Allegedly

I don’t even know where to start with Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson. This may well be my best read of 2022. It is a haunting and disturbing story about the after effects of a murder case. The media hype was intense as nine year old Mary B. Addison was convicted of killing a 3 month old baby called Alissa. The fact that Mary is black and the baby was white had a lot to do with why Mary was sent to prison.

The book actually opens when Mary is 15 and is now living in a group home with a bunch of other young female offenders. Mary is picked on, ridiculed and beaten. She does work at a senior care centre and there she meets Ted. He gives her the attention and love that she has been craving and all too soon she is pregnant. Mary is show more overjoyed to be having a baby, until she is informed that social services will be taking the baby away from her. She realizes that she has to finally speak her truth about what really happened to baby Alissa even if in doing so she puts her Mother in the firing line.

I listened to an audio version of the story and narrator Bahni Turpin did an excellent job. Her skilful reading raises this book to another level. The story draws you in and stirs your emotions to the boiling point. Through Mary’s thoughts you learn about her childhood, or lack of one, and her challenging relationship with her mother, and always, skirting around in the background, are details of Mary’s alleged crime. Mary is very intelligent and she comes up with a plan for her and Ted to be together, to get herself to college, and to be able to keep her baby. The adults that have been assigned to look after Mary are negligent at best and the juvenile justice system appears to be one of hopeless desperation and failure. This chilling and dark story so draws one in that I found myself having to remind myself that it is a fictional story. I highly recommend this twisted and powerful novel. show less

Allegedly is a powerful YA thriller that follows Mary B. Addison, a teen girl accused of killing a baby when she was just nine. The story explores the brutal effects of violence, neglect, and a broken justice system, all through Mary’s raw and honest voice.

I really enjoyed reading about how Mary was trying to better herself despite everything stacked against her—her determination was inspiring. The environments she endures are harsh and emotionally damaging, which makes her fight for a future all the more compelling. And just when I thought I had it figured out, the twist at the end completely took me by surprise.

Dark, thought-provoking, and emotionally charged—this one stays with you.

Wow! A sophisticated twist-y murder story, with Mary B. Addison, now 16, convicted baby killer when only 9 yrs old, narrating her own journey to freedom... interspersed with court documents, observations from the clinical pyschologist(s) assigned to Mary's case, & original transcript excerpts when the Alyssa Richardson, 3 mo old baby died. In spite of the complexities of the original case, the group home dynamics with its crew of teen girls who are alternately young & ignorant, and then menacing & cruel, the two slovenly caregivers, the casually negligent social worker, and the weirdness that is "Momma", Mary's mother who continues to visit her every other week- it moves at a rapid pace. Mary dreams of completing high school, passing show more the SATs, encouraged & supported by Ted, her 18 yr old boyfriend, a "juvie" himself, working w/her in a nursing home. Things get complicated when Mary discovers she is pregnant, and she/Ted decide to accelerate their plans to get out from under the state, ditch their ankle bracelets, and start over again together somewhere new. Then the "new girl" to the group home introduces Mary to a lawyer with the Absolution Project & Mary has the chance to exonerate herself once and for all. Fascinating, with tantalizing details of the night of Alyssa's death slowly revealed through questioning by the authorities, the lawyers, tense conversations between Mary and "Momma", and Mary's rememberings... couldn't put it down til the end, and then -ooh boy the end. show less

Three stars because trying to read this a second time was emotionally exhausting. I first read this shortly after it came out. A BookTube critic I like got it in a subscription box, and made it sound so interesting. I had a lot of emotions, none of them good, on first read. The writing and characterization remains so believable. My emotions shifted from raw anger and devastation on Mary's behalf in an unfair system, to now: the emotional exhaustion some people have when they witness this over and over. And I was barely past page thirty. There were frequent, graphic descriptions of body fluids and I was unhappy. Soon after, I had to stop because so many pages were dedicated to domestic violence, gang violence, institutional violence via show more ignoring teens beating each other in a group home; and not informing a pregnant teenager about all the options available to her since she's a ward of the state. TELL HER ANYWAY YOU ASSHOLES, AND SUPPORT WHATEVER DECISION. YOU ARE DESPICABLE. I just couldn't finish. show less

This book just blew my mind and heart to smithereens. This is such a powerful book on every single level and the author doesn't shy away from the dark realities of the justice system and mental health care. ALLEGEDLY holds its own with every adult thriller and like any thriller worth its salt makes you re-think the narrative you think you know every few chapters. Jackson's writing and Mary's voice are remarkable and pulled me to pieces.

