Kindle Unlimited: Allegedly: Tiffany D. Jackson

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Published: 1/24/2017

Pages: 394

Genre: Teen

Review: Kindle Unlimited

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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?

What did I read? Why did it take me so long to read this book or find this author? Y'all, when I say this book was a roller coaster, I mean it. I was so convinced, like everyone else, but when that ending came around, I was like, WHAT! This is a book that will stay with you for a long time. Warning, so folks don't start getting upset with not being told. There is mention of child abuse and the killing of a baby. 

Mary is in a group home before she is in what she calls baby jail. This group home is not easy to live in. There are other girls there who are horrible and crazy. Ms. Stein, who runs the house, is just lazy and doesn't care about them. I was not too fond of her character. We see just what Mary has to go through daily ,and you feel for her. She doesn't talk, really hasn't spoken since she was convicted of killing Alyssa. Well, allegedly. She thinks daily about what happened that day and what she is hiding. As we get further in the story, we see how Mary wants to better herself because now she has her own baby bean to think about. She doesn't want him to go to the state. She wants to keep him and raise him. Yet, it seems the more she tries to do better, the more she gets road blocked. From the caseworkers to the adults who are supposed to look after her, it truly is a mess. Finally, when the case gets accepted by a spit-fire lawyer, you can only hope that Mary can move on, but what if they don't believe her? She didn't tell them everything then.

 The author did a great job of describing scenes within the story.  

I loved how she didn't sugarcoat things she wrote about the group homes, the social workers, and the injustice. 

"What yuh may or may not've done is not di definition of who yuh really are."

Once you pick this book up, it will be one you can't put down. You get a lot of different feelings with this book. It is sad; it is scary, it is one that you go, OMG are you for real? It has you question things. 

Tiffany D. Jackson is the New York Times Bestselling author of YA novels including the Coretta Scott King — John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning Monday’s Not Coming, the NAACP Image Award-nominated Allegedly, Let Me Hear A Rhyme, and her 2020 title GROWN. She received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University, her master of arts in media studies from the New School, and has over a decade in TV/Film experience. The Brooklyn native is a lover of naps, cookie dough, and beaches, currently residing in the borough she loves, most likely multitasking.