When Avery and her parents move from DC to Bardell, Georgia, to care for her dying grandmother, all she wants to do is get to know her grandma, not make waves, and get back to DC to finish her senior year. But she quickly makes two new friends — one of whom she might be crushing on — and finds Bardell has a lot to teach her about her family and herself.

Avery feels like a real teen, and she's dealing with some heavy but equally realistic issues: loss, complicated family dynamics, marginalization because of her queer and biracial identities, and more. Jas Hammonds packs so much into Avery's story, and I was totally drawn in from the beginning. What a gorgeous book!

This was a great story. I love the relationship that Avery builds with her grandmother. However the ending was pretty abrupt and didn't even make sense.

Great book with complex characters. The wrap up of the book felt rushed and there were a few things left kind of fuzzy.

I loved this book so much, the characters, the writing, and the story is just magnificent !! I'm amazed and i'm glad i read this title.

WE DESERVE MONUMENTS is a triumph from debut author Jas Hammonds. Our protagonist Avery tries so hard to get to know her terminally ill grandmother (who is a TOUGH nut to crack!) while dealing with microaggressions and outright racism in her grandmother's southern town. MONUMENTS is a story full of complex family relationships that made my heart sing when they shared truths and sink when they disagreed. I'm a sucker for a grandmother/mother/daughter story, and this book is built on these three strong women.

Speaking of strong women, this is a friendship story that has burrowed its way into my heart. Everyone should have friends as loyal, fun, and supportive as Simone and Jade.

I am buying copies of this book for everyone I know - it's a beauty.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan for giving me an ARC of this book.

Author Jas Hammond hit it out of the park with this stunning debut novel. Her beautiful and heartbreaking writing is completely immersive - I felt like I was in the book right along with Avery.

Avery is on the fast track to Georgetown. She is a 17 year old who lives and breathes school and doing everything she can to get into college. It helps that they live in DC and that her mom is a highly respected professor. But everything changes when they find out that her grandmother, Mama Letty, has terminal cancer and doesn’t have much time left. Avery’s parents quickly pack them up and move to the middle-of-nowhere, Georgia where she is supposed to make nice with a grumpy grandmother who she doesn’t know, attend a brand new school her senior year, and completely move on from her previous life. Can she get to know her grandmother before it’s too late? How can she when all her mom and grandma do is fight? But when family secrets come to light, she must lean on her family and her new friends to find answers.

Make sure to check trigger warnings as this book centers heavily around family trauma, racism and violence against POC in the Deep South, as well as bigotry against LGBTQIA people.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Roaring Brook Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of We Deserve Monuments.

This is an incredible debut novel about a girl named Avery who moves to her mother's hometown to spend time with her grandmother, Mama Letty before she dies. Avery soon discovers that this small town has a nefarious past. There are unsolved murders and plenty of family secrets. This book has something for everyone - LGBTQ+ characters, a multiracial cast, and lots of drama.,

#WeDeserveMonuments #NetGalley

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the digital ARC of 'We Deserve Monuments' by Jas Hammonds.

This book is one that I can see my students picking up and enjoying. The story follows Avery being uprooted from her comfortable life to live with her dying grandmother, and uncovering secrets that her family has kept buried. During her quest to uncover the truth Avery starts to see more of the ingrained racism and violence in the South, and discovers that this violence was the driving factor behind the lies and secrecy.

One of my minor frustrations with the novel though was the time/scene jumps. At times it made the events of the story a little harder to follow, and I felt like I wasn't left with a solid answer for the hidden truth. Overall, an engaging and thought-provoking book.

4/5

Stellar. We Deserve Monuments immediately leapt to the top of my best of 2022 list. With emotions as compelling as the plotlines, this book snatches hold and never lets go. Do yourself a favor and wait to pick it up until you've got an afternoon or an evening to devote solely to Avery's story, because once you start, you'll resent every single thing you have to do instead of reading.

