Maame tells the story of a young woman’s struggle to find her way amidst family expectations that have weighed on her for her entire life. Twenty-five year old Maddie is bright and thoughtful, but her job in London is not what she has hoped for, and her social life is virtually non-existent. Maddie is the caretaker for her father with Parkinson’s while her mother spends most of her time in Ghana and her older brother chases his dream career. Maddie feels weighed down by responsibility but guilty about wanting an escape.

Maame is a very relatable story that is both thought provoking and enjoyable. My only very small critique is that I felt that Maddie comes into her own rather suddenly quite late in the book. I wish we had seen more of her growth before the end of her story.

Thanks to NetGalley for sharing this digital reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review.

Maddie (Maame) Wright’s family is not conventional. Her mother lives in Ghana and visits her family in London every other year, while Maddie acts as the primary caregiver for her father, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Maddie’s duties have prevented her from spreading her wings, but when her mother announces her return to London, she sees an opening to leave her parents’ home and start living her own life. She moves out and rents an apartment with a couple of roommates, starts a new job, and sets out to seek new experiences. Soon after, tragedy touches her life, and Maddie starts to struggle with feelings of guilt and regret. As she grapples with pain and disappointment, Maddie discovers that there are no rules when it comes to perceiving or manifesting feelings of love and grief. Her journey will lead her to find the strength to have her voice heard and ask for what she wants in both her professional and personal relationships. As she embraces her new reality, she slowly develops an understanding of herself and of how people affect each other.

Deeply emotional, funny, and authentic, the story presents us with a well-developed, relatable character that deals with issues of duty to family, cultural identity, coming of age, love, mental health, tradition, race, and finding your voice. The plot is honest and engaging, and the pace is more than adequate. In addition, we get an interesting glimpse into some aspects of the Ghanaian culture. Overall, an excellent read that will leave you with a smile.

Thanks to NetGalley and to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free digital copy to review this book prior to its release.

Maame means woman or mother in Ghana. Our title character, Maddie, also called Maame by her family, is forced to grow up too soon and to put her young life on hold because of her's father's Parkinson's and the refusal of her mother and brother to do their share. When we first meet 25-year old Maddie, she is way behind her peer group in learning about herself, her likes, her dreams, men, and dating. She is also well-educated but in a dead-end job and incredibly unhappy and unfulfilled. Throughout the book, we watch Maddie begin to make changes, take risks, and try new things, some of which work out, many of which do not. The biggest joy is watching Maddie learn about herself and begin to move beyond people pleasing and peel back the layers separating her inner and outer selves. I like Maddie and rooted for her all the way. However, it bothered me that she relied on Google so much to be her close-confidant and main information-source. This seemed impersonal and an easy way for the author to increase the word count.. I also thought the ending wrapped things up too tidily. Even with some flaws, this is a well-written, engaging book about a spunky young woman who teaches us that it's never too late to learn. ( I would give it a 3.5 if I had that option.)

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from St. Martin's Press and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

It's rare that one can express emotion at this level through prose. Jessica George nailed it. You'll be felling all your feels and then some.

I really enjoyed this debut novel. Loved the characters and the setting, Look forward to more books by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book. I really enjoyed it and it was nice to see Maddie find her way after being adultified well before her 18th birthday. I would recommend this book.

I sincerely haven’t been this emotionally affected by a book in ages. It is remarkable that this is Jessica George’s first novel, and it is obvious how personal Maddie’s story is to her.

Maddie’s life mirrors much of my past, which is rare for me to find. I may not be 25 years old or British Ghanaian, and I’m thankfully out of admin hell, but I was a caretaker from age 16-30 for my mother and stepfather who both had the same advanced chronic neurological disorder. I was similarly held back from fully living life and experiencing intimacy.

Reading about Maddie’s routines with her father who had Parkinson’s as well as the tremendous guilt for daring to do anything new or fun was tremendously cathartic. I cried while reading about her tentative experiences with men. I wanted to be there for her, much like her true friends Nia and Shu. It was lovely to see her have support. I was also pleased to see that Maddie’s awkwardness didn’t ostracize her as is the case in many books lately. Her googling as a way to fumble through what is “normal” in life was so relatable and funny.

