This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

Thanks to Netgalley for this book in exchange for my honest opinion, I recieved this book. I was not really a fan of this book, it just didn't capture my attention.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. The character of Avery and her journey though her family’s experience in the modern South was powerful. I wish it was even longer. I wanted to spend more time with these characters especially Grandma Letty. Thank you for this advanced copy!

This was a fantastic contemporary entry that feels comfortable yet fresh. Avery is a fantastic lead and I loved the way Hammonds developed her relationship with her family. I thought that the romance line with Simone was a cherry on top for an overall substantive and moving story.

We Deserve Monuments is a gorgeous, meandering story about family, love, racism, and finding oneself. Avery is a biracial, openly queer girl who ends up moving with her parents to Bardell, Georgia, a small town in the Deep South, after her grandmother falls ill. There is a great deal of tension between Avery's mother and grandmother, who is as cantankerous a character as I've ever encountered. Avery intends to get in and get out of Bardell as quickly and silently as possible, but that's not how things go down. Instead, she meets beautiful Simone and her best friend Jade. The three quickly fall in step until things between Avery and Simone simmer over into something more, jeopardizing the tentative friendship.

While Avery and Simone are certainly a sweet couple, the real love story at the center of the book is between Avery and her grandmother (and, to a certain extent, her mother). As Avery learns more about Mama Letty and the death of her grandfather, she also begins to discover more about herself and what she truly wants from her life.

Highly recommended for teen libraries and book clubs, and especially for fans of books like The Last True Poets of the Sea and When You Were Everything.