June Book Review: Allegedly

My Reasons For Reading This Book

While scouring the Internet in search of an online book club, I discovered the YouTube channel Candiland and I saw that she had a video titled March and April Book Reviews and June Book Selection. Without watching the video I looked at the description of the video and found a list of the books she was reviewing. I used her links to read the descriptions of the books and chose Allegedly due to the wide range of excitement and high praised reviews that the book had. I had also never read a crime mystery that was centered around a child and was intrigued to read the perceptive of a child who lived through and survived the prison system. The raving reviews surrounding this book made me place high expectations on it.

Content of the Book

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson's tells the story of Mary Addison an 'alleged' baby killer. Mary was 9-years-old when she was convicted for the murder of 3-month old Alyssa Richardson. The book picks up with Mary living in a dump of a group home with girls who treat her like the supposed killer she is. When Mary becomes pregnant she is faced with the question of whether or not the state is going to take her child from her or not. Will her efforts to better her life make any difference?

Secrets, everyone has them, some worse than others, but it doesn't matter what the secret is, what really matters is who you choose to share your secrets with. This book questions the role of a mother. Does Mary have what it takes to be a good mother? Will she even get the chance to raise her baby? Allegedly also asks the question of forgiveness- can you forgive someone when they do something terrible to you or your family?

What I Liked About This Book

A part of the story that kept me reading was that the murder of baby Alyssa was slowly pieced together was the story progressed. I also enjoyed and appreciated the vivid descriptions of the group home because it painted the picture of what life was like in the home.

This books brought to light the topics of foster care, groups homes and juvenile detentions centers in a raw, realistic and entertaining way.
I found the inclusion of interviews, investigation notes, and doctors' notes to be a unique way to write this particular information into the story. These sections were especially interesting and aided in putting the pieces of the murder and Mary's life together.

What I Disliked About This Book

There were a few parts of the story that I felt were not explained with enough detail, which left me with questions and caused me not fully understand the dynamics of that part of the plot. Without giving away too much about the ending of the book, I have to say that I disagree with how the author chose to conclude Mary Addison's story. The ending of the book generated more questions for me than it answered. I guess you are supposed to create your own ending for Mary and her unborn child. I took a look at the author's blog and as far as I can tell it does not look like she is planning on writing a sequel for Allegedly. I was hoping she would. Maybe it is better this way.

Would I Recommend This Book?

I think this book is the perfect summer read. Its not too long and is an easy and entertaining read. Sadly, I would not give this book high praises. I would only recommend this book to someone who is in the market for a young adult mystery. The reviews of this book made me really excited to read it and led me to have high expectations for it. I would have to say that for me this book did not live up to the raving reviews and I would not recommend it. If you have read this book let me know what you think about it!

Check out the other books I have reviewed

May Book Review: Wonder

April Book Review: Columbine
March Book Review: Gone Girl
February Book Review: The Woman in the Window
January Book Review: The Worst Hard Time

Don't forget to stay up to date on my blog by following my social media accounts!
Instagram: @whenishouldbestudying
Pinterest: @whenishouldbestudying

Reasonable Dorm Room Cleaning Schedule

Reasonable Dorm Room Cleaning Schedule After my first semester of college I have developed a cleaning routine that I have been able to keep up with. You can read my previous blog post about What I Learned In My First Semester of College . Over the past few months I have experimented and I am confident in the routine that I have created. Personalize When it comes to personalizing the schedule you could add or take out the different chores. For example I also wash my retainers weekly and monthly my roommate and I decorate the marker board on the outside of our door. We also only clean our mirrors when needed since we have found that they do not seem to become too dirty regularly. Something that I would make sure you sanitize every week would be the surfaces that you are constantly touching. That means light switches, door handles, and your desk. By doing this I managed to avoid getting sick when my roommate and other floor mates go sick. Another task that you could add to y

Bullet Journal Fitness and Workout Spread Ideas

If you want to purchase some of these spreads you can buy the digital bundle from my Etsy shop: Simply Paperless . I had created six different bullet journal fitness and workout trackers/spreads. These spreads were made in my digital bullet journal using the GoodNotes App. I highly recommend to use a stylus when using GoodNotes as a digital bullet journal. For this project I used the Adonit Dash 3 Stylus , which I highly recommend. I also recommend the Bargain Depot Stylus 2 Pack from Amazon. Daily Workout Plan This first spread can be used to plan out what exercises you plan to workout each day of the week. I would recommend this spread for those who are just starting to workout. I did not created the workout that is used as the example for the content of this spread. The workout is from Pintrest Workout Plan . Workout Tracker This next tracker is in the format of a monthly calendar. In order to track the different workouts accomplished throughout

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Book Review

Reasons For Reading This Book: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was Jackie's choice for the month of October. Jackie is the host of The Readheads Podcast Book Club. This is a monthly podcast book club that I have been apart of since it was established in 2020. I love getting to hear the thoughts of the hosts each month. Content of the Book: Elizabeth Zott is a chemist but is much more than meets the eye. She is not only beautiful but also extremely smart, confident, strong, and not afraid to beat to her own drum. Elizabeth is one of the only female chemists working at Hastings Research Institute. She is viewed as different by everyone there. It's there that she meet Nobel-Prize nominated chemist Calvin Evans. Calvin who falls in love with Elizabeth is described as a loner, grudge holder, and extremely brilliant. Fast forward a few years and Elizabeth is now a single-mother working as the host of the most watched cooking show, Supper at Six . With Elizabeth's ways of

When I Should Be Studying

Search This Blog