Maame focuses a great deal on family and Ghana tradition as well as the racism Maddie regularly experiences. I found the culture and family dynamics fascinating. However, Maddie’s mother was beyond frustrating and I had a very hard time finding any sympathy for her. She took Maddie for granted and expected her to make so many sacrifices at such a young age. It was upsetting, so I was thrilled to see Maddie have opportunities come her way. 25 is sometimes referred to as the “quarter life crisis,” and she truly needed to begin finding herself. She needed to break free of all her burdens and self-doubt, much of which was caused by family.

Maame brought me much closure to my past. Never have I found an author who understands the strange isolation of being a young caretaker. I feel spoiled and honored that this is my first ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review!

There's a slight possibility that I finished this book in a day and cried at 2am.

Maame is such a powerful story about culture, identity, regrets, grief and starting over. The book follows Maddie who, at the age of 25, has become her father's caretaker while her mother spends the majority of her time in Ghana. She has a brother who doesn't help at all, some emotional turmoil that her mother constantly dismisses and a job where she feels absolutely stuck. While Maddie and I come from different cultures, there were so many things I found relatable about her journey. Having also grown up as a sheltered teenager I had to Google the majority of my questions because there are just some topics too taboo to even mention. I also highly related to her struggles with faith and her complicated relationship with her mother.

I've seen some reviewers mention how Maddie is completely naïve and how overbearing her mother is, which makes me wonder if they paid close attention to the cultural aspect of this story. What might seem overbearing for some cultures is completely normal for others (albeit not necessarily healthy).

I genuinely believe that Maame by Jessica George is a beautiful character study and shows that, no matter how old a person might be, it's never too late to try new things.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This a powerful and moving book that tell about self-growth, family, guilt , starting over grief, Family. I absolutely loved this book. It did not disappoint. It took me through so many thought and emotions and I can’t rave enough about it.

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, for the chance to read and review this!

I'm trying to find a way to convey how much I love this book, but I'm at a loss for words.
I wish I could personally thank Jessica George for existing, for writing Maame, for sending it out into the world, and for letting me read it.

I essentially cried my way through this. There are so, so many beautiful moments in this book. Moments that are sad, honest, devastating, introspective, vulnerable, sentimental, angry, beautiful...I could write a whole list of adjectives, and it wouldn't be enough to explain how much this story covers. It feels like Jessica George took everything and put it into one story. I fell in love with her writing a million times while reading this. How she captures hurt, depression, family, friends, culture, loneliness, work, stress, anxiety, literally anything and everything a human being can experience is so profound and perfect.

The end part of the summary states,
"Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong." This is so incredibly on point with what this book is.

Jessica George is an amazing writer for being able to capture all of those things. I felt like I was right there with Maddie the entire time. It was like I was feeling everything she was feeling. She goes through so much, and you're right there with her. I empathized, sympathized, and cried for her the whole way through. I truly fell in love with her as a character and person, and that's how I know this book was done well...because I was rooting and caring for her the entire way through. I ended up feeling very protective of her. It made me wish that fictional characters were real just so I could talk to them in real life (sounds a bit crazy, but sometimes books make us feel that way!).

I think what I loved most was how introspective and honest it was. This story has so many beautiful lines, paragraphs, and moments of realization that feel like a punch to the gut. I have dozens of saved highlights that I want to line my walls with that I want to think about for hours on end over, and that will stay with me for a very long time. Some of them are devastating to read, some feel like a relief, and some make you realize that you weren't alone in thinking or feeling this way, but that it's something that others have felt too. That shared connection, even though you've lived vastly different life experiences, made this book so worthwhile and beautiful to me. It felt like I could have read another 300 pages about Maddie's life, her feelings, and what she's been through, and it still would not have been enough. I wanted to know more about her life even when the book was over.

This story truly has the most beautiful perspective of someone's identity, culture, and life that you will never experience but still get an in-depth and honest look into. I've always loved books because they allow us to see the different perspectives, lives, and experiences of others, and this one allows for that and more. It's seeing the inner state of someone who has felt many of the same things I've felt but also, more importantly, felt and experienced things I won't but still need to know about. I think that's what I'll take away from this book the most; that I have felt so much of what Maddie has felt, but things that I will never feel as well.

