Caribe's New Works by Black Authors TBR - Part 1

Category: Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction & Science Fiction

faves reads of 2023: YA contemporary

Beating Heart Baby

Wren Martin Ruins It All

You Don’t Have a Shot

Wild and Crooked

The Dos and Donuts of Love

Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)

Ander and Santi Were Here

Friday I’m In Love

We Deserve Monuments

29 LGBTQ+ Books by Black Authors for 29 Days of Black History Month: Day 2

For every day of Black History Month, I will be posting one LGBTQ+ book by a Black author.

Make sure to check the trigger warnings because some of the books I'll be posting deal with heavy and difficult topics. Also note that in some of the books I post, the romance will be a subplot only.

002. We Deserve Monuments (YA)

→ Jas Hammonds

❧ Sapphic Romance

❧ Contemporary

❧ Slow Burn

❧ Mystery

❧ Family Secrets

❧ Small Town

Check out these five titles to try next! The vibes are: teenagers digging up dark secrets in a small town haunted by its past … 👻⚰️🌒

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds is a vivid, beautiful novel, put together perfectly, that combines YA coming-of-age story with simmering southern gothic mystery. Young pansexual Avery sticks out like a sore thumb as one of the only Black girls at the "good school" in Bardell, Georgia. She doesn't know why her family is even here—years after her mom fled the town for good, they're back to see her dying grandmother, but the two women do nothing but fight. But once she's adopted by Simone and Jade, and begins to sow small seeds of connection with Mama Letty, Avery starts to carve out something like a comfort with Bardell. Unfortunately, getting to know Bardell will mean getting to know its secrets.

Hammonds brings into rich, crystalline tension the way that small towns hold onto their secrets, with combinations of open rumor and rigid silences. Their characters are vivid and complex people who you can see as you read, and it enhances the heartbreaks, the tears, and the hugs that come in these pages. From the clumsy web of being queer and Black to the violence of generational trauma and how it's passed down, this book is layer upon layer of story, and yet it's easy to read—in fact, it's near-impossible to put down, and I gulped it down like a frosty iced tea on a hot humid summer day, all in one long, savoring chug. It's a powerful book about both family and friendship, about facing a difficult past with eyes wide open and also about finding new pocket-spaces where you feel accepted and at home.

It gets one of my dearest compliments to a book, because it's rare and usually speaks to the writer's talent: it made me want to write. It sparked that creative rush, and made me want to tell another story. To cap it all off, I loved the pansexual representation, and the book was part of my list of nonbinary/gender non-conforming authors to read this Pride Month.

Content warnings for racism, police brutality, violence, terminal illness, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, homophobia, outing.

Fave Five: Queer YA Set in Georgia

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds Time Out by Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, and Carlyn Greenwald Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters

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Cover Art | We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

Family secrets, a swoon-worthy romance, and a slow-burn mystery collide in We Deserve Monuments, a YA debut from Jas Hammonds that explores how racial violence can ripple down through generations.   What’s more important: Knowing the truth or keeping the peace? Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two. While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved. As the three girls grow closer — Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance — the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell — or if some things are better left buried.

Artwork by Laylie Frazier

Release date | Nov 29, 2022 Goodreads

We Deserve Monuments || Jas Hammonds || 257 pages Top 3 Genres: Young Adult / LGBTQIA+ / Contemporary

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.

Publication Date: November 2022. / Average Rating: 4.34. / Number of Ratings: ~6230.

i think there is something so intriguing about grief because i have never known you outside of your wrinkled touch and your tired eyes. i can barely recall your croaky screams - a wisp of once that once would produce melodies. i have only ever known your frail body, ready to be a corpse before it ever was and all i can remember are your crooked coughs and your vacant eyes. it is grief that sews our lips and stiffens our shoulders, it is grief that i find linking my hands together and i have never known you, yet it is you i weep over when the memories bloom once more. though i wonder, if it is your death i mourn or the fact that i have never known you as anything but a shadow of yourself - a virtual stranger in all but blood.

Title: We Deserve Monuments | Author: Jas Hammonds | Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (2022)

It's getting very cold in my part of the world, so I thought it would be fun to compile a list of books I want to read this winter with a hot beverage and selection of snacks. What's on your TBR list?