We Deserve Monuments has to be one of my favorite contemporary reads of the year. I was so excited for the biracial representation and I was not disappointed. But even more so, We Deserve Monuments is about secrets. It's about family mystery. I kept wondering exactly how much we are entitled to know about our family members. I've been thinking about it for a while and all of those percolated thoughts come to a head in We Deserve Monuments. Not only about past trauma and loss, but also the good memories, the kernels of joy or discovery.

And Hammond's debut examines family secrets. The experiences we omit and traumas we pass on. Emotional from start to finish, We Deserve Monuments is also about friendship which blooms despite the odds and reconciling death. At its core, this debut is also about who gets monuments built of them. All these people who deserve recognition at the very least, and celebration. It's a theme and constant question that makes the title and the essence of this book shine.

This book was very heavy but reminded me of Angie Thomas books in that sense. I find these types of books hard to review because of that but I did really enjoy it.

I really liked Avery’s growth throughout. The book was about her finding herself and I loved seeing her and Mama Letty grow together.

This book is so gorgeously written, engaging, and heartfelt. I'm amazed it's a debut. I love the friendship between the three girls, Avery, Jade, and Simone. It felt very realistic. The slow-burn mystery had me intrigued from the beginning. Both with Jade's family as well as what secrets Avery's grandmother and mother are hiding. I'll definitely look forward to Hammonds' second book!

5 stars.

I’m 24 and this coming of age-esque story took me by storm. I laughed, cried and felt all the emotions in between. This story is about history, truths and finding yourself. This story is about grief, of the living and the dead. It is also how some burdens are not ours to carry. This story was perfect. The pacing and story telling was just right. It was important that it came from Avery’s perspective. The characters were fun, realistic and diverse. Death is a big part of this story but I didn’t find it overwhelming. The scenes at Renny’s were my favorites. I’d recommend this story to anyone looking for books about finding yourself, enjoy stories with LGBTQIA+ rep and/or enjoys small town vibes.

Avery’s senior year of high school is uprooted and her predictable life is turned on end after her mom finds out that her estranged grandmother is dying of cancer. A family decision is made to move from D.C. to rural Georgia to spend time with Mama Letty during her final months. As Avery tries to connect with her grandma and get to know her before she is gone, she starts coming across secrets and stories about this small community that still suffers from the effects of the Jim Crow era. She also has her eyes opened to family secrets and conflicts rooted in years of hurt and loss. Through this discovery, Avery questions her own story and the direction she wants her life to take.

Overall a well written novel about a young person’s journey to discovering one’s self. The context and setting add to that premise as our main character directly experiences what systemic racism looks like as well people who are not as open to LGBTQ persons. I did struggle at times with the story as it jumped from one scenario to the next feeling that the situation was manufactured (versus organic) just to progress Avery’s character development. Would definitely recommend this novel. 4 stars.

Review based on a digital Uncorrected Proof provided by Fierce Reads and NetGalley. Thank you!

Lovely writing while taking on a lot of serious topics. I especially appreciated the way that the book gave space to both Zora and Mama Letty's pain, and how the title tied into the arc of the story. I did feel like the ending lacked a bit of punch and the twist was significant but revealed too late to really delve into, and I also thought that Avery's father came off as somewhat unrealistically easy-going and that Avery's comfort toward Simone often seemed...insufficiently aware of how bad/dangerous coming out can be for some people. I also have perpetually mixed feelings about inclusion of the pandemic in books; I can tell that they were really trying for smooth and natural integration here, but I think that the "casual" references ended up emphasizing themselves more. Overall, however, it's a really strong YA contemporary with a wonderful sense of place.

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds was fabulous. Thank you so much to Roaring Brook Press and Macmillan for my advance reader's copy and to Recorded Books for my ALC. Hammonds has created a compelling story that weaves together a swoony romance, an unsolved mystery, and a whole host of family secrets. She also deftly navigates complex themes like racism, homophobia, and the effects of generational trauma. Additionally, the narrator, Tamika Katon-Donegal, delivers a beautiful performance.

