I loved his book from first page to last.A story of a young girl trying to find her way.The writing is so wonderful so entertaining there were moments I laughed out loud.I predict this will be s bestseller as people fall in love with Maddie#netgalley #st.martins

Maddie is 25 and still living at home. She cares for her father with Parkinson’s while her mother spends every other year in Ghana running a family business. When she finally decides to take the plunge and move out, it seems like it’s one unfortunate event after the other. Riddled with guilt and depression, she is forced to confront the root of her people pleasing tendencies and figure out who she is.

There were definitely some things I liked about this book. I love a female lead who finds her voice, and Maddie definitely learned how to stick up for herself. Also the constant compulsive googling was so funny, definitely a relatable anxious millennial experience. But there was something missing for me. Maybe it was the writing, maybe it was the pacing, but it took me forever to read this because I just wasn’t hooked. I was rooting for Maddie, but for most of the book I was bored.

Twenty-Five year old, Maddie, feels like she’s stuck in her life. She is the caretaker of her father who has advanced stage Parkinson’s Disease, her mom alternates between Ghana and their home in London and puts all the financial burden on Maddie, her brother is always off on some trip, and she hates her dead-end administration job. So when her mom comes back to London for a year, Maddie jumps at the opportunity to move out and start living her life! She gets a new flat, starts dating guys, quits the job she hates and finds a new one with more potential, but just as she starts to think that she might be able to be a normal girl, tragedy strikes, and Maddie’s world is turned upside down.

The story was interesting and definitely pulled me in. All the characters were well rounded and felt very real. I loved Maddie. She was so relatable and her struggles felt all too real. I loved her voice and the inner dialogues she had with herself.

I also, appreciated how the author handled the subject matter. There were some heavy topics, but they never felt overwhelming. They felt real and grounded, and the questions surrounding them were educational while still making sense for the story.

I did feel that it was a bit too long. There were some sections that I didn’t feel needed to be there and didn’t help move the story forward or give insights into character. I also, was kind of turned around by the middle of the book. The beginning felt like it was going to be a very different book than it ended up being.

Overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

Maddie is a character you can’t help but root for. Does she make mistakes? Yes, but that makes her journey all the more compelling. Maame is perfect for anyone looking for a well-rounded, fully developed character’s journey to find herself.

“we grow up fast. not by force, but because we are needed.”

maddies nickname is maame, the Twi word for woman. maddie is the rock of her family, the always dependable, responsible one. at 25, she hasnt had much time for a life of her own as she is the primary caretaker for her father with advanced stage parkinson’s. her mother and older brother are largely absent and offer no support or help financially. when given the chance to move out, she jumps at the opportunity to be on her own. but its harder than she expects, who is she when she isn’t being maame?

i loved maddie as a protagonist and she was so easy to empathize with. jessica george’s portrayal of a ‘late bloomer’ who comes of age and finds independence in her mid-twenties, as opposed to in her teenage years, was excellent. i felt all the emotions alongside maddie as she struggled to be the perfect ghanian daughter while living in london and watching everyone her age do all the things she cant. this is a stellar debut and i cant wait for more from jessica george.

many thanks to st. martins’s press and netgalley for the chance to read and review this title

This review will be posted on Instagram on January 23, 2023.

MAAME was a deeply touching and beautiful debut novel. I thought Maddie was such a real character; her struggles with family, mental health, love, grief, and friendship were incredibly raw and the way she navigated them felt really poignant and insightful.

When we meet her, Maddie is twenty-five years old and works in London as a personal assistant. She lives at home with her father, who is battling Parkinson’s. Since her mother spends years at a time in Ghana and her brother has adopted his friends as family, Maddie has become her father’s primary caretaker and shoulders the responsibility of running their home, paying their bills, and managing her father’s treatment. Exhausted, lonely, and disillusioned, Maddie is desperate to be a normal twenty-something.

