In Jas Hammonds' YA novel, We Deserve Monuments, high school senior Avery is faced with moving from Washington, D.C. to her mom's small hometown in Georgia to be closer to Mama Letty, her aging grandma. But as she grapples with her new surroundings and with a dark, family secret, she also falls in love with the girl next door. In this episode, Hammonds talks to NPR's Juana Summers about the themes of family and identity in their debut book – and why they kind of think of it as "Gilmore Girls, but make it Black and gay."
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In Jas Hammonds’s first novel, We Deserve Monuments, a reluctant Avery is sent to stay with her dying grandmother in a small Georgia town, where some old and painful secrets are about to come to light. Jas’s day job as a flight attendant takes them all over the place, but I was lucky to catch them on a day off at home in New Jersey.