alive and authentic. Nothing in this story came easy, which is more true to life than most books. I loved all the love and identified with the grief. I cried and never wanted the story to end. I am not sure the mystery aspect was as well developed as it could have been, but I didn’t really care. I do wish some aspects of her grandfather’s story had come full circle. All in all, it was still one of my favorite books of 2022…

This was a good book with well written characters and the overall story was good. I enjoyed, Letty, the grandmother character. She had a lot of depth. I wish that the plot wasn’t so obvious, the theme/conflict of homophobia over done and that a LGBTQ+ book had a true HEA. But I would still recommend to others who tragic or mystery driven storylines.

ooooof when I tell y’all this book gutted me, I mean it GUTTED me. thank you @netgalley for the eARC, even if I spent the afternoon weeping at it. But all that said— this is a gorgeous book. The most apt comparison I can think of for this book is Sharp Objects (returning to the darkness of a little Southern town, slowly realizing the depths of how bad things are and how horrific the intergenerational trauma is, a nice lil twist on your expectations at the end) BUT this book is a lot more about queer and racial intergenerational trauma. It handles all that darkness and those topics very well, and there were some really beautiful, cathartic moments that make that darkness feel worth it. This was also just fabulously written- the structure overall and the language/prose really worked for me!
I do think any educators who want this book in their classrooms or who want to teach this need to really be serious about tw’s— although I think the painful parts of this book never go over the top and that they all feel truly earned in the narrative, it is still a difficult book to read at moments and I think teenagers deserve a heads up about that, especially in school. With a warning, though, there are kids who I think will adore this book and I would be happy to have it in my own room!
I’m giving this 5/5 stars bc idk if can think of any other book that has made me cry this much recently (and I, like Simone, am an emotional cancer and love that stuff so 💞)

This book completely ensnared me! It is an amazing interwoven tale of family, trauma, friendship, mystery and love that will pull at all of your heartstrings. I loved Avery’s determination to find out her family’s secrets and answers about who she is, she is a main character you root for. All of the mysteries in the small town will keep you questioning until the very last page!

Oh f*k. I snot cried. My dehydrated face will deal. This debut is lovingly, beautifully written. Jas has written Bardell County, Georgia to be a white supremacist hellmouth with pockets of trust and warmth. Everyone in this story is so real and messy and trying/struggling to love and communicate the best they can in the time they have. Avery's story is a tale of what it can look like when the complexity of inherited trauma is allowed to live in the light. Also, having now read the book, the cover is a special sort of delight. It feels like I'm watching Avery see herself and the places she comes from in the mirror.

Such a beautifully written book about generational trauma, coming of age, and navigating friendships. Loved getting to know the complex characters and I’ll always remember Letty. What a beautiful debut novel!

Have you ever read a book that felt like it knew you? We Deserve Monuments sucked me in. It’s nothing like I thought it would be which actually made me enjoy it more. From the beginning, Hammonds does such a good job at painting a picture of Bardell because I immediately felt unsettled by the town, which is funny since I drive through and by towns just like it often. The familiarity and understanding of what lurks in those towns made Bardell feel real to me.

“A slow-burn mystery” is a very good way to describe it, as I wouldn’t go into this book expecting Avery to be solving something or following clues the entire time. The mystery unfolds naturally over the course of the book, especially the more Avery learns about the town and her family. I feel like I should have seen the twist coming though, but it was completely not even on my radar that it was something that could have happened, so I definitely was a fan of the shocking mystery element. There were also some third person chapters that added a nice touch to the book, giving us a better understanding of the people and events that shaped the town. The chapters were eerie at times and kept the vibe of the mystery going.

The romance in We Deserve Monuments was sweet, messy, and realistic. The queerness in the book in general was amazing. From the characters to the spaces they navigated to the way history repeated itself. It was also nice to see what queerness can look like at different stages of life and how not being “out” doesn’t make you any less.

This book had so much humor, much of it provided by Mama Letty. She really reminded me of my own Black southern grandmother who my family took care of while she was dying of cancer and the things she complained about and the way she still smoked cigarettes and drank Coke. Sometimes this book really felt like a snippet of my own life. Avery’s family dynamic was refreshing, and I liked seeing how they worked through their imperfections and struggles being compounded in Bardell.