And then THAT ENDING. This is going to make a wonderful discussion book. I'm still unpacking my feelings. Holy cow.

Is this seriously a debut????

Back in January I was in Miami, Florida for a wedding celebration. This also happened to be the same weekend that some crazy and awful shit was going down in this country constitution wise (though this could really mean anything at this point, so I’m specifically referring to the travel ban). During one of the days my husband and I were cooling our heels after family time, I was getting ramped up in an anxiety spiral, so he suggested that we try and find a book store so that I could calm my nerves a bit. We found one in walking distance from our hotel, and I went on a spree. One of the books I picked up was “Allegedly”, as I’d heard some buzz on it and was solidly intrigued by the concept. As bleak and dark as it may be. So I show more took it on the plane with me and tore threw a lot of it in one sitting.

I liked how unflinchingly honest and real this book was about a great deal of things. Jackson pulls no punches when describing how our criminal justice system treats those who are inside of it, and how it is especially biased against POC offenders. Mary was accused of and convicted of killing a baby, which is, yes, absolutely horrible. But it is made pretty clear from the get go that the attention and rage that is directed at her is based on a deep seated racism in our society. Mary is black, and baby Alyssa was white. Reading about crowds mobbing a NINE YEAR OLD outside a courthouse, demanding the death penalty was gut wrenching, and I was glad that it was put forth multiple times that had the races been reversed between perpetrator and victim, the media wouldn’t have caused such a storm around it. And there on Mary, a child herself, was from then on treated like an adult, an thrown into a legal system that especially punishes people who look like her. I had no doubt that Jackson is taking influence from real life instances, from a nine year old girl being held in solitary to the absolutely abysmal conditions at the group home Mary ends up at.

Not only did I feel that the portrayal of the criminal justice system was accurate, I really liked how Jackson tried to be accurate and fair to portrayals of mental illness in this book. Mary is pretty clearly suffering from some form of PTSD, as her time in prison/solitary confinement as a child has done irreparable damage to her psyche. Instead of going the route of stereotypical symptoms like flashbacks or uncontrollable rage, Mary is skittish, quick to anxiety attacks, and has a heightened sense of flight instead of fight. It’s a side of PTSD that not many people may know about, and I really appreciated that Jackson took such care in her portrayal of it. So, too, is Mary’s Momma portrayed in a pretty realistic way, as a narcissist who may be suffering from bi-polar disorder. We only get to see Momma through Mary’s eyes, but the hints and clues are there that there is definitely something off about her.

Mary herself is a wonderfully created and portrayed narrator (side note: I gotta shout out to the sly aside that one of Mary’s nicknames was Mary Bell… who was also a notorious child aged murderer in England). This book is in the first person, and since Mary has so clearly been stunted from her time in prison there are lots of bits of information that we don’t quite get. The mystery slowly starts to unfold, but you always kind of know that there are things that you are never really going to know about Mary, or her Momma, or the things that happened between them before, after, and even on the night that Alyssa died. You only get to see the various clues to this and the things going on with Ted and at the group home through this lens of a very unreliable narrator. While a lot of the time I think that sometimes this makes some things kind of obvious when it comes to twists, that by hiding certain things you make it obvious that these things are there, Jackson actually surprised me when it really counted. True, I was able to figure out a couple of things, but I feel like it was all one big magic trick that distracted me from the actual solution, so when the actual answers came I was totally knocked off my seat. To the point where I actually said “WAIT….. WHAT?!”

“Allegedly” is a fabulous book that I cannot recommend enough, both for the societal themes and for the well crafted mystery. Fans of YA should definitely read it, but I think that this is a GREAT example of how YA shouldn’t be dismissed. Go and get your hands on it ASAP. show less

2017 is the year of amazing books! I don't think I've read one published this year that I didn't enjoy. (I'll have to check my notes) But... This book is top 3 best YA books of the year for me.

The narrator has such a horrible life that I hope no one can relate to and yet I know there are people out there that will. Just the fact that she's pregnant while living in a group home that she is worried about aging out of in a few years, while working a crappy hospital job and attempting to go to school, makes her existence miserable enough. Then add the fact that she's been in jail most of her life for the murder of an infant and you have the driving action of this book.

I won't give away the details, but if any of the above appeals to you show more then you should read this book.
Oh and there are some unexpected twists and turns along the way... while also being a well written and compelling story. So read it. *thumbs up* show less