Terrific writing and a compelling story with characters that are strongly developed. A middle or high school class would love to have this book read to them - with so much learning ground to develop and extend. The story ends with you crying sad and crying happy.

This book started simply: "I need to go home."

There are a lot of deep dark secrets in Bardell. And Avery faces down the darkness, not knowing. "What is this, 1955?" "It's Bardell." She said it as if it needed no further explanation." This book is full of racism, prejudice against LGBTQIA+ community, classism, and buried family and town secrets. Oh, and Avery's post-COVID teen angst. "Because people love a good mystery. Because death is good for business." "A murderer is still a murderer."

The story shifts point of view periodically, when the reader needs insight into a situation Avery doesn't know. Told like a short story in the midst of a much larger one.

What really grabbed my attention was the author's use of symbolism, deftly wound throughout the book. For example, the girls each have rings that symbolize their friendship: sodalite (self-acceptance and confidence; selenite (peace); and citrine (joy). And the sunflowers? Let's just say they're important.

Part thriller, part coming-of-age story, We Deserve Monuments deserves to be on your must-read list.

We Deserve Monuments is the #1 book I've read this year!!

Cw: a large part of the story centers on police violence/ racial violence & mentions of the klan, alcoholism/ abuse, mild homophobia, death/terminal illness

I adored We Deserve Monuments.
Getting to see messy, queer brown girls falling in love while trying to sort out the chaos of their lives felt so incredibly real and raw and beautiful. Ugh, I cannot get over it.

The ebb and flow of the relationship between Mama Letty, Zora and Avery will break you and ever so gently put you back together. It plays to generational gaps, tensions between mothers and daughters, grief and finding yourself while learning your history.

Thank you to Jas Hammonds for writing a book that upended my life in such a beautiful way. It's a masterpiece.

Review also posted to Goodreads, Twitter & Amazon

An absolutely stunning debut, this novel is both tender and sweet and really delves into the way that family and place shape the person you become. The way that Jas Hammonds handles generational trauma and the way that small towns handle issues of mental health, addiction, and race is masterful. Definitely a book both teens and adults will love!

Avery Anderson's senior year is not going to be the way she had planned. When her mother receives word that her grandmother, Mama Letty, has been diagnosed with cancer for a third time, Avery's parents decide to move to Bardell, Georgia to take care of her. Avery is unsure of how to react and the long-simmering tension between her mother and grandmother isn't helping. Avery makes two new friends, Simone and Jade, and through them she starts to learn a lot about the serious racial tensions that have existed in Bardell for years. Avery finds comfort and strength in her new friends and she also develops feelings for Simone. When both girls act on their feelings, it seems as if everything will change and not necessarily for the better. Avery starts to spend more time with Mama Letty and starts to learn more about the past, and how it impacted both the town and her family. This was a wonderfully emotional story of love, friendship, family, and the power of the truth.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of “We Deserve Monuments” in exchange for an honest review. Hammonds’ debut novel is beautiful and complex. One of the strengths of this novel was the development of the relationships. Romantic, parent/child, friends, etc. I felt myself moved by the conversation around loss and grief as well as the complexity of the coming-out process and how it’s impacted by cultural, religious, familial, etc. considerations. I don’t know how I feel about the big reveal at the end—wrapping up the mystery plot line. It was interesting reading a book that is in the aftermath of the height of the pandemic. All in all, this is definitely worth the read.

I was lucky enough to win an electronic ARC of WE DESERVE MONUMENTS by Jas Hammonds from the Summer/Fall Grab-a-Galley. Thank you for the early look, and have a safe and happy summer!

You know who really deserves a monument? Jas Hammonds, for writing such a breathtaking, heart-stopping, rip-out-your-soul-and-stitch-it-back-together-into-a-magnificent-tapestry gem of a book. I have been struggling for something like a month now to write a review that would do this book justice and you know what? It’s just not possible. So I want you to take me at my word when I tell you that We Deserve Monuments is *the* book you have to read when it comes out later this year. Actually, go ahead and preorder it right now. I’ve already got my copy pre-ordered. It is a testament to Queer Black girls everywhere and a shining example of how love can bring people together, how it can heal the deepest of wounds even when the odds are stacked against them. Rarely does a book contain near-equal doses of mystery, romance, and adventure, but Jas Hammonds understood the assignment and got the mix just right.

Avery Anderson has a plan. That plan involves staying focused on her studies and getting in and out of her mother’s hometown of Bardell, Georgia as fast as she can. Her plan is to get into Georgetown and study astronomy like her mother, Zora. Moving from Washington, D.C. to Podunk MAGA country at the beginning of her senior year was not in the plan at all, but when her mom receives a letter from her old friend and neighbor Carole that reveals her Mama Letty is dying, the whole Anderson family uproots their lives to go and care for her in her last months.