Strike the Zither (Kingdom of Three #1) by Joan He, illustrations by Kuri Huang Roaring Brook Press

The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves.

But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.

Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged—while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one—and not all of them are human. -- Cover image and summary via Goodreads

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds Roaring Brook Press

What’s more important? Knowing the truth or keeping the peace?

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.

Friday I'm in Love by Camryn Garrett Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Mahalia Harris wants.

She wants a big Sweet Sixteen like her best friend Naomi. She wants the super cute new girl Siobhan to like her back. She wants a break from worrying--about money, snide remarks from white classmates, pitying looks from church ladies . . . all of it.

Then inspiration strikes: It's too late for a Sweet Sixteen, but what if she had a Coming Out Party? A singing, dancing, rainbow-cake-eating celebration of queerness on her own terms.

The idea lights a fire in her, and soon Mahalia is scrimping and saving, taking on extra hours at her afterschool job, trying on dresses, and awkwardly flirting with Siobhan, all in preparation for the Coming Out of her dreams. But it's not long before she's buried in a mountain of bills, unfinished schoolwork, and enough drama to make her English Lit teacher blush. With all the responsibility on her shoulders, will Mahalia's party be over before it's even begun?

A novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you.

We deserve monuments

This may be my new favorite book. It centers around Avery Anderson, who moves to Georgia when her grandma is diagnosed with cancer. Though she originally just wants to get through the year, she quickly becomes curious about her history, and begins to find friends: Simone, her next-door neighbors and one of the only other black kids in her school, and Jade, the daughter of the richest plantation family in town.

Avery Anderson reckons with her feelings for Simone, her grandmothers history, and the shaky past her family has with Jade's family. I truly cannot put this book into words. It is one of the few modern books I have read that perfectly walks the line of creating completely unrelatable characters to me, yet at the same time making me feel incredible empathy for these characters, and at the same time making me think deeply about my own life and internal biases that I'm always working through. In many ways, this book feels less like a fiction novel, and more like the kind of emotions you have when you are up at midnight talking to a friend who is in a situation completely foreign to you. If you only have time to read one book this year, let it be this book.

See me.

Jas Hammonds, from We Deserve Monuments

In that moment, riding the high of the night and memory of our mothers, I thought, I might be in love with you. I always thought falling in love would feel like an endless summer. Warm and whimsical, sugar-sweet sherbet and sparklers lighting the sky. But it was autumn now, and the world was beautiful, and it all reminded me of her. I rested my hand on her back and thought yes, hearing her laugh felt like jumping into a lake on the first day of summer vacation. But it also felt like this, like being wrapped in the navy glow of a fall evening with golden leaves beneath our feet. It felt like an angel in a fresh layer of snow and a text message saying schools were closed. Being around her felt like the opening of a tree bud after a long winter's sleep, and I wondered if that was what love really was. A four-season delight. Did our mothers feel that way, too?

We Deserve Monuments, Jas Hammonds

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she’s uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty’s health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she’s built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.

Bookworm Will Review 2023 (#8)

Title: 'We Deserve Monuments'

Author: Jas Hammonds

Rating: 5 / 5

Review: (MILD SPOILERS)

This exceeded my expectations!

I was so enthralled with the rich emotional details following the characters as we witnessed generational trauma, healing from grief/loss, self-acceptance, and the overall realness of the story.

I will say that the story comes with a few trigger warnings as it dives into racism and homophobia (specifically in the south), but the overall story really just solidified the need for change.

Similarly to my 'LEGENDBORN' review, I know that some don't enjoy reading/reliving these experiences even if it is in a fantasy setting, however, books like 'We Deserve Monuments' should be read. ESPECIALLY IN SCHOOLS!

The characters were so well thought out and each got a chance to highlight their story as well as a different perspective of the topic at hand. The plot itself was simple, yet solid, but had a couple time skips that were evenly spaced as it progressed that emphasized certain events that I really don't want to spoil for any future readers.

The ending was bittersweet which I thought was impactful because the fight for change is still needed and that history was never truly THAT long ago. History is STILL being repeated.