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. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing 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 must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?
Book Info: 390 pages. Published Jan 24, 2017 by HarperCollins
My Thoughts:
Firstly, WOW this is one of the most outstanding DEBUT novels I’ve read. Published in 2017, Tiffany D Jackson has written a raw and brutal story. It is unflinching and powerful. The narrative seeps into your soul and gets right under your skin.
The story centers around Mary. Now aged 15, she was convicted of murdering a 3 month old baby girl when she was 9. She’s spent the past six years in “baby jail” and now lives in a group home. Although there is absolutely NOTHING homely about this home. It’s full of simmering violence, cruelty and despair.
Throughout her time incarcerated Mary hasn’t said a word about her crime. Nobody really knows what happened except Mary and she’s not prepared to speak until her own personal circumstances change.
I felt so much sympathy and emotion towards Mary. Her mother, who was obviously mentally ill, had let her down. The system had also failed her. She had absolutely no-one in her corner until she met Ted.
She finds herself pregnant and is determined to keep her baby. She needs to protect herself and her unborn child from the authorities. This means she must finally tell the truth.
There’s nothing more I want to add to this review. It’s dark, disturbing, and extremely uncomfortable. It is raw, brutal, and so powerful. The ending left me speechless too!
