Review: Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson

Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help.

As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?

I fell in love with Tiffany Jackson when I read Allegedly. This book was... man where do I start. First, think about all the people in your life, are you lucky enough to have a friend like Claudia, someone who wont take no for an answer, someone who'll go to teachers, police officers, counselors, siblings, parents (theirs and yours), librarians, and basically every one in the city to look for you. If so, you're the luckiest person in the world. 

Claudia and Monday have been friends for YEARS. They have a routine. The spend holidays together, days together, weekends together. They're planning to go to the same High School together.  Every summer Claudia leaves to visit her grandmother and Monday's waiting for her except this year. This year Monday doesn't visit Claudia. Claudia can't reach her on the phone, and when Monday shows up for school (without her braids for the first time) Monday isn't there. Teachers aren't looking for Monday, the counselors aren't looking for Monday, Monday's sister is lying about where Monday is and the mother... well clearly she isn't be trusted. 

Claudia does her best to move on with her life which is difficult because Monday was her only friend, and they were both bullied. Claudia tries her hardest to hold on to her passion and talent for dance, her new friendship with church friend Michael, and her close relationship with her parents.

I liked this book. I really did, but I was confused by the time I reached the end. I can't say much more with some spoilers. A savvy reader will be able to guess how this all ends, and they actually tell you about half way through, but you're been warned from here on out, there will be some spoilers.

So, Monday is dead. Somewhere between Claudia realizing that Monday's sister, Tuesday, is lying about when Monday went, and when we as the readers meet Monday's mom, we pretty much know that Monday is dead, we just aren't sure what happened to her. I get lost when we get to the end. We find out that not only is Monday dead. but she's been dead for two years. This is Claudia's second "episode" where she forgets about her friends death and kind of relives it over again. It gets confusing. At the end, Claudia's parents and boyfriend explain that she's forgotten about two years of her life... temporarily? The book isn't broken into typical chapters, they're split into Months (September, October), The Before, One Year Before the Before, The After,  and I think there's one or two Two Years Before the Before.  The book is suppose to be broken up into Today (I think the months are today I really don't know), When Claudia came back from summer vacation and realized Monday was gone, The Year Before Monday went missing, The time when you were the only one who didn't realize that two year have actually passed since your friend died (I think that's After, I really can't tell. ugh), and one or two Two years before Monday went missing. 

 The twist in this book wasn't necessarily that Monday was dead, it was that Claudia was the only one who didn't know that Monday was dead, and instead of telling her, her family let her work it out on her own. (They never fully explain why they do that by the way.) I think there were three sets of flashbacks in this book, and two sets of present POV. I finished this book two days ago and I'm just beginning to TRULY get it. 

Now, my qualms with this book does not mean that I didn't like it. I honestly did. I haven't read many books with a dyslexic character and I especially haven't read a book with a black dyslexic character. We're still in this world where black characters (particularly women) are suppose to be fierce, strong, and sassy. We hardly ever see them and demure or struggling with real educational disabilities. 

I loved that Claudia was a child. From our flashbacks we could see that Claudia and Monday were actually beginning to grow apart as many girls do around this age. Monday was interested in boys and popularity, and Claudia still wanted to have sleepovers and pain nails.  It was nice to see a little girl, who was still a little girl. I also loved that we saw so much family interaction. When Claudia was worried about Monday she went to her parents. Did she also go behind their back the way any child would? Obviously. But when she was scared, she went to her parents and I loved seeing that. 

This book was really good and worth a read. There is some pretty strong language at times, so I would be careful about giving this to young readers, but over all, two thumbs up.

4 stars.