So this is all to say that I loved this book, and I think everyone needs to read it. It was actually perfect. Genuinely a masterpiece. I don't say any of that lightly. I cried my way through until the very end, and, at that point, I was just outright sobbing. It was beautiful, honest, vulnerable, wonderful, and made me feel everything imaginable. So thankful for Jessica George and her writing this. I'm absolutely floored. I'm worried I'll never feel the same things I felt with this book with another book again. Dramatic? Maybe. This is one of those books that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Can't recommend it enough!

I love it when books I read seem to come at the right time. Maame felt that way for me.

In this book, we meet Maddie (called Maame by her family) who is a sheltered, 25-year-old who has always been the responsible one in her family and has not done much to push herself or put herself first. Throughout the book, we follow her journey as the "new" Maddie as she works through grief, heartbreak, and rejection.

"Some things you're not meant to be save from...some things have to be lessons"

I've read many books where the main character goes through something difficult, learns a lesson, and we get a window into how they're processing. Maame approached that same trope but with more innocence because Maddie as a character is more naive. Maddie working through something seem more raw and real because she was unsure of what to do with her emotions and did not realize if what she was feeling was depression. George handled these topics with mastery and reading how Maddie approached these difficult emotions helped me work through some of my own.

I highly recommend this book if you like reading stories about family dynamics, coming of age stories, and books that make you think more deeply about the world.

I found myself continuously impressed with this story as it progressed. Each character was well developed and vivid, and their dialogue and encounters were realistic and moved the plot along nicely. I’m failing to put into words how much this book wow’d me.

Our MC is Maddie Wright, a mid twenties British Ghanaian woman who has been caring for her ailing father since she was a teenager. Putting her own life experiences on hold while her mother and brother live out their lives. She is encouraged by everyone to move out and start living her own life, without said encouraging people offering to help with her father. However, she finally does so early on in the book. Cue self discovery and experiencing some “firsts”.

There is so much to digest in these choices she feels she can and cannot make. The cultural aspect - especially the cultural stigma around mental illness, was well depicted and I’m happy to see this topic being shared more.

Maddie’s voice in particular, her silent humor and wit, was perfectly done. Her character shows that a woman can be self-aware and intelligent while also being depressed. Both can be true. I loved her. I get it.

The humor sprinkled throughout worked. I especially enjoyed her Google searches. I related to the crazy ride that is grief and I felt the cultural obligations in my bones.

For fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maame, the debut novel by Jessica George, is a gem of a book about coming of age and finding yourself. It is both hopeful and heartbreaking. Highly recommended! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

This book absolutely broke my heart. This is not a light book by any means, but it does have its own light moments. It was so beautiful and tender and I loved every minute of it.
After I finished reading, I realised that I have found a new comfort read.
Highly recommended!

I got this from Netgalley, so I feel obligated to do more than just rate it. I really didn't enjoy the first two-thirds of the book because I found Maddie so annoying and frustrating. I know plenty of people with self-esteem issues (including myself), but I don't think I've ever known anyone quite that bad at life.

Posted 8/4/22 on Goodreads

A wonderful and poignant coming of age story that highlights the complexity of grief and depression, love and family and the struggle of attaining self acceptance and respect. Maddie is a deeply relatable character navigating her mid-twenties after being the sole caretaker of a increasing ill father. This novel explores numerous heavy topics such as subtle racism and grief after losing a loved one via a lonely but loveable narrator.

Maame is extremely fresh, engaging, powerful novel! It’s about family, grief, self growth, guilt, regrets, starting over! It’s inspirational, memorable, unique, playing a marvelous melody with the strings of your heart, embracing your soul, presenting a different approach!

Maddie Wright is not happy to grow up early, carrying extra responsibilities of life! At the age of 25, most of her friends left the city for going to the college, flirting, partying, going out, sharing a loft with room mates, exploring the life, traveling around the world.

For last 8 years Maddie’s life completely changed after finding out her father’s Parkinson diagnosis. Her mother kept leaving the country to help her brother in Ghana to take care of family business for at least one year and coming back later as her brother kept spending time with his friends’ family for years.

And now her father’s health condition gets deteriorated as her brother keeps making excuses not to visit his family home and her mother keeps insisting she’s so busy in Ghana unless she calls for borrowing money from Maddie’s saving account!

She is the only one who takes care of her father, getting trapped in PA job at theater company, dealing with the mood swings of her boss.

Her mother calls her Maame which is a word in Twi language with different meanings. But most common meaning is woman and Maddie resents her nickname because she doesn’t live her life as a naive, inexperienced young girl and directly grew up to be a woman.

But now she has an opportunity to take a break from her all responsibilities and do things like other 25 years old young woman do! Her mother flies back from Ghana and advises her to move another apartment to live her independent life. For the first her mother will be the one who will take care of her own husband!

This means Maddie can start from fresh. She already made her list.
Here’s the new Maddie’s independence manifesto:
-Drink alcohol when offered
-Always say yes to social events
-Wear new clothes
-Cook new food
-Have different experiences (Travel? Brunch?)
-Try weed or cigarettes at least once (but don't get addicted!)
-Wear makeup
-Go on dates
-Lose your virginity.
Challenge accepted! Maddie is ready to shine! But you know what they say: you make plans and God laughs!

There’s a new and more challenging chapter is about to open in Maddie’s life. Will she get through new challenges life throws at her?

This is incredible, thought provoking work with genuine and realistic approach to the grief, dysfunctional family relationships, becoming minority at the work place, exploring sexuality, romantic involvements, your capabilities and your unfinished search for happiness.

During my reading I felt for Maddie! I gritted my teeth when I witness her communication with her family members and some of her friends. I felt sad for her but I also respected her!

Overall: this well written, perfectly developed book definitely deserves five stars or more!
I loved Maddie’s compelling journey!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Maame means woman in Twi, and it is also Maddie’s nickname since childhood. She’s been struggling under the weight of her family’s expectations for her entire life. She is a caretaker for her ailing father, a main financial contributor for the family, and the one who is present and dependable. Not only that, but Maddie wants to figure out who she truly is and what she wants out of life. Throughout the course of the novel, Maddie is faced with difficulties such as grief, depression, regret, and racism in the workplace and in relationships. Her strength, wit, and inner monologues will resonate with so many.

This is an achingly beautiful, tender hearted debut novel. I truly loved it. It’s such a well written coming of age story embedded with loss, grief, romance, friendship, and finding the place and people you belong with. Maddie is a narrator who you can relate to, laugh with, cry with, and empathize with. Ultimately, this story is full of heart, laughs, tears, and satisfaction. I’d recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin’s publishing for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review. I’m so grateful!

MAAME by Jessica George is a coming of age story about Madeline, a British Ghanian woman. At twenty-five, she is still living at home and caring for her father with Parkinson's disease. When her mother announces that she will be coming back to England after spending a year in Ghana, Maddie decides to move out for the first time and become a "New Maddie." MAAME explores what it's like to be a young Black woman dealing with life's neverending curve balls.

I struggled with this book because I find Maddie to be an unlikeable character. She lies constantly, and she doesn't think about how her actions will affect others. She also lets other people walk all over her, which annoyed me because I really wanted her to stand up for herself. Maddie does grow and mature as the book goes on, but the changes do not appear until the last few chapters.

Moreover, I feel like MAAME tries to tackle too many topics within one book. For instance, the story discusses race, grief and death of a loved one, mental health, sex and relationships, family issues, friendship issues, work issues, etc. There was so much going on at once, and I think the book would be stronger if it focused on a few of these important issues instead of glancing over all of them. The discussions on race, grief, and mental health are especially helpful, and I wish they were further explored. I loved learning about Maddie's Ghanian culture, and how she sometimes has trouble fitting it into her British life.

Overall, MAAME is a solid debut novel by Jessica George. While it was tough to follow Maddie's trials and tribulations, I think that in the end she does become a "New Maddie," even if it's not the version she expected.