I particularly enjoyed the first-person perspective of this novel, which isn’t something I normally notice about a book. But in this case, I felt like I was on FaceTime with a friend. I felt like I was coming with her to work and really enjoyed getting to know her. I found her google searches to be extremely relatable and humorous, and I grieved with her when life dealt her some of the most unimaginable hands. Reading the author’s bio, I noticed that Jessica George shares a lot in common with her main character, Maddie, and I’m so curious how much of this novel is autobiographical!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend for a read that will have you in your feels!

Maddie is a 25-year-old living in London. and her life is less than ideal. Not only does she have a job she doesn’t really like, she’s her father’s caretaker. Why? He’s in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s, and her mother is off to Ghana for a year at a time. Maddie struggles to balance her life as caretaker of her critically ill father, target of her mom’s verbal tirades, and a difficult career. When her mom finally returns from one of these extended trips to Ghana, Maddie moves out on her own. As soon as she moves out, she loses her job, making her hustle to find another. She lands at a publishing house as an editorial assistant.

This is a coming-of-age novel for adults. Because Maddie has had the responsibility of her father’s care on her shoulders all these years, she’s finally got an opportunity to have life experiences and enjoy things that most people do at a younger age. She even opens herself up to dating, something she’s never done before, with mixed results. Because of her inexperience in the dating world, and because she never really had the time to explore her sexuality, she stumbles through a couple of dating experiences.

Maddie not only has the aforementioned problems she also faces life as a black woman in mostly white settings. She’s got a few close friends that have stuck by her since they met, and I really enjoyed those interactions. She’s also navigating the publishing world, and where she works, black women are few and far in-between. I won’t say I enjoyed this part of the book, but as a lily-white woman from the United States, I appreciated learning more about a black woman’s perspective. Despite not being a black woman from Ghana transplanted to England, I could totally relate to Maddie and her struggles to be taken seriously as a woman in the workplace, as well as a daughter dealing with a sick parent.

Don’t get me started with Maddie’s mother, who goes to Ghana every other year for the entire year to help with her family’s hostel. This, despite the fact that her husband needs care and attention. She just leaves it up to Maddie. When she does check in from Ghana, and when she returns, she’s an overbearing God-fearing woman who can’t keep her opinions to herself. Even while at a distance, she smothers Maddie with her advice. Lest we forget that Maddie has a brother who lives in town and rarely visits or helps out.

There’s tragedy in this book, which hit me hard for personal reasons, so I found this a very emotional book, but in a good way, too. I can’t say enough about Maame, which left me with all the feels when it was over. This is an incredible debut novel, and I highly recommend it!

Maame" by Jessica George was one of my most anticipated reads for 2023 and it did not disappoint. It is a very powerful coming-of-age story about family relationships, grief, and the search for happiness and fulfillment in life. Maddie is an endearing and realistic character and anyone who has ever felt the weight of family responsibility will relate to her. I loved following Maddie's story and watching her grow as a woman from the first page to the last.

This book is beautifully written and doesn't shy away from heavy subjects. I could relate to Maddie's experience with depression and overly critical but emotionally unavailable mother. Her experience as a black woman in both the workplace and in the dating scene really resonated with me, as I have watched my friends of color have similar experiences. "Maame" is thought provoking and emotional. It will definitely be considered one of the best books of 2023 and I feel privileged to have read an advanced copy. Five glorious stars!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press, for this eARC. The book will be published on 31 January 2023.

There is a reason why this text is featured on so many Anticipated Books of the Year. It is an intensely readable and beautiful story about a daughter's coming of age. As a reader, I fell in love with Maddie and breezed through this novel.

Understanding the difficulties of being a caregiver firsthand made this novel resonate on a personal level for me. I saw myself greatly in Maddie's story, but one need not feel a personal connection to be deeply affected by this story. It is at times heartwarming and devastating, funny and serious all at once.

