Maame

This book was a pitch-perfect first generation BIPOC girl's experience in a nutshell complete with conservative religious family, parentification and resulting trauma. Yet, the tone was upbeat and fresh with excellent twists of dry humor throughout.

Innocent Maddie was so realistic and relatable as she struggled with familial love, romantic love and self-identity in modern London. The parade of racist micro-aggressions and unconscious bias also had me livid but also rooting for Maddie to stand up for herself and break free.

Beautifully written novel.

Meet Maddie Wright, a 25-year-old Londoner whose childhood nickname “Maame” means woman. She's been the responsible one in her family for as long as she can remember, and now is the caretaker for her dad, who suffers from Parkinson's. You'd think her job in theatre might be glamorous but it's nothing but a slog, and her love life is nothing to write home about either. And don't get her started on the racism she's subject to at work, where she's often the only Black person in the room. So when her mother returns from Ghana, Maddie sees her chance to break free and moves into a flat with two roommates. Life's looking up until tragedy forces Maddie to reimagine her path going forward and think long and hard about what truly matters in life.

This is a stunning debut by Jessica George. Her lovable and very relatable protagonist Maddie is a young girl who embodies not only the naivete of youth but the often serious responsibility placed on children to care for their family members. Its by turns heartwarming and humorous, sad and yet strikingly realistic and emotive. Highly recommended must-read for anyone who enjoys a poignant and moving portrayal of a young girl's coming-of-age.

My thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC for early review

Somewhere between a 4-4.75 depending on the beginning or end. I loved Maddie, I loved her relationships with others, I've felt so many of her feelings before. This was beautiful, what an excellent debut. I'm very excited to read more from Jessica George!

This is the second book I've read this year (2024) that beautifully tackles the subject of grief and how to embrace life even in the face of loss. This book tells the story of Maddie, a young woman in her twenties, who has spent most of her youth caring for her sick father alone with no help from her mother or brother. When her mother finally comes home to take care of her father, Maddie moves out and begins the difficult task of figuring out how to live a life that will bring her joy and fulfillment instead of drowning in self-imposed guilt.

Maddie, who is also called Maame, struggles with many aspects of adulthood including career, friendships, romantic relationships, and family responsibilities. She also experiences depression that has gone untreated for years. Her character development is compelling.

This debut novel is well-written and engaging and explores important topics. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience reading it and would definitely recommend it to general fiction fans.

A story about growing up fast in a complicated family and discovering the ways of the world only to stumble onto some unpleasant experiences. This is a story of love, loss, regret, guilt, freedom, friendship, discovering oneself, standing up for oneself. A very raw story and if you have grown up in complicated family dynamics or if you have had someone close to you fall sick, you could relate. It is an inspirational story about finding yourself and your family while dealing with loss and regret. The little insights into why her family behaved the way they did at the end, sounded just like something out of real life. This book tackles some difficult themes with compassion, and I found myself in tears while reading this on a train. This is a perfect book for me, I think I might go back to this story once in a while.

“Maame” by Jessica George is honestly a breath of fresh air when it comes to tackling some really tough topics like grief and mental health, all while keeping you hooked with its humor and super relatable POV. I mean, Maddie's story is one of those that you can't help but see a bit of yourself in, especially with the way she deals with being a young woman trying to find her place in the world. The book does a fantastic job of blending the serious with the lighthearted, making you laugh one moment and then hitting you right in the feels the next. And I've got to say, the way it handles mental health is something special, not shying away from it but facing it head-on, which I think is super important for everyone, especially women in their late teens and early twenties, to see. Plus, the perspective on being the only black woman in certain spaces adds another layer of depth to Maddie's character and opens up some really important conversations for all readers, not just those who can directly relate.