Simone was also a funny, bright light in this book. She was stylish and cool and the kind of person that Avery needed in her life. Simone and Jade’s friendship was very cute, and showed the kind of mundane things teens do living in a small town, but how they still found a way to make them seem larger than life. The two were also so affirming and accepting of Avery which warmed my heart. Jade was a complicated character, but I think for the most part she was a sweet person who didn’t have the best influences in her life and has much to learn about the world, but we all have to start somewhere. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why people continue to live in towns like Bardell, but as someone whose extended family is from a similar place, I also understand how nowhere is perfect and you shouldn’t have to uproot, nor is it feasible for many people.

Overall, I feel like I have to add We Deserve Monuments to the list of my favorites. It’s the kind of book that creeps up on you until you’re at the end and amazed at what you just read. Like did I expect this book to make me cry? No. Did it? You bet. There’s also something about being a Black, queer woman from Georgia reading a book about a Black, queer teen in GA that hit me right in the feels.

Firstly, thank you to Net Galley and Roaring Book Press for providing me with an ARC of We Deserve Monuments.

We Deserve Monuments was a beautiful compelling story about a biracial girl who moves to a small town and has to reckon with her family's past.

I really enjoyed the book, especially as a biracial woman myself who doesn't feel close to her Black side. I liked the way the author portrayed Avery and how she suddenly had all this anger and it had a lot to do with generational trauma and broken systems. I saw a lot of myself in Avery, especially with her feeling of urgency with everything she did. I am a Gen Z kid who also was raised in an era of school shooter drills and the pandemic and so I understood the complicated feelings she had.

Trigger warnings for anyone looking to read the book: cancer, death, grief, homophobia, racism, allusion to lynching, mention of pandemic, alcoholism, emotional abuse, generational trauma, familial abuse

Review of ‘We Deserve Monuments’, by Jas Hammonds

Mama Letty is dying, and although Zora doesn’t have much of a relationship with her, she and her husband take Avery out of her high school right as senior year is about to begin to move from DC to a small town in the middle of nowhere. Something happened to Mama Letty’s husband when Zora was very little (or maybe before she was even born? Honestly I don’t remember this detail, sorry!) and this something has completely broken the bond between mother and daughter.

And this something is still heavy in the air, not just at Mama Letty’s, but also in part of their little town she lives in. At the heart of the plot is Avery navigating toxic friendships (hello, racist microaggressions), falling in love, and building a relationship with her grandmother both without and with her mother. But at the same time, there is a mystery that reveals itself in its full shocking glory at the end of the book, making everything you’ve read up to that point, everything that was perfect except that it was just a teeny bit off, come suddenly into perfect focus.

I can’t recommend this book enough. Difficult at times to read for all the right reasons, it is at its core an exploration of the ways that racism impact family and community relationships, with a realistically messy yet undramatic romantic relationship. I loved the contrast between Avery’s toxic DC friends and the healthier relationships she made in the little town of Bardell. I loved the contrast between the toxicity of the relationship between Mama Letty and Zora and the work done by Zora to not repeat this pattern with Avery—and I also deeply appreciated the marks of Mama Letty’s relationship with her daughter on Zora’s relationship with Avery. Even without that mystery I would recommend this book. The mystery is just that cherry on top of that perfect sundae.

I couldn’t help but finish this book in only a few hours. I couldnt take my eyes off reading this. Clutching my chest at every small little twist and putting together the how each and everyone is connect in this small town. The way each character grew and let the guards down and being comfortable with who they are and who they want to be was just amazing. I live for the story of love. I live for the family drama and ultimate reconciliation. I usually connect songs/album pairings together as a way of readers advisory for my teens and there is one scene with the main character and their love interest that made me immediately think of “Plastic off The Sofa” by Beyoncé. Also the songs mentioned in the book were amazing at every mention.

As soon as this book hits the shelves at my branch I will be recommending it to everyone I can talk to.