Avery knows very little about her Mama Letty, especially since her mother never talks about her. Their first meeting doesn’t go very well. When Mama Letty nicknames her Fish after spotting her lip ring and questions whether or not she’s a lesbian now, Avery is ready to run not walk back to D.C. Mama Letty is cantankerous, gruff, and has her walls up so high not even Jericho could compare. How is Avery supposed to get to know someone who won’t even talk to her other than in grunts and monosyllables?

At the same time, Avery was hoping for a break from her old friends Kelsi and Hikari, but she didn’t envision the break being so permanent. Ever since her breakup with Kelsi, fueled by Kelsi’s racist micro-aggressions about Avery being “barely Black” (she’s biracial), things haven’t been the same. Now that she’s in Bardell, D.C. feels like a completely different galaxy. The rules are different. The scenery is different. The people are different. Who will Avery become if she lets all of it in—and who will she become if she doesn’t? The move throws Kelsi and Hikari’s lives into stark contrast compared to her own and there’s nothing that can be said or done to remedy that. And why should she even try to remedy it when they scoffed at her lip ring? When they begged her not to shave her head? When they minimized and tried to erase her Blackness from the equation of her identity? What’s the point of being friends with people who don’t want you to be the most authentic version of yourself possible?

It doesn’t help that something is rotten in the state of Georgia on Sweetness Lane. There’s something that’s being kept from Avery by Zora and Mama Letty, something they don’t talk about but which fuels their arguments and resentments. Avery has vague flashbacks back to when she was little. She can see things being thrown and hear raised voices. She can remember the dissonance of the family fighting while they were supposed to be celebrating Christmas. But neither Zora nor Mama Letty wants to talk about it. No one wants to rip off the bandaid so the wound can heal.

And then there’s Simone, Carole’s daughter. Simone stirs longings in Avery from the first time they meet, but they’re not in Washington, D.C. They’re in Bardell, Georgia, where anti-Black racism and homophobia are alive and well. Thriving, even. Should Avery act on her feelings or tamp them down? Catching feelings for someone new was not part of the plan, but Avery soon discovers that life cares little for our plans.

Avery befriends Simone and Simone’s friend Jade. She’s quickly initiated into their friend group and made a part of their rituals. She learns what real friendship looks like, the kind where you don’t have to separate the different parts of yourself out like straining something through a sieve. She also learns that there are weird connections between her family and Jade’s family, who are rich and white and own The Draper Hotel and Spa. In fact, everything in Bardell seems oddly connected to different parts of Avery’s family and their history. Learning hard truths forces Avery to accept that nothing is what it appears to be on the surface and that everyone has something to hide. Will the truths she learns help to heal the fractures in her family, or will Mama Letty die without things being set right? I lost all of my fingernails racing through the pages to find out.

It’s so hard for me not to give up too many of the plot details but I just want you to know that I will be talking about this book until it comes out and harassing everyone I know to read it when it finally does.

I thought this was a refreshing modern read with a lot of heavy complex themes. This book takes place in the year of 2022, 2 years after the COVID pandemic in the small town of Bardell, Georgia. The setting of this book was refreshing as the book alludes to recent events and touches upon the interesting political climate in America today. It follows Avery, who is a senior in high school, as she navigates a confusing time in her life, trying to figure out who she really is and why her family is fractured the way it is. The book is also written in an interesting style where most of the chapters are written in first person from Avery’s point of view, but there are a few chapters written in third person to provide more exposition on the events that have happened in this town. In addition to this stylistic choice, the book is written in a young voice with a lot of slang that gen z uses today.

Some of the themes this book covers include: trauma, the cycle of abuse, race, and being comfortable in your own skin. These are very heavy themes that really opened my eyes to a whole another perspective. Throughout the novel we learn of the various traumas that each character has dealt with, how the traumas have affected them and how the characters have suffered in a cycle of abuse. Additionally, we get a lot of interesting insight into our main characters experience with racism and identity as Avery deals with modern day issues such as the perception of affirmative action, dealing with the racism that is rooted in her town and struggles of being a queer high achieving woman.

I did enjoy this book but it was not what I was expecting. I didn’t feel like the book synopsis really represented what the book was about. This book is labeled as a LGBTQIA and Young Adult Mystery/Thriller, but I felt that this was more of a contemporary LGBTQIA young adult book with a little bit of romance. The mystery wasn’t really a focal point for this story and more of a side plot, whereas the main focus of this story was Avery trying to build a relationship with her estranged grandmother. It was very heartwarming and a nice slow read to follow along, but not a gripping mystery or thriller.I thought it was a bit predictable. However, if you are looking for a book that is easy to read, explores the interesting themes and shows you the perspective a young-queer-bi-racial teenager today coming of age, this would be a great book for you.

