Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

MAAME is a bildungsroman about a young woman as she leaves home and navigates life in London on her own for the first time. With an overbearing yet absent mother and an unreliable older brother, Maddie has always been the “responsible one” in her family, and she’s spent the majority of her adult life being the sole caretaker of her father, who has Parkinson’s disease. Her family warned her never to speak about their troubles to anyone, so when she finally moves out and learns to live life for herself, she is forced to confront repressed feelings about her family, friends, and cultural identity, and now she must figure out what kind of woman she actually wants to be.

This book was incisive, engaging, and deeply moving. It deals with issues of grief, mental health, sexuality, race, and complex family rationships with both tenderness and brutal honesty. Coming-of-age tales usually aren’t really my thing since I find them to be long-winded and frustrating, but Maddie’s story was touching and relatable with a satisfying ending (and beautifully narrated by Heather Agyepong). In Twi, the name “Maame” means “woman” or “the responsible one,” and I loved that this was as much a story about her growing out of the nickname as it was about her growing into it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audio version of this book. This is not typically my style of book, but I enjoyed it. I prefer a book with an action-packed plot. This was just a story. However, I really liked the main character, Maame (Maddie) and couldn't wait to hear more from her. I related to a lot of things that happened to her and her feelings towards them. It felt as if I was listening to a good friend and will miss our chats.

"How do you feel about your (nickname) Maame (means woman/wife in Ghanian)"

"I hate what it means and what it's done to me...It made me grow up when I should have had more time. It made my Dad overlook me when I was a child...my Mum leave me behind and my brother get away with doing the bare minimum. It made me lonely and it made me sad. It made me responsible and guilty. It made me someone if given the choice I wouldn't want to be."

The brilliance of Maame by poignant prose debut author Jessica George is that though I have nothing in common with 25 year old virgin Ghanaian Londoner Maddie I not only felt her pain but felt she understood mine.

Maddie cares for her Parkinson addled Dad while her Mom spends her time back in Ghana and her brother excels in excuses not to help. No one offers her a night off. No one says thank you. When her Mom comes home for awhile Maddie bravely moves out, gets roommates, parties and loses her virginity. But just as she's coming into her own tragedy strikes and takes her on a journey of grief and self discovery that is at once heartbreaking yet beautifully written and wonderfully explored with hope and love.

Listening to narrator Heather Agyepong was an exploration in pure talent. Her empathy for Maddie brought me to tears but also had me laughing at some comical moments and Maddie's need to Google everything from not enjoying sex to how to talk to roommates. This first person debut felt more like a memoir than fiction. It was real and raw. It was about family, heritage, tradition, abuse, racism, and self preservation. It was about being Maame and being your own woman.

Fav Quote: "Comparison is no friend to mental health."

I received a free copy of this audiobook from MacMillan Audio via #NetGalley
for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Such a great debut novel! This was super engaging and I was able to listen pretty quickly because of it. I fell in love with Maame. Heavy topics were handled with humor, realness, and care. This is a book you'll want to discuss with your friends. Loved it and will definitely buy a physical copy.

I enjoyed going on Maddies journey with her throughout this book. I always enjoy learning about other cultures through books and Maddie is working to please her family and be the girl they want respecting her cultures/beliefs from Ghana but also living life on her own in London. The narrator of this book as fantastic and I am thankful I had the opportunity to listen!

✨Book/Audiobook Review🎧📖

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the eARC and ALC for Maame. I totally had a blonde moment and thought I had until February 7th for pub day on this one. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Nope, that was the archive date on Netgalley. Oops!

OK, so my main commentary on this book is that it is worth ALL the hype. It is so frickin’ good and I loved almost every minute. I went into this one completely blind, just knowing it was a popular ARC. Alllll the topics are covered and in such a fantastic voice. Everything from family roles, grief, racism, work dynamics, friendships and virginity/sexuality are all part of this incredible coming-of-age story. I loved Maddie AKA Maame so, so, so much and I love how her story wrapped up in the end.

I can’t believe this is Jessica George’s debut! Watch out for this author, she’s going places! Whatever she writes next, I will be at the front of the line to read ASAP!

P.S. This narrator, Heather Agyepong, is amazing and her accent is 👏🙌. I highly recommend going the audio route for this one. Those Ghanaian accents add to an already incredible story.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
All the stars!

This book manages to toe an incredibly difficult line: being both incredibly charming and completely gut wrenching. It tells the story of Maddie, a 25-year-old Ghanaian woman living in London, who's the primary caretaker for her father who has Parkinson's.

Maddie is an incredibly well-written, real-feeling character: at times to the point of being infuriating to read. Her naïveté is understandable — as she's grown up incredibly sheltered and is just learning to make her own decisions for the first time at 25 — but can be frustrating as a reader, when you can see situations more clearly than she can and have to wait for her to realize she's being mistreated or taken advantage of. Because the book is written solely from Maddie's perspective, however, it did leave many of the other characters feeling one-dimensional. And when Maddie finally realizes at the end of the book that "my actions can affect other people," it feels like too little, too late.

