Posted by Claudia Coleman and Monday Charles were the best of friends. They were inseparable, and did everything together. So when Monday goes missing, it’s like Claudia has lost a limb. But nobody seems to notice or care until they find her a year later. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson is a YA thriller that shines a light on real-life issues like abuse, racism, and poverty.
Monday would have been found much sooner if police actually looked into the case, but because she was Black, they didn’t make her case a priority and her disappearance didn’t get any media coverage. After reading this book, I was surprised to learn that data shows that the disappearances of POC are less likely to get media attention.
The author based her novel off the stories of two real-life missing kids, and like Monday, whose cases were not investigated. This problem is really disturbing, as a Black girl it’s scary to think about people completely disregarding the fact that I’m missing.
My favorite character was Monday. We get many flashbacks to memories of her and Claudia, and I loved Monday’s witty personality. I thought it was smart to include flashbacks because it helped me get to know Monday – it felt like I really knew her – even though she wasn’t physically there in the book.
As good as the book was, I didn’t really like the ending, I felt like it was rushed and confusing because it didn’t feel like the book was over. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is a detail in the ending that made me question what I thought I knew about the book.
This book is definitely targeted to older audiences. There are graphic scenes that could scare a lot of younger readers. The book also includes sex scenes, drinking, and swearing, so parents should be aware of before buying the book for young readers.
I really enjoyed how color was an ongoing theme in the book. Claudia described people as colors, Monday being red because you couldn’t miss her, she was “crisp, striking, and vivid”. Her dad was forest green because of how calm and reassuring he was. She used metaphors that depicted the characters so well, without flat-out saying “Mrs. Charles wasn’t as good as she seemed”, she explained how a ripe banana can rot, and a yellow highlighter tip blackens with wear.
Three out of four roses!
Elena Reads and Reviews 