I would rate this book 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4). It has very interesting and heartwarming but not at all what I was expecting in terms of the plot. Thank you to FierceReads for sending me an eARC of this book as part of the YallWest giveaway!

this was a powerful and interesting read! i loved the main character and her relationship with simone. the mystery parts sometimes fell flat but I still enjoyed them. the characters were definitely a highlight!

The premise and buzz around this book had me very excited to read, and it was well written. However, I found myself bogged down by the lack of action and the hints at a mystery that wasn't solved until the end, almost as an afterthought. I didn't feel that the motives of Mama Letty made sense. One minute she was portrayed as a sweet grandmother with a prickly exterior, and another she was much darker and had been an alcoholic. They did address that somewhat, but I didn't feel that her redeeming characteristics came through enough.

I also felt like the timeframe seemed off. Avery's mother would have been born in either the late 70s or early 80s but she likes 70's music. Letty's story about meeting Ray seems like it took place in the 40s or 50s, but it was much later than that. It just didn't seem to make sense for the book to be set in current times. I would have rather had it set in the 90s, with a teen Avery learning about her family history.

I liked the relationship between Avery and Simone, but other relationships seemed to fall flat. Unfortunately this book was a miss for me.

Full disclosure, Jas is my friend and I read many early drafts of this book. This review is of the final manuscript, and while you might say OK, you're biased, why should we take you seriously as a reviewer? Well: Like I said, I've read the book before, so you'd think I'd be a little jaded. You'd think I'd skip over words or scenes I'd read before. No. No. No. I hung on every single word, and it was more moving and more beautiful than I even remembered.

WE DESERVE MONUMENTS is a pull-your-heart-out-with-its-teeth novel, and I mean that in the best way possible. Jas *goes there* in every sense; their characters feel like real people, and so their big love, aches, and humor feel real too. I got chills multiple times reading this book. I cried more than once (and at really inconvenient times too, tearing up on a treadmill, sobbing 2 minutes before a work Zoom call). I laughed a whole hell of a lot, and I swooned like crazy. Like, damn, Jas can WRITE.

Though the prose, plot, themes, and characters are all tight and expertly executed, Avery, the protagonist, carries the voice. She is one of the most relatable characters I've ever read; queer kids, Black kids, biracial kids--and everyone else--will find so much of themselves in her. She's loyal, funny, adventurous, calming, kind. She wants the world to be better and for people to heal. She wants to love sincerely and wants to let her every wall down; she just doesn't always know how. Her friendship with Jade and Simone, and then ultimately her romance with Simone, is genuine and warm. The romance is hot and tender, thrilling and complicated. It's really, really something. This is a literary couple for the ages. (If you make fan art please send it to me. A pony could probably draw better than I can or I'd do it myself).

Beyond her school social life, though, Avery has other stars in her life: her parents, especially her mother, Zora, who escaped her hometown, Bardell, after a childhood filled with her mother's abuse. But her mom, Avery's Grandmother Letty, was neglectful because of how deeply she was hurting after unthinkable tragedy. Mama Letty becomes a star, too, for Avery, for Zora, and for everyone around her. This novel allows everyone to be fully human and flawed but then takes the time to break that cycle of abuse. It meticulously heals, and wonders how everyone can keep on healing even after love is gone. Mama Letty is a complicated character, but oh my GOD will you love her. I did. She's snappy and honest. She's curmudgeonly and perpetually over it. She's everything.

If you liked HONEY GIRL, if you liked "San Junipero," if you like books that make you FEEL SOMETHING, if you like books that reckon with real life and important history and the messy, all-you-can-do-is-cry fallout of generations of racism, this book is for you. If you like queer romance that takes your breath away, found family, generations of queer Black characters, or hidden spots where you can be yourself and find yourself, this book is for you.

In the novel, the Renaissance is a local bar, tucked away in an old man's house, treasured by generations of people who are just looking for somewhere to *be.* Arnie serves hot food, stiff drinks, and songs that have folks dancing their way into the night, into the next day. It's more magic than the moon, better than Jupiter. WE DESERVE MONUMENTS feels just like that.

Jas, if you're reading this, you've really done it. Thank you for writing a story I will keep in my heart forever, for making me cry at work, for being such a magical, thoughtful, special person and writer and friend. You deserve monuments.