When thinking about what I liked most about this book, I feel drawn to its two emotional extremes. On one hand, I appreciated the raw, realistic depiction of what grief can do to a person, especially when that grief is complicated with feelings of regret. On the other, I most enjoyed the lighthearted scenes when Maddie was experiencing things like flirting, dancing in a club, or getting high for the first time. The "in betweens" of these two ends of the spectrum — tended to drag on for me, but they also made the story feel incredibly true to life, so I understand their purpose.

All in all, this is a stunning debut from Jessica George. Even more than the story itself, I appreciated her voice, her humor, and her writing style, and I'll gladly read whatever she publishes next.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook.

Thank you @netgally for my ARC of Maame by Jessica George. It was a gorgeous debut novel. It is a story of a young woman finding herself amidst hard times and grief. The writing is lovely and Maddie is a character that stays with you.

Maddie is in her mid 20s and her life is turned upside down. She loses her job and her dad has Parkinson's. She has a rocky relationship with her mom, who lives in Ghana. She is also trying to navigate dating, friendships, and finding herself. It is a sad story, but also one of hope.

WOW! Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book by Jessica George. I really enjoyed it. The story was so believable and I could relate to her loss with the passing of her dad and all of her emotions following. I truly enjoyed how Maddie would google everything and the answers she received sometimes made me chuckle to myself.

This is a story of a 25 year old girl who took care of her ailing father to the point of not living her life. She had an absent mother and brother and took all the problems of the world upon her shoulders. She dealt with losing a job, financial struggles, not being recognized for her talents and depression. The story was so well written I felt as if I knew her and could feel her struggles with her. Thank you again.

Maame by Jessica George is an absolutely delightful, poignant character study of Maddie- a 25 year old woman living in the UK who is trying to find her own way and meet the expectations of her Ghanian family. Maddie is often called "maame" by her mother, it is a name with many meanings including woman and mother, often bestowed upon the eldest daughter. As the maame of her family, Maddie is saddled with many responsibilities including being the primary caregiver for her father who has Parkinson's.

When her father's health rapidly declines, we journey with Maddie through her grief whilst she also has to deal with employment, flat mates, and attempts at dating. I loved how accurately and tenderly this book showed what it feels like to be in your twenties, the true mess that that time is for many of us. I also loved the complex and nuanced depiction of a family that is grieving, loving, and dysfunctional. Maddie learns to stand up for herself as she finds her own worth in this story.

Maame is a hands down five star read for me, excellently written and beautifully narrated. The audiobook was top notch; the narrator seamlessly transitioned from a UK accent to a Ghanian accent to portray all of the characters. This book is a real treat, full of the range of emotions. I have not a single criticism.

This book was so good!! A coming of age story that makes you laugh and also breaks your heart. I loved Maddie and I felt with her. Great story telling with a splash of Ghanaian culture.

Maame is a coming of age story featuring 25-year-old Maddie, who is a Ghanaian woman living in London and working as an editorial assistant. Her father has Parkinson’s disease and Maddie has become his primary caregiver while her mother runs a hostel back in Ghana. Throughout the book, Maddie is faced with difficulties such as depression, grief, regret and racism. As she navigates these challenges, she starts to figure out who she is and who she wants to be.

This debut novel is IMPRESSIVE and I have a feeling the amazing reviews for it have only just begun! While I will never experience racism in the way that Maddie did, I was able to connect with her character in so many other ways. She was strong and such a good example of what it looks like to be a loyal daughter, sister and friend. This will be a book that is talked about for a long time and I can't wait to recommend it to others!

Thank you MacMillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for my ARC to read and review!

Maame is a solid debut novel, focusing on a 25-year-old Londoner of Ghanaian heritage, Maddie. She has been the main family member to help care for her ailing father, who is suffering from an advanced case of Parkinson’s. Her brother makes excuses. Her mother is out of the country, running a hotel in Ghana, more often than she’s in London. So it all falls on Maddie’s head (yes, there’s a health aide that comes to help out too). When her mother arrives in London and says she’s staying for a long time, Maddie takes the opportunity to move out and try to start her life. In a way, this is a delayed-coming-of-age novel.

I liked this book but didn’t love it. I did enjoy learning more about the Ghanaian culture and the Ghanaian diaspora in England (although I would have liked to learn more!). Maddie is pretty immature socially for someone in her mid-20s, someone who has a university degree, even though she’s mostly been a homebody, not completely by choice. She habitually consults Google for answers to questions about social situations, which I found odd (but perhaps someone younger wouldn’t think it odd). Examples: “How to be happy” and “What to do when you’ve been fired” and “How long do guys wait before asking a girl out on a date?” She really wants to fit in and lets her new flatmates drag her into situations that make her uncomfortable, in an effort to be more “normal.” There is a big deal made of the fact that she’s still a virgin at 25. A positive aspect was how the author treated mental health issues, panic attacks, grief and so on. And her treatment of the everyday subtle racism Maddie endures was another good part of the book.