Maame has been getting quite a bit of buzz the past few weeks, so I went into reading it with very high hopes. The hype is real! I LOVED this book and believe that it will be on my Best of 2023 list (even though it's only January). The novel follows 25-yr old Maddie, who is called Maame - woman - by her family. She's graduated university and is living at home and is the primary caretaker of her father, who is suffering from Parkinson's, because her mother lives mostly in Ghana and her brother is never around. We hear about Maddie's life in London - her job, living at home, her dating (or non-dating), her caring for her father and other responsibilities, her habit of Googling answers to life's questions.
I laughed out loud and then cried like a baby during this book. It made me feel all the feels and I could relate to so much even though I am not a 25-year old Black woman.
This is such a fabulous debut that will affect everyone who reads it. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and most of all, it will make you root for Maddie!
Many thanks to #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

THIS BOOK. Oh wow. It was amazing. This book is about so many things from racism to family issues to finding your own identity to grief and more. I absolutely loved Maddie. She was relatable in so many ways like her googling every question she had and her habit of people pleasing at the expense of her own needs. I really enjoyed her journey of leaving her home and becoming exactly who she wanted to be. I also really liked the look at her struggle to be the perfect daughter, the responsible one, especially with her family’s Ghanaian traditions so deeply rooted in her, but also the way she didn’t feel like she fit with that way of living, growing up in London. Maddie had so many lessons to learn and my heart broke for her each and every time she had to learn them the hard way. This book also had a really good discussion about consent and sexual pleasure that I found really well done. Also there were some really funny moments that I thought helped balance out the pain and grief. I really can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s absolutely a book people need to read immediately.
TW: death, illness, racism, mental illness

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. George did such a great job capturing the feelings of anxiety, grief, and guilt when it comes to complicated family dynamics. I wanted to wrap Maddie in the largest hug and tell her that she’s doing enough and that she deserves better.
Towards the beginning of the book, George has Maddie talk to the audience/reader, but towards the middle she stops doing that. I’m wondering if that was an intentional choice—if it was supposed to reflect Maddie trying to quiet her subconscious. I’ll have to sit on that piece a bit more.
Maddie’s realization that she could love her mother while also acknowledging her mother’s imperfections was powerful and resonant.
Overall, really enjoyed and will definitely recommend to students!

George's novel was so addictively enjoyable, even as the themes get deeper and more affecting. The obligatory existence of Maddie as daughter/caretaker, her reserved and naive character, and the slow way she blossoms as the story goes on.

I love her core friends who leave an impression even though they aren't on the page for long, I wanted more of their support and interactions, but what was shown was amazing. Her mother is infuriating and the way she handles and handled her relationship with her children and husband had my teeth on edge.

But with compassion, George takes us into Maddie's life, her insecurities, her struggle with acknowledging the stress and weight of being the foundation for her father and the lack of support from her mother and brother. What drew me into this story was the premise of family and how obligation can become an unwelcome and almost physical millstone and how it can affect one's relationships and mental health. As a person of African descent, this exists in my world as well and the familial dynamics were all too real for me.

There was humour, moments of self-doubt and questioning, and vulnerability that added to the narrative and made this read even more impactful

Maame is a story about Maddie, a twenty-something woman who has really never grown up due to her family situation. Maddie lives in London with her father. Her parents are Ghana immigrants who have placed a large amount of responsibility on her while her mother returns to Ghana and her brother lives his own life. Maddie stays in her family home to take care of her father who is ill. Everything falls on Maddie including the care of her father and financial responsibility all while working a full time job. Maddie has never really matured past her teenage years. She never goes out, she never dates, and has few friends.

Maame will tug at your heartstrings. I found myself routing for Maddie to stand up for herself. Jessica George has written a special book that I think many readers will enjoy. I will be anxiously awaiting George's future releases.

Warning Possible Triggers: Parental loss

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Twenty five year old Maddie lives in her parents' London home. While her mother spends most of the time in her Ghana homeland, Maddie is the caregiver for her ill father. It's only when her mother returns for an extended time period that Maddie is free to strike out on her own and learn the ways of the world.

Naive Maddie is years behind her peers when it comes to social interactions, dating, sex, and living with flatmates her same age. As new situations come her way, she relies on Google for advice because she's too embarrassed to ask a friend. A recurrent and hilarious plot device.

What I liked -- never feeling the need to skim. The writing style was superb in that regard. The sections about her work life where she felt unappreciated, and was often the only black in the room. Her awkward sexual experiences leaving her wondering why people thought such a painful event was worth the effort. The relatable family squabbles and the cultural disconnect between a Ghana homeland and life in London. Maddie's two best friends whom she took for granted, until she later realized how very special they were.

