Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Pages: 387

Intended Audience: Mature Teens

Genre: Contemporary / Crime mystery

Notes for Parents: Contains coarse language, violence, and mature scenes.

The Back Cover

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? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. 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?

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This book received a starred review in School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and ALA Booklist.

What’s good?

Mary is an intriguing character. Jailed at the age of nine and now in a group home at 15, she’s a quiet, unassuming girl with hopes of getting an education and living a normal life. It’s clear that no one knows the full story of the events that sent her away, and it’s equally clear that she was denied the love that should have been afforded her as a young girl. The pace is steady and wrought with tension, suspense, fear, and a palpable danger. Who can she trust? Ted, the boy she’s falling in love with? Her unpredictable roommates? The incompetent women running the group home? Perception is a major theme, while justice, survival, mental health, racism, and childhood trauma all play an important part in Mary’s story. The end was…sad.

Best Part: Mary. (And the cover, it's haunting!)

What isn’t good?

The chapters were long. Chapter three was 60 pages! This slowed the pace a little, but it managed to stay steady for the most part. I didn’t like how Mary/the author used the word “fat” as a derogatory term so often – her fat fingers, her fat mouth – like anything fat was bad. Also, I found it hard to believe that so many people wanted to convict a nine-year-old. There was no compassion, presumably because of racism.

Worst part: Even I was scared of Kelly.

Recommendation ☺☺☺☺☻ (4/5)

This book was disturbing, and I’m not sure who I would recommend it to, but it was definitely well written. The need to know what really happened kept me reading, and, of course, I wanted to see if real justice would be served. This is a story about survival, lies, and perhaps most of all, betrayal. It was powerful and affecting, but terribly unsettling.

Jackson, Tiffany D., Allegedly. New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2017.