That being said, there were a few parts where my attention started to wander a bit, and I felt like the story could've been tightened up. Don't get me wrong, the book is definitely a solid read, but there were moments where I thought it dragged just a tad. Maybe it's just a sign I'm getting a bit older, but I reckon if I'd come across “Maame” a few years back, I would've been utterly obsessed. Regardless, it's still a 4/5 for me because of how well it speaks to so many aspects of the human experience, from the laughs and the grief to the struggle of finding where you fit. It's a must-read, especially if you're in that 18-25 age range, and honestly, it's just as important for readers outside of that demographic to give it a go, too.

hey pretty much everyone in Maddie's life...come here, I just want to talk (ง •̀_•́)ง

I loved Maddie's voice and going through her frustrating & empowering journey with her!!

I did think everything maybe wrapped up a little toooooo neatly in the end but you know what? I wanted that for her. She deserved it!!!

i can definitely see why this book is so popular this year and i think a lot of people will resonate or empathize with our main character's story heavily. i personally did not feel very emotionally impacted by this story and have other books that cover similar themes that impacted me more but i think this is a overall solid read. 

Maame tells the story of a girl that has to take care of her father inflicted with Alzheimer while trying to deal with a shitty job, an absent mother and an unreliable brother. Throughout the book we're following Maame slowly evolving and affirming herself while growing up, sometimes in the hardest way.

This book is really well writen and the POV of the main character is truly interesting. I related a lot on how Maame deals with anxiety and depression, while also getting to understand a lot more about what it means to grow up and evolve in this world as a black woman. This book made me feel so many emotions and I highlighted so many parts, I'm truly happy that I read it.

“Some things you’re not meant to be saved from,” Nia says. “Some things have to be lessons.”

This book was so great. I had a lot of family/friends who passed away this year so this was a amazing book for me to see who others handle grief. I did had some tears come down. So glad that Maddie got to grief the way she should and not how others think she should. Great book to read.

Excuse me while I wipe the tears so I can see what I'm writing ... whew

For some, this may not hit that close to home or be relatable, but for others it will. How many of us feel isolated and alone even when we supposedly have people who love us and care about us? Or feel like we have to do it all and make sure everyone else is happy first? I bet there are quite a few who feel this way. For a long time I was one of them ...

Man my heart...Maddie (Maame) is such a great character. Her innocence, strength, determination and quietness are showcased so well and the fact that she is introverted and doesn't like to speak up had my soul hurting. I FELT all of that. I cried a lot during this one.

There is a lot that I could relate to with Maddie and her thoughts. Even the parts that I haven't had to deal with yet left a mark. All around good read, while at the same time sad. Definitely recommend for those that want a solid and serious read that tugs at the heartstrings.

I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I was looking forward to reading this coming of age story, but OMG! How is a 25 year old that naive. She clearly has the internet since she is always asking Google for advice. I just can't !

1990s Brit Chick Lit updated for the third decade of the 21st century and from a Black perspective. A lovely novel about family, grief, love, and growth.

I'm not sure how to even put into words how much I love this book. I held this book up to some high standards since bookstagram was going crazy about it, and I was definitely influenced to buying it right away. I'm so happy I gave it a chance because everyone was so right. 

I haven't related so deeply with a book in a very long time. From Maddie having trouble with accepting her sadness is depression to navigating the world of online dating. Maame just hit the spot for me. 

Maame is definitely a top 5 book for me this year. 

This review is going to be short because I think Maame is just something you have to read and resonate with on your own, trust me. 

This book was our February Book Club read. I didn't get to finish it until March, and after my dad died. That made this book hit quite a bit differently from when I started reading it, to when I finished it. I adored Maddie, as did the women in my book club. Although I missed the gathering, my dear friend Kelly gave me the group's thoughts on the story. We loved her journey and all that she encountered, her devastating lows and her well earned triumphs. Great debut novel. Highly recommend.

Just finished this today and am still processing it, but there was so much to love. March is the anniversary of my dad's birth and death, so this was really thematically resonant with me, and George is so incisive about grief, how family can support and abandon, workplace inanity, microaggressions, the perils of googling, friendship, and bad sex. Not all parts were successful: the texts between the protagonist and her mother were very funny and also painful, whereas the perils of googling could have been more succinctly pointed to in just one example of a google search, not many. George's beautiful acknowledgments at the end make explicitly clear what I felt the whole way through: this novel is a love letter to family, chosen and otherwise.