This was an amazing read! Jas really was able to capture the environment of the South. Avery was an extremely likable and relatable character. Avery and her family go to Georgia to take care of Avery's ill grandmother. Though she is headed into her Senior year of high school and will be leaving friends and the plans they had, Avery discovers so much more than she initially thought was possibly about herself, her family, and her future. Cloaked with generational trauma as well as a background of murder mystery, We Deserve Monuments is a book that will last for years to come.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Fierce Reads for providing an Advanced Readers Copy of this book.

Avery Anderson is trying to make the best of the situation when she is uprooted from her DC hometown to a small town in Georgia, where her terminally ill grandmother lives. She doesn't know much about her grandmother as her mom has a testy relationship with her, and Avery has only met her once when she was very small and remembers small fragments of that fractious visit.

Trying to make sense of her family history and mend fences because time is running out, Avery encounters racism and prejudice due to her queer identity. She befriends her next door neighbor, Simone, who is having issues of her own, and Jade, whose mother was killed/murdered under suspicious circumstances. The more Avery uncovers, the more she discovers that coming to terms with the past is a lot harder and more complicated than it seems.

We Deserve Moments is Jas Hammonds' debut novel, and I thought the plot, characterization and atmosphere were all very involving. It will make for great discussion in teen book clubs and was an entertaining read.

This book is a monument to all the girls who don't have everything figured out, all those trying to figure out how to move forward in our current world while family secrets and other terrible history have them looking backward. It's full of pain and grief and also friendship and love and joy and I cried at all of the things. I can't believe this is a debut novel and I can't wait to read more from Hammonds. This needs to be on everyone's radar.

WE DESERVE MONUMENTS is a heartfelt, deeply honest, totally engaging exploration of identity, family, and the secrets embedded in small town communities. I was completely riveted from page one.

I loved everything about this book. It's about finding love as a queer Black teenager, trying to forge connections with family, and unpacking the truth in a small town riddled with mystery and past injustices. Just before her senior year of high school, Avery moves from DC to a small Southern town so her family can help out her grandmother, whose health has taken a turn for the worse. We see Avery try to connect with her grandmother, fight her feelings for her next-door neighbor, realize the toxic nature of the friends she left behind in DC, and make new friends, all while figuring out who she is and what she wants out of life (because she's realizing that she's not the same overachiever she once was). I loved this book for the coming-of-age aspect and the love and friendship it explores, but on top of that, there's an interesting town-wide mystery that was fun to explore too. This is a beautiful book!

I'm not sure which I liked better: the slow-burn mystery, the family drama, the friend drama, or the queer black lesbian love story. But in all, this book was fantastic.
When Avery moved to spend her senior year with her maternal grandmother, whom she barely remembers, she intends to get it and get out without making waves. However, she quickly befriends the next-door neighbor Simone Cole and her best friend Jade Oliver. Soon, Avery is asking questions and digging into both her own family's history but also the town's history.
I really loved all the different moving parts in this story. If I was pressed to choose, I think the family drama was most timely for me, and would be my favorite. Overall, this is a very well-done book.

I could not put this one down. We Deserve Monuments is the story of the Anderson family, uprooted from their DC hometown to return to the South to care for an ill grandmother. There are several family dramas in the town, and they all interweave across the painful history of the South. At the risk of spoiling the intermingled plots, I will refrain from saying more.

The pacing of the story was spot on, and the dialogue was so believable that each character had a distinct voice for me as the reader. The story works for pleasure reading, but also excerpts for bringing US History courses alike.

I believe that the story would have been even stronger without the final chapter or page explaining what happens next. I think the chapter before was a more resolute finale.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my opinion.

I am left pondering parts of this book. I feel that it's a good book and an important book and that it has a lot to say/teach to readers. I know that the ending revelation - that I did not see coming - left me feeling a bit down and disturbed. Not disturbed in the way that watching "Midsommar" left me disturbed (with the sense that I'd just made a huge mistake in watching that), but with a feeling of disquiet about what we find out. There's so much depth here about 1. families, 2. racism in the south and other places, 3. coming out and acceptance of who you are, 4. grief, and 5. reveling in the moment at hand. On the basis of all those things, I strongly recommend this book to all readers. Here's the one issue that kept me at arm's length throughout - Mama Letty's smoking. I have such a dislike of cigarettes and so many memories of being in a car and house with smokers - my parents - that I felt myself turned off with every mention of someone smoking or the finding of cigarette butts in the house. That might not be an issue for many other readers, but I know it got in the way of me feeling the emotions that I'm sure I was supposed to feel about Mama Letty.

Note- the only reason I would not purchase this book for my library is because the drug and alcohol use is too much for middle school.