Avery and her parents move from Washington, D.C. to Bardell, Georgia to care for her estranged, dying grandmother. This small Georgia town has not let go of its racist roots; it's just disguised and adapted them to make them less obvious, but the Black residents are under no delusions. The rich white families run this town, and they can get away with murder. Avery tries to settle in to her senior year at a new school and eventually befriends Simone and Jade, which makes her situation more palatable. While she's out and unashamed of her queer identity, the town isn't quite ready to fly the pride flag. So when she and Simone fall for each other, they knew it was only a matter of time before things got ugly.

Alongside all of that, Avery is struggling to get to know her grandmother, Mama Letty, before it's too late. In the process, family secrets come to light, and Avery begins to wonder if her mom and grandmother will be able to reconcile in time.

This book kept me engaged from the very beginning. It taps into the current zeitgeist--questioning which people deserve monuments, which people deserve to be remembered, and how can we shift the unfair balance of power in a society so fully entrenched in racism and white supremacy? The effects of those systems of oppression are far-reaching, and We Deserve Monuments dives into the trauma and grief those effects can have on not just Black families but on entire communities. This book will be a wonderful addition to both classroom libraries and personal bookshelves, just as important for adults as for teens to read.

Bravo! I loved it. Even though it broke my heart.

Three words come to mind when I think of this story as a whole: Powerful. Authentic. Tender.

Jas Hammonds has created a truly wonderful story that does not shy away from grief, yet still manages to gently point out beauty amidst the pain.

Avery Anderson, a Black queer high schooler, has been suddenly and unwillingly uprooted from her home in Washington DC and moved to Bardell, Georgia to help her estranged, dying grandmother, Mama Letty. Though Mama Letty is frosty and guarded, and Avery's only plan is to get in, get out, and keep to herself, Avery quickly becomes curious about her last surviving grandparent and the life she lived. As Mama Letty slowly opens up, Avery uncovers more and more of Bardell's racist and homophobic history. Then there's Simone. Beautiful, vibrant Simone whom Avery falls hard for. And Jade, the daughter of the richest man in town, whom Avery befriends alongside Simone. Suddenly "get in, get out, and keep to yourself" is a lot more complicated.

Avery is such a well-written character and is greatly supported by Hammonds' ability to describe places and emotions vividly. Readers will feel everything Avery feels deeply: the pain, hurt, love, anger, and hope. While reading, and even now thinking back on the story, I feel like Avery is a real person, somewhere out there in this world. Just like Mama Letty and Dr. Zora Anderson, Avery's mom, feel real to me as well. And it's these characters who really breathe life into this story. Their reactions, especially Avery's, to uncovering the unhealed wounds of the past are so human, you can't help but hurt with them. And Hammonds has this wonderful way of weaving hope and healing into this story that holds so much hurt.

I am very excited for this book to come out. It's a wonderful debut by a wonderful author, and I'm sure it will touch many of the people who read it.

Make sure to have a box of tissues nearby; sobbing (happy and sad tears) is enviable while reading this outstanding debut. Executed with exquisite prose, readers meet Avery, who is spending the summer before her senior year transplanted from DC to Georgia. Her mother is returning home to care for Mama Letty, Avery’s estranged and terminally ill grandmother. But Avery sticks out in the small, southern town of Bardell; she’s a queer, biracial teen. Luckily, she makes friends with her next-door neighbor Simone Cole and Jade Oliver, who also happens to be the daughter of Badell’s leading family. Thus begins an intricately woven queer coming-of-age story about love, the marginalized, generational trauma, and secrets buried in the past.

I thought this started out a bit stronger than it finished, but overall a solid, sweet, moving, sad, infuriating book. I really enjoyed watching Avery grow and work through a lot of complicated relationships.

Ireally liked this book- I liked the main character Avery a lot, she is smart, caring and thoughtful. The story, and how she learns of the generational trauma in her family's past, is impactful. I thought this book was really well-written