Her mother was a mostly unlikeable character and we didn’t really get to know her dad at all, due to his advanced illness. I realize that in many (most?) cultures, it is expected that the daughter take care of the parents, but her brother was worthless and that really annoyed me, in addition to her mother being out of the picture. Maddie shows a lot of growth, both interpersonally and at work, over the course of the book, but it really only shows up in the later portions of the book. I think people in their 20s and 30s will relate to a lot of situations that arise in this story.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. The audiobook was beautifully narrated by Heather Agyepong.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook and to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Maame is a book about growing up, About a young women who is constantly trying to do good things but is also concerned about keeping up with her peers. I did not care for the first half of the book - it seemed more YA then adult fiction. There was information about this book being humorous, it was not for me.

The characters within her family are interesting and well developed. Her family life has determined most of her choices will into her 20's. I thought her family life was very believable and somewhat sad. Mental health and grieving were a strong part of this book and were handled well. That is probably the reason I liked the second half of the book better.

Maddie has a lot of questions she needs answered about life and how to grow up - she goes to google for almost all of the answers. Maddie's experience with men just did not seem very realistic.

What a phenomenal debut. I went in a little blind with this one, so I wasn't sure what to expect but I loved it. Maddie was such a relatable character; her independent solitary nature really resonated with me; there were numerous times where I felt her thoughts mirrored my own and I was rooting for her to find her way and find happiness the entire time. The writing was impeccable - alternating between funny, heartbreaking and insightful and touched on so many universal issues - family drama, grief, job struggles, dating, friendships and mental health. It's a brilliant, unique coming-of-age story that I think everyone will be able to identify with. I highly recommend it and it will easily be one of my favorites of the year.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies.

Maddie’s a first generation 20-something Ghanaian woman living in London. She’s been her father’s sole caregiver since her teens. Her brother’s not around, her mother lives in Ghava most of the time running a hostel. Maddie’s left with the responsibility with no time for herself. When her mother returns, she takes the opportunity to move out. She finally experiences what her peers had long before her such as friendships, dating, going out, sex, even figuring out her career path.

Much of this story connected with with me - the caregiving aspect and the weight of the world falling on her, her uneasy relationship with her mother which was quite toxic from my perspective. Maddie’s always torn between finding her independence and being the dutiful daughter, even as her mother piles on the cultural and religious guilt. Maddie goes to therapy (reluctantly) to sort out her emotions and does make headway. Though Maddie took on responsibility at a young age, she’s still a little immature in some regards missing social cues at times. I found it interesting that her emotions and apprehensiveness about getting close to people also affected her physical intimacy.

I adored Maddie. She grows impressively as an individual by the end of book. The writing is superb as is the narration by the splendid Agyepong. I liked hearing the Ghanaian dialect and accent when called upon which further immersed me in those specific moments. As difficult as parts of the story were, I also found strength and solidarity in it. An unforgettable 5-star read!

Thanks to @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for my ALC. This is my honest review.

All. The. Stars. 😭 instantly sending it to my top ten of 2023 list. So good. So heartfelt. I just loved it. I loved Maddie’s innocence. I felt her every emotion - sadness, frustration, confusion, desire to fit in.. etc etc etc. she was so well written and relatable. Seriously this book was so so good.

Maame is a really chamring impressive debut. Following our main character through her growth and major life changes was compelling and interesting.

Maame means woman in Twi and it's a name that Maddie's mother calls her.

This is such a gorgeous coming of age story. It was a heavy read because it deals with some heavy themes of independence from family despite family expectation, debilitating illness in a parent, coming into your own and finding your way in terms of your sexuality, plus the ever-present challenges of finding true friends and a career you love. Maddie deals with grief and loss but she also finds new relationships and learns who she is as a person unto herself. She juggles her heavy life aspects with her family with the "normal" stuff that everyone lives through. George did a beautiful job writing how Maddie navigates this, or struggles to as the case may be.

I am not from Ghana and would never claim to understand the reality of what growing up in both English and Ghanian cultures is like for Maddie. However, I did grow up with both Indian and American cultures and her struggles with juggling cultural norms and expectations was something that truly resonated with me.

I listened to this one on audiobook and I'm so glad I did because I wouldn't have been able to pronounce the Twi words correctly and they would have lost so much of their beauty.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book ahead of publication. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

A beautiful story about the trials of adulthood and a late bloomer. Maddie, or Maame as her mother calls her, takes the reader with her as she learns through being a caretaker, setting out on her own, learning what sex should and shouldn’t be, and how to date and have friends in modern society. She realizes that not everything she was taught or knew was for her best interest and it ultimately throws her into discovering depression. Like many of us, our 20’s tend to be fraught with troubles, but I felt a content warmth in where she landed.