What I didn't like -- the majority of the book dealt with Maddie's dad's death. While I understood the need to explore her reactions to such a devastating event, I thought it overtook the better parts of my reading experience.

This was a charming and sometimes frustrating read that I thought was unique and thought provoking. The main character, Maddie, is incredibly lost in her life and I found myself wanting to scream at her a few times to either communicate more clearly or stand up for herself. Obviously the plot of the book is her finding her way and the obstacles in her way, but she was a bit challenging as a MC and in so many instances had far more patience for bullshit than I would have - but she's learning. That's the point, huh?

I was deeply saddened by a lot of things in this book, and you will experience a range of emotions. Her father is terminally ill, her love interests are, quite frankly, terrible people, and no one in her life is treating her as she deserves to be treated. As an oldest daughter myself, I definitely understand a lot of the responsibilities and expectations placed on her.

I very much enjoyed the ending of this book and would honestly love to know what happened for her when the story ended. Maddie grew so much as a character - some reviews have said her constant googling was distracting, but I think it was a clever literary device that underscored just how insecure and unsure she was of everything she did. The frequency shows just how dire her need for guidance and understanding was. This book felt deeply personal to me, especially with the novel she's writing having a MC named Jess, as is the author of this book.

Overall, it was a touching and dynamic story of a young woman facing more obstacles than most and showing that it's never too late to make changes and grow yourself, no matter the odds. It was unique to anything I've read before, and I thought the exploration of race and oppression was well incorporated into the story as opposed to others that are much more on the nose- it was raw and real. I would absolutely recommend this book to others.

4.5 Maame is a lovely coming of age story that is a debut by a clearly gifted writer, Jessica George. Maddie is a 25 year old Ghanian woman, nicknamed Maame by her family, living in London that is finding her footing a bit later than her peers due to her devotion to care for her father who has Parkinson's. Her brother is completely self absorbed and offers no assistance except empty promises and while her mother has been gone she is about to return to London. Maddie takes this opportunity to finally move out and start carving her own path. There is a little bit of everything in here from figuring out how to live with roommates, bosses that are horrid, bosses that are supporting, familial guilt, and some really solid friends. There is definitely grief, guilt and sadness here, sprinkled with some humor - hey its a pretty realistic story of life during that phase - but in the end you will cheer for Maddie to find her footing and venture forward. I will be keeping an eye out to see what Ms George releases next.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early release e-copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Maame will be released on 1/31/2023.

Absolutely superb novel about the challenges of breaking free from where you are to go where you want to go and do what you want to do. The biggest challenge is continuing to move forward when the pain of stability is replaced by crippling setbacks in seriatim. Maame is a continual surprise of forward momentum despite the death of a beloved father, an unfair firing, the belated painful loss of virginity, the betrayal of a boyfriend, racial micro aggressions and racism, and roommate issues. Inspiring and thoughtful examination of a belated coming of age. A heroine to root for.

This was a really well done debut novel that touches on so many of the things we have all loved through even though the details may be different. Maddie is a young woman with a deeply fulfilling life and a lot of responsibility. Her father has Parkinson's disease and she is his main caregiver as her mother spends most of her time in Ghana and her brother keeps himself too busy to be much help.
When Maddie's mother returns to London and says she plans to stay for a year, Maddie is given an opportunity to finally move out on her own and try to live a more fulfilling and exciting life. The move is just one of the many changes in store for her but , just like in life, not all of these work out the way she thinks they will.

Maddie’s nickname is Maame which means “Woman” in Twi. This is fitting because Maddie puts everyone above herself. When we meet Maddie, we learn she’s the daughter of Ghanian immigrants, lives in London with her father who has Parkinson’s while her mother spends most of her time in Ghana, and works full time in a job she finds unfulfilling.

Maddie is a little lost (as most people are in their mid-twenties) and has a tremendous amount of pressure from her family. Witnessing her growth and self-discovery made me feel a sense of pride for her.

This was a wonderful debut novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it!