Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Allegedly

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer's Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home. Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn't say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? There wasn't a point to setting the record straight before, but now she's got Ted-and their unborn child-to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary's fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

Reviewed by Sam@WLABB on

5 of 5 stars

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Rating: 4.5 Stars

Wow! Just, wow! Jackson so deftly took me on an emotional rollercoaster, and I kept changing my mind about what really happened over and over again. Well done!

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I have had this book on my TBR since I first heard about its pending release. I am so glad I selected Allegedly for my #2017Throwback reading challenge, because this was one incredible journey.

•Pro: Mary was such a superbly complex character. Every time I thought I understood her, another layer was revealed. Jackson is a master character crafter, because I found myself terribly sympathetic towards Mary, who was a convicted baby killer. That is some set of skills.

•Pro: This story made me feel so many things, though I mostly felt heartbreak. A broken girl with a broken mom trapped in a broken system with no real future because they are part of this broken system. It was all very sad.

•Pro: It wasn't all tears and sadness. There were some awesome adults, who were actually quite kind to Mary, and they kept me hopeful for her.

•Pro: I loved the format. The bulk of the book is narrated by Mary, but in-between were excerpts from books, transcripts from interviews, and other epistolatory type snippets. They really brought me into the "life" of this murder.

•Pro: So many twists and turns. I just could not stop reading, because I had to know what was real and what was fabrication.

Overall: A dramatic page turner, that kept me guessing until the end.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 29 January, 2018: Finished reading
  • 29 January, 2018: Reviewed