The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Maame
Author: Jessica George
Published: February 2023
Genre: Literary
Themes: Family, grief.

One sentence summary: After always being to go to person in her family, Maame is finally taking control of her life, but it doesn’t come easy.

One sentence review: One of the best debut’s I’ve read, literary lovers will adore this.

Review:

Maddie is the youngest in her family but without her mum and brother around, her father’s care is left to her. Everything is left to her, she’s the go to for anything in her family and she’s done with it.

She sees her chance to move out and leaps at the opportunity. She can start again, reinvent herself and be the person she wants to be, not has to be.

I don’t think there’s much more that I can say about this book that hasn’t already been said but I’ll give it a go.

When I started this I had a feeling this would be special and I intentionally decided to take my time with it and not rush it. Having now finished I can confidently say that was the right decision.

There’s something incredibly intimate and comforting about George’s writing; it’s compassionate and delicate and an absolute pleasure to read, as the reader I felt like I was part of the story.

Maddie goes through so much in this book and I really felt every high and low. Nia and Shu are incredible and I need them to be my friends please. George has written a host of brilliantly multi-faceted characters that leave a lasting impact.

This is a debut you need to read and I can’t wait to see what comes next for Jessica George.

If reading more is something that you’re looking at doing this year then should check my reading challenge out here! Read nine books from nine prompts over the first six months of the year and be entered into a draw to win a bundle of bookish goodies.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, I’d love if you could take a look at my patreon and consider supporting my content on there too. You can also find more content on my Instagram here.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 26/03/2025