This was a well done coming-of-age story, with important thru lines of obligation, race, and googling answers to life's important questions. Somehow, this didn't do a lot for me. I think I would have liked it better if I read it in my 20s.

This story is five stars, but I wanted to take one off for the audiobook narration. Maybe it's just me, but I had to slow the speed down a lot in order to understand the heavy accent. After I was a few chapters into the story, I didn't notice it as much. But I still needed it slower. I always speed up my audiobooks, because usually they are way too slow.

But the story was great. It was engaging and I really enjoyed hearing about the main character's family from Ghana and her life in London as she becomes a woman.

4.5 stars.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a lot of things that I personally enjoy, so that worked in its benefit.

‘Maame' means woman in Twi, a nickname given to protagonist Maddie by her Ghanaian family, and one that's all too true as from a young age she is the primary caregiver to a father with Parkinson's. This coming of age novel juggles plenty of themes as 25 year old Maddie moves out from home and deals with the ways in which she was forced to grow up too quickly while in other ways, she is (seemingly) falling behind.

Race, sexuality, depression, family conflict and guilt are all deftly handled in this charming novel, and the tenderness that Jessica George feels towards Maddie is clearly felt on every page, and by extension is felt by the reader. Leastways, it certainly worked on me.

My main issue with this is that Maddie's conflicts are all external. Her own issues are derived from the way in which the world and people around her behave, rather than any precise character flaws she possesses. For example, one moment in which she has an emotional outburst to flatmates, which becomes a main point of contention in their respective relationships, is somewhat dampened by the fact that this outburst... is clearly understandable once things simmer down. It's a moment of upset and high emotion, sure, but in context it's also all external pressure. Much of the novel seemed to me to operate in this way, and in that sense it all seemed to wrap up too neatly and tidily.

Nevertheless this is a debut novel that shows such compassion and warmth, and certainly recommended for people who enjoy coming of age stories. I'm very aware that what is an issue for me, will certainly be a pro for others!

I just finished Maame by Jessica George and here is my review

Maddie is no ordinary 25 year old. Still living at home with her sick father and working a job she doesn't care for, she spends her time avoiding her life rather than living it. When her mother returns from Ghana, Maddie has the chance to finally move out and discover who she really is.

Looking to make her life the way she wants is exactly what she needs right now but will things turn out the way she hopes?

This is the kind of debut that weaves its spell around your heart and takes you on the most beautiful journey through love, devastating loss, responsibility and finding yourself then wraps it all up with a warm hug.

I couldn't be more obsessed with this book. I found myself wanting to hold Maddie's hand and shield her from all the bad things away from her. Such a gentle person who never sees herself for who she is but is looking to be loved. It was so heartfelt and witty and I loved the format of the book. Narrated from Maddie's POV and including text messaging was a fun way to inject some humor and fun into a book that tackles a lot of harder to read topics. I [particularly enjoyed how the author humanized depression and parkinsons as well. It was very clever and the writing was beyond excellent. If I didn't know it was a debut I wouldn't have believed it after reading it.

The ending was brilliant and so realistic. I am glad that some things worked out for Maddie, it was amazing that the author showed such depth in the rollercoaster that Maddie had to go through just to get to a place where things didn't completely suck.

5 stars. I don't even feel that is enough. This book had amazing character development and showed real skill!

Thank you to @stmartinspress for my review copy and @jessicageorge for bringing Maddie into my world!

I enjoyed this book. Maddie is an earnest, funny narrator (we're not supposed to quote from ARCs, but there are many examples I could cite - you'll know what I mean if you read it!). She struck me as both younger and older than 25 at different moments during the story: she's fairly guileless and naive, but shouldering some serious responsibility.

While she loves her dad, who is sick with Parkinson's, she's increasingly tired of being the only one living at home and contributing to his care.

Many of Maddie's early actions are (IMO) frustratingly passive to the point that they strained credulity, but Maame is a story of her growth and evolution. While I do think this book is predictable, I don't think that's necessarily the point - to paraphrase a cliche, it's all about the journey, not so much the destination.

Overall, I think this is a solid debut, and I look forward to reading more by Jessica George.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC.