This YA novel delivers an emotional rollercoaster, prompting tears throughout. It tackles heavy themes including racism, homophobia, murder, and cancer, warranting several trigger warnings. Despite the challenging content and trauma portrayed, the book weaves in compelling stories of love and life, offering hope for the characters' healing. The emotional depth and engaging narrative keep readers invested, making it a powerful, though difficult, read. Keep tissues handy for this moving story that lives up to its hype in the YA genre.

This is a very good and entertaining book, the plot twist was insane. I'd recommend the audiobook I liked the narrator

I struggled with what to rate this book but I have settled on 3 stars. I enjoyed the representation in this book, how this book tackled intergenerational trauma & how Avery & Mama Letty's relationship truly blossomed by the end of the book. My main issues I had were that I found that the story was a bit all over the place & that the mystery part of the story was a bit of a miss for me.
I am looking forward to reading Jas's new book Thirsty in May of 2024!

Thank you Jas Hammonds & NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

a touching, queer YA story with themes of family history and connections, coming of age, and confronting history of racism. this story and characters were so well formed it was a joy to spend time with them!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

Sometimes, family is a hard thing... often, the monuments and memorials to the dead are within the minds of the living. Occasionally, those monuments and memorials actually take physical shape. The American South has, is, and will probably always be filled with pitfalls and landmines for melanated people... this book does a good job of conveying that and efforts taken to whitewash history as felt necessary.

I'm not really sure how to review this book. I loved it, I'm sure about that much. But there was also a lot going on so putting it into words is not necessarily easy.

Our main character in this novel is Avery Anderson, and she has just moved from DC to the small town her mother grew up in because her grandmother is terminally ill. Except, due to the incredibly strained relationship between her grandmother and mother, Avery doesn't really know this woman at all.

She is a grump. That's putting it lightly. She's actually and honestly pretty awful at the beginning. But still in what seems like a saint's move in the beginning, Avery determines that she's going to earn her grandmother's interest and affection before she dies.

At the same time, she's starting her senior year. She quickly makes new friends Jade Oliver and Simone Cole. Simone's nice and easy. She's only the daughter of her mum's best friend growing up. Simone and Avery hit it off straight away. Jade seems honestly lovely too, but her family... shit is about to get real as soon as Jade's family gets involved.

Because here's the thing: Avery's grandmother isn't horrible and closed up for no reason. She's a black woman who was traumatised by the brutal murder of her husband. And given her age and racism that's still ongoing, it wasn't like there was a lot of support for that. Even Avery is shown to struggle with the realities of this when her grandmother finally opens up to her and all of these family histories spill out.

So I guess that's the story, without too many spoilers. Avery and Simone's relationship is gorgeous, though not overly surprising. There is a thread to the narrative like it's meant to be a bit of a mystery, but mostly the writing just carries you along from one part of the story to the next and, if you're anything like me, you're just happy to be on this journey, with so many interesting and colourful side characters that I didn't even get around to mentioning.

This is one of my reviews that Netgalley deems too short, but here it is: One of the best YA books I've read in a while. It definitely lived up to its hype.

*Thank you to NetGalley for the arc, all opinions are my own*

This book was sooo good!! The pacing was really good, the characters felt complex and 3 dimensional, and the ending was so sad.

The story was about generational trauma, which as you can imagine made the book absolutely heartbreaking, and at times cry-worthy. I really enjoyed the characters and how they all had flaws and felt well developed. Our main character, Avery for example, constantly makes bad decisions throughout the book, adding another layer of depth and realism to her.

I also enjoyed the romance in this book as it added a lighthearted tone to the story when it was needed.

Overall I rate ‘We deserve monuments’ an 8/10, and would definitely recommend it!

This book is a stunner! It masterfully weaves together the complexities of queer identity, race, generational trauma, and coming of age into a mysterious, heart wrenching plot. Avery Anderson's senior year takes an unexpected turn when she is uprooted from her life in DC and relocated to the home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty, in Bardell, Georgia. Avery's mother and Mama Letty have a strained relationship with multidimensional, unaddressed emotional wounds. Avery is determined to unveil the familial history before Mama Letty's passing. Simultaneously, Avery finds companionship and connection in Simone, the next door neighbor, and their friendship blossoms into a romance.

This story is rich with turmoil, raw with emotion, and blazing with the fierce reckoning of younger generations willing to burn it all down in order to live their truth.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for an advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

This YA novel was pretty excellent, it wasn’t just a fun little light read, like some are. It really captured a bunch of feelings, both the happy and the sad.
I really adored the family in general in this novel, even though they had their difficulties and differences, it was so nice to see a family come together and make up for all the time they have lost.
I loved that the author included some sapphic romance in it, it wasn’t the main plot of the novel, which I also thought was nice. The romance in itself was very cute and adorable, but there were the sadness to the whole coming out and getting caught with the same sex, which gave some angst to the novel.

They mystery in this novel wasn’t really was I thought about or like really noticed, it definitely made something to the story and it made people think about what really happened, but it didn’t do much for me.

Overall, I really loved this novel, it was funny, heartfelt, good writing and I also really loved the narrator.

I loved the story of Avery and her journey to finding herself amidst family secrets and turmoil. Avery’s move from the big city to small town Georgia is enlightening; the journey she makes to learn who she is while uncovering the story of her estranged grandmother, Mama Letty is full of ups and downs. The friendships she manages to build with her neighbor and the town’s rich girl provide just the right amount of drama and distraction to an otherwise touching tale of forgiveness.

We Deserve Monuments is a story about family and trauma and love. This story shows how trauma haunts and impacts us for generations. Avery’s parents have moved her back to her mother’s hometown, a tiny place in Georgia due to her grandmother dying of cancer. Avery has a plan, to keep her head down and get through one last year of high school before going to Georgetown; but being in her mother's hometown opens up some wounds that affect generations. Part mystery, part family drama, part racial commentary. At times it was a bit slow but it is a worthy read and I am excited to see what comes next from Jaz Hammond.

The reader of the audiobook was excellent. She was able to find a unique voice and bring each character to life.

This book turned out waaaay better than I expected. I had the pleasure of experiencing this book via audio, and the narrator Tamika Katon-Donegal did an excellent job portraying the characters throughout the story. If you can, audio is a must!

My favorite theme of this story is the truth of generational trauma. I liked how Hammonds created more profound talking points about the drama from the past and came to an equal stance on the matter.

The characters were easy to love, roll your eyes to, cry, and grow with. I love the expressions the main character, Avery, had with herself, even as she was still figuring out her worth. I was not expecting the turn of events that ended the book, and my jaw dropped with the revelations. You gotta read it!

I rated this book 4.5 stars. This story was sad but incredible. I loved watching the characters develop over time, and as heartbreaking as it was, I loved the story's outcome.

This was a really great story. I felt engaged and entertained the entire time. That is a credit to both the writing and narration. I would highly recommend this one.

This book is beautifully told and stunningly poignant! I love the journey of all three women. It was especially refreshing to hear A) a story including the pandemic, but it didn’t focus entirely on it and B) a grandmother character who isn’t a sweet, tottering old lady. I’d love to see this book become a regular in English classrooms’ curriculums.

The audiobook narrator knocked it out of the park! Five more stars for her and her adaptive voices!!

The plot here is a compelling one. I liked seeing how the relationships between these girls as well as between the generations of the protagonist's family developed. Especially as the town's history is also revealed. Many of these complications will come as little surprise - it's set in a small town in the deep south after all. We're going to expect blatant racism. It is the approach to justice versus revenge that gives me some pause.

I listened to about half of this audiobook and it had potential but unfortunately I got bored and then it expired so I didn't have a chance to finish, though I don't think I would have.

I really enjoyed this powerful YA debut! Set in rural Georgia, this book explores the intergenerational racial trauma, homophobia, domestic abuse, alcoholism and so much more. I loved the sweet slow burn friends to lovers queer romance between the protagonist and her new friend who has been scared to come out. Full of heart, family secrets, a mystery, romance, plus a dying grandmother.

There was a lot going on but all of it was written so gracefully. Great on audio and highly recommended for fans of books like The invincible summer of Juniper Jones. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the narrator was absolutely perfect and captured the emotional perfectly. The story itself was moving and profound and the characters easy to connect with