Book Review: Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

When fourteen-year-old Claudia Coleman returns home to Washington, D.C., after spending the summer with her grandmother in Georgia, she discovers that her best friend, Monday Charles, has mysteriously vanished. Monday has always been Claudia’s anchor—her closest friend, her defender, the person who understands her learning difficulties and stands by her. So when Monday doesn’t show up on the first day of school, Claudia immediately knows something is wrong. But no one else seems to care.

Teachers assume Monday transferred. Neighbors are evasive or dismissive. Monday’s mother, who has a history of instability and abusive behavior, offers excuses that don’t add up. The authorities insist that because Monday has a record of truancy, there’s no need to panic. Claudia becomes more and more alarmed, and increasingly determined to uncover the truth.

As Claudia pushes for answers, her story unfolds across fragmented timelines—Before, After, and The Before Before—revealing the depth of Claudia and Monday’s friendship, the secret struggles they shared, and the subtle signs that something had been wrong in Monday’s home long before she disappeared.

Claudia faces her own battles: dyslexia that isolates her at school, parents who worry she’s obsessing over Monday to an unhealthy degree, and the emotional and academic fallout of carrying a truth no one else will acknowledge.

Eventually, Claudia’s persistence leads to the devastating truth: Monday is dead—and has been for nearly a year.

Her body was hidden in her family’s home after she died from abuse and neglect at the hands of her mother. The novel’s disjointed timeline reveals that Claudia’s sense of “last seeing” Monday was distorted by trauma; she had actually been communicating with Monday’s sister, April, who pretended to be Monday through letters and messages to spare Claudia the truth.

The revelation shatters Claudia, who spirals into grief and survivor’s guilt, grappling with the horrifying reality that her best friend was suffering—and dying—out of sight while the school and institutions that should have protected her failed at every level.

Monday’s Not Coming closes with Claudia beginning the long process of healing while confronting the systemic silence, community neglect, and apathy that allowed Monday’s disappearance and death to go unnoticed. It is a powerful indictment of how Black girls often go missing without the world paying attention.

I’ve had this book on my TBR for a while, and I finally picked it up—and I’m so glad I did. Once I started reading, I burned through it in just three days because I genuinely couldn’t put it down. The writing pulled me in immediately, and the emotional tension kept me turning pages long after I should’ve gone to bed. I thought I had an idea of where the story was going, but I definitely wasn’t prepared for the ending. It completely caught me off guard in the best—and most heartbreaking—way.

In the end, I truly believe Monday’s Not Coming is a story worth picking up. It’s powerful, heartfelt, and incredibly impactful in today’s world, and it stays with you long after you turn the last page. That said, it does tackle heavy and sensitive topics, so I encourage you to go into it when you feel ready for a more emotionally rigorous read. If you’re looking for a book that’s both beautifully written and deeply meaningful, this one deserves a place on your shelf. I’m really glad I finally crossed it off my TBR, and I hope it finds a spot on yours too.