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 5/5 Characters: 5/5

In Twi (one of the languages spoken in Southern and Central Ghana), Maame means “woman” or “mother” or “Responsible One”. And that is the name by which Maddie is known (and treated) within her (somewhat dysfunctional by many standards) family. This story of the 25 year old dutiful daughter of Ghanaian immigrants in London is beautiful, insightful, humorous, and utterly engaging. Maddie is finally ready to strike out on her own after several years of caring for her Parkinson’s debilitated father whilst her brother and mother have managed to find urgent excuses to be elsewhere. With a new job, a new apartment (with new flatmates), and a few boyfriend experiments, Maddie feels ready to transpose herself into “fun” Maddie and “happy” Maddie, though her true (intentionally stifled) feelings alway manage to seep through. With deft and spare prose, the book delves into deep issues of how we become the selves we want to be, rather than the selves that have unintentionally emerged while we were making other plans.

The story explores the roots of Maddie’s desires and unhappiness — seen through the lens of multiple cultures, friends, family, religion, and … the ultimate source of all knowledge … Google. Some honest and new (to me) discussions of racism, from a personal point of view rather than a strident, social justice approach. I loved the first lines: “In African culture — Wait, no, I don’t want to be presumptuous or in any way nationalistic enough to assume certain Ghanaian customs run true in other African countries. I might in fact just be speaking of what passes as practice in my family, but regardless of who the mores belong to, I was raised to keep family matters private.” In one fell swoop George outlined Maddie’s personal context in the many layers of identity to which she belonged.

I absolutely love George’s writing. Great structure with most of the content deriving from interactions (in-person, text), reflections (including some great conversations with “subconscious Maddie” who can be quite flippant bordering on rude), and extensive (and intriguing) “conversations” with Google. I love her use of vocabulary — the exact right word at the exact right spot in the prose. I love that Maddie’s flirtation with one man made extensive use of accurately placed semicolons. I loved Maddie’s Voice — so real and so individual. The language conveys essence and experience skillfully, without resorting to tricks of plots and constant emotional tugging. It feels genuine — that rarest of literary attributes.

So many excellent quotes — here are just a few:

“When Waterloo station approaches, I brace myself for another day at a job Google itself has deemed deserving of a bronze medal in the race to unhappiness.”

“We were friendlier at first, joked around a bit more, but that dried up like the arse of a prune on a date and time I still can’t stick a definitive pin in.”

“For some reason, at night, when you’re meant to be sleeping, your brain wants answers to everything.”

“It’s mentally exhausting trying to figure out if I’m taking that comment on my hair or lunch too seriously. It’s isolating when no one I know here is reading the Black authors I am or watching the same TV shows.”

“Still, that doesn’t change the fact that although I didn’t think I’d be rich I expected to be happy and the failure to do so has left me gasping for air most of the day.”

“I only suffer a few hiccups, mainly with the printer because they’re all bastards and will likely lead the technological charge in the eventual war against humans, but I’ve finished everything before Penny returns from her last meeting of the day.”

“I’d googled what to do when your flatmate is dumped by someone they’re casually seeing, but Google seemed very confused with at least two parts of the sentence.”

“I know what to do, how not to bring attention to myself. I’m skilled in assimilation, though my subconscious is quick to remind me that it’s nothing to be proud of. I have spent the entirety of my professional life in predominantly white spaces. As a bookseller, a receptionist, at the theater, and now a publishing house. Over the years, my instinct has been to shrink myself, to make sure I’m not too loud, to talk only about subjects I feel well versed in.”

“She frowns. ‘I don’t know why you’re offended. Gold-diggers are our nation’s hardest workers; do you know how much effort goes into pretending to give a shit about some guy for his money? A lot. Hoes are Britain’s unsung heroes.”

“It’s about what love is. Which is trust, commitment, empathy, and respect. It means really giving a shit about the other person.”

“I’m late, arriving halfway through, and he’s speaking Fante, which when spoken quickly is like trying to catch bubbles before they pop.”

“I cut the conversation off there because the way I see it, apologies only benefit the beggar. They get a clear conscience, and I get a sequence of hollow words incapable of changing anything.”

“Okay,” she says, and for a word that is often spelled with only two letters, she makes each syllable work hard. I slightly hate her.”

“I think when working in white spaces we can feel programmed to not rock the boat; like, we got a foot in the door and we should try to keep that door closed behind us. Which means you begin assigning any and all problematic issues